The Day of the Dissonance

This is the third installment of the spellsinger series in which our hapless hero is sent across the world in a quest to obtain....well..I don't want to give away to much. Needless to say, if you liked the first two books you'll love this one. It has all the great elements of a funny, swords and sorcery/science fiction novel. Talking animals, magic, technology and one of the best supporting characters of all time, Mudge the Otter.

There is a rather ludicrous sense of majesty surrounding the Spellsinger series. A sometimes comic, sometimes morbid world where the imagination of one obvious rock fan can proceed uninhibited by the averages of fantasy guidelines. Mr. Foster, accidently, I believe, created a bit of a masterpiece when he sculpted the first of the Spellsinger series,which has, all the way through it's last installment, Chorus Skating, supplied new and various dishes for those travelers on this world which the offer never bothers to identify. This book, in particular, captures the sheer ridiculousness and fun at the heart of the Spellsinger series; it's a kind of jovial feeling you sense that the characters would partake of as well, were they confronted with this astounding piece of literature. Now, all I want to know is...will there be any more? : ) I can only pray and hope!

There are a few lyrics to the Eagle's 'Take it Easy' that would fit this book: the love of Jon-Tom's life has gotten cold feet and run off; he tries to get himself out of a jam and conjures up a seven foot tigress that's a little bit sweet on him; and he meets a pretty girl that really wants to be his friend - too bad she's jailbait! And to top it all off, Mudge gets into trouble with the ladies at every turn.

Took me not more than two days to read it. Think I'm addicted. Characters sometimes puzzeling, nevertheless welldone. What surprised me most, was the ending. Thats the kind of humor I really like about Foster.

In the field of fantasy, there is an inadequately explored sub-genre that I feel needs addressing. The fact that this is a genuine sub-genre is not in doubt, if one only looks at its proliferation in graphic novels and comic art. It is the genre of animal anthropomorphics.Today's fantasy authors are so often concerned with rewriting Tolkien, Grimm and Herbert that they often neglect this field, which does remarkably well when published (view the success of Brian Jacques), as "childish". Disney has done a lot to bring this impression about, causing "serious" fantasy writers to steer clear of bipedal animals as strictly grade-school stuff, preferring the "mature" elf- and dragon-lore instead. (Although Tolkien had talking eagles. Are you going to argue with him?)Alan Dean Foster's "Spellsinger" world, it would appear, is animal mostly by default. The key theme of these books is the "rock singer making magic with music", and the animal inhabitants of the alien world seem often to be just an attempt to add a sense of novelty to the proceedings.Which is a shame, because elements of the books, and this one in particular, really bring a sense of charming reality to the "anthromorphic animals" idea. In this book, Jon-Tom, our "wizard rock-musician", travels across the ocean to find a mysterious remedy for his wizardly mentor, a turtle wizard named Clothahump. Travelling with him is a licentious otter, Mudge, a seven-foot tiger named Roseroar (who speaks in a sort of Scarlett-O'Hara dialect for some reason) and a deceptively aged ferret named Jalwar. Along the way they encounter many adventures, some of them exciting (the pirate ship, the Friends of the Street) and some downright embarrassing (the Muddletup Moors, the cannibal fairies). All of the Spellsinger books are episodic by nature; for some reason Foster is not keen on sustaining a single narrative thread throughout the book. And as some of the adventures are more inspired than others, the characterization as a result suffers. At times Mudge is heroic; at others he is a coward. The revelation about Jalwar at the end is a surprise, to be sure, but not a convincing surprise. There are times when the whole "quest" is subverted by schtick and filler tissue. But there are tantalizing moments: Folly, a human girl, hints at not being a virgin because of the crew of the pirate ship that abducted her. Since the crew is at least 98% non-human, this brings up some interesting issues that are thrown away by Foster. The idea of skunks being law-enforcers because of their unique natural weapons; the suggestions of unusual inter-species dynamics; the aimlessness of society because of a lack of a single common thread of understanding. There are moments in the book when Foster seems to want to explore these issues and make an intriguing story out off it but suddenly realizes he's writing a cheap paperback fantasy and should snap out of it. The man is as prolific as Asimov and therefore probably fe