THE SINGING

Sonorous motifs and resonant archetypes form the backbone of this series conclusion, which shows Maerad and Hem traveling long distances on foot as they toil toward their cryptic task. Edil-Amarandh’s war between the Dark and the Light has wrenched the orphaned siblings apart after their brief acquaintance. Each sibling holds half of the ancient Treesong, which Maerad needs to sing to make it “whole” again, though nobody knows how or what that will mean. Actual battles are few in this installment—which is as sweetly Tolkien-colored as the previous ones—but vast armies of the Dark march through the land and a monstrous doom threatens. Croggon splinters the narrative perspective for the first time here, creating a sense of unease as the climax builds. Her prose is aesthetically romantic without romanticizing anything; scars of sadness are shown unflinchingly, but when Maerad registers a celebratory evening at the end as “rich and vivid and luminous with joy snatched back from the dark,” she could be describing this series. Start with the First Book (The Naming, 2002). (map, appendices) (Fantasy. YA)