Talisa's Song

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

The opening section of Book 2 of the Tales of Three Lands fantasy
trilogy overlaps slightly timewise with The Minstrel’s Daughter’s
conclusion, and the book switches narrator to Talisa Thatcher, a
16-year-old Uglessian singer whom readers previously encountered during
the music competition.

When news of the attempted assassination of Freya’s queen reaches
Freyfall’s streets, the rabble suspect a Uglessian plot. Talisa is
rescued by a young stranger, Cory Updale, whose tenant-farming family
was recently evicted by a landowning noble seeking higher profits from
sheep grazing. Because magicians, not musicians, are valued in Uglessia,
Talisa, who perceives herself to be without magic and therefore of
little worth, elects to remain in Freya and become apprenticed to a
master musician. A romance develops between Talisa and Cory; however,
Cory appears to be involved in an underground movement intent on
improving the conditions of Freya’s increasing underclass. When arson
at a military barracks kills two soldiers, Cory becomes the principal
suspect, and he and Talisa flee to Uglessia to live with Talisa’s
family.

Author Linda Smith sharply contrasts the two nations’ governments and
values. Uglessians, without official leaders, make all decisions via
votes and willingly share what little they have with each other, whereas
Freyans are ruled by hereditary nobles motivated by personal greed. At
the book’s cliffhanging ending, Talisa has just thwarted a Freyan
attempt to transform the Uglessian subsistence economy into one driven
by individual profit, while Cory has surrendered to stand trial. This
engaging stand-alone read will leave readers eagerly awaiting the
concluding volume. Highly recommended.