Book Review of Song of the Beast by Carol Berg

I so want to love Song of the Beast, but it reads like an advanced rough draft of a work that should have been a classic of sword and sorcery literature. The premise is spectacular: a virtuoso musician imprisoned for seventeen years for reasons he doesn’t understand is released and must rebuild his life while solving the mystery of his imprisonment. I pulled this novel off the library shelf on the strength of this premise: any story that seriously engages the reconstruction of a destroyed life promises to pack a punch. Unfortunately, this book chooses to largely jettison this inner journey in favor of a mystery-adventure plot that remains flat in proportion to the flatness of its characters.

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