The Only Song Worth Singing by Randee Dawn
I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - CAEZIK
Published - Out Now
Price - £18.99 paperback £7.85 ebook
Childhood friends Patrick, Ciaran, and Malachi would've been happy to play music for coins on the streets of Dublin, but when their sound – a blend of traditional tunes and rock styling – lands them a record deal, they also get their first tour of America. As they gather fans, however, they also get the attention of three sídhe, fairies straight out of Irish tradition who play by their own rules.
Mal finds himself beleaguered by a prankster whose malicious tricks make him think he's losing his mind, while Ciaran falls hard for a hanger-on whose primal sexuality saps the life from him. Patrick can save them – if he's willing to trust the superstitions he learned during a painful childhood he thought he'd left behind long ago.
But the only thing that matters more than music to Patrick? His friends.
Following our dreams and ambitions is a kind of magic. It pulls us along, it changes us and those we are close to and as with all magic it can extract a high cost. We have all seen bright young stars turn into something else over the course of their careers as ambition changes them into something quite different. Now in Randee Dawn’s interesting fantasy novel The Only Song Worth Singing we follow three Irish musicians in the 1990s who find old magic is awaiting them but may extract a high price for it they cannot afford.
Padraig, Ciaran and Malachi are on the brink of breaking the American music market. Three young men, talented musicians and enjoying the life of the rock star in many ways. But just as everything is about to erupt strange things happen. This may link to the events of their childhood when they all found each other. A beautiful but mysterious woman named Sheerie becomes the only thing Ciaran needs in his life, Mal’s piano starts to burn him and Padraig is finding an equally mysterious woman named Caitlin seems to know more about him than he does himself.
What I enjoyed the most of this novel is the three main characters. It’s quite refreshing to read three young men in their twenties who actually sound like them. Dawn has them accurately bantering, arguing, supporting and being friends in a very human way. You feel these guys grew up and have a connection. Dawn also gets the sense of the band’s possibility fame is sharpening the egos and the weaknesses of the three start to also chaff at each other. There is always a risk that the drive to fame actually breaks them all up. We get fascinating interludes to their past and see them grow up in 1970s Ireland and seeing Padraig’s quite hard upbringing as a child for a family that seems constantly on the run explains why the other two pulled so hard for him to join them. It’s quite a refreshing example of male friendship warts and all.
The magical elements of this fantasy are more subtle with enigmatic women appearing and slowly inserting themselves into the band’s lives. There is a sense of greater powers at work and Dawn has a skill for making scenes suddenly show a magical side be that someone appearing to be mentally possessed to trips to a land that cannot possibly exist. There is a really interesting plot surrounding Padraig and how he grew up in Ireland that is quite unusual and keeps the story flowing.
My main issue is that there is a lot of manufactured tension by characters not talking to one another or instead promising to explain things later. Many of these secrets I think fantasy readers will guess well ahead of those revelations being concerned and I found the pacing far slower than it needed to be. For me the book could have done with some earlier magical set pieces to really keep the plot moving but the eventual pay off at a concert later on is well handled.
The Only Song Worth Singing is character focused contemporary fantasy that is well worth a read for those who enjoy subtle magic at work and don’t mind a slow burn of a storyline.
