DESCRIPTION:

Amarynth is a spirit singer, gifted -- or cursed, as she sometimes thinks --with the ability to lead the spirits of the dead from the Lower World through the Between World to the Gate of the Upper World and the Light that lies beyond it. While she is still an apprentice her grandfather and tutor dies, slain by a mysterious creature in the Between World that is blocking access to the Upper World's Gate.

REVIEWS

Winner of the Saskatchewan Book Awards' Regina Award

"SPIRIT SINGER is a magical, mystical journey from the village of Covedrift into the mountains of the South. Amarynth is dedicated to her calling and without her grandfather she must find a way to become a full-fledged Spirit Singer. Though this is listed as a young adult read, I believe anyone would be drawn into the story immediately. The surroundings are well-depicted as if you were beside Amarynth on this great adventure. This is a very quick read and very satisfying. The talented Mr. Willett has given us a well-written fantasy that you won't want to put down. I highly recommend SPIRIT SINGER to young and old alike." Reviewed by Carol Durfee for the Word on Romance e-zine

"...goes a few steps beyond the Harry Potter books, so if they leave you wanting a more mature hero, this is the book for you. It is a quick, but very satisfying read; I spent any free time I had reading over the two days it took me to read the story. I recommend this book for anyone that is in the mood for an adventure, whether or not fantasy is your thing. I don't read much fantasy, but I definitely look forward to reading the other books in this line. Spirit Singer definitely does not disappoint. I give the story a hearty two thumbs up." Reviewed by Amy Mehta, MyShelf.com

"...deserved the Saskatchewan Book Award it won. Aimed for the early to mid-teen group, Spirit Singer is a strong, well-written book with great adventure and sympathetic characters. Willett's book has fast-paced adventure, sword-play, ghostly help, kidnappings, automatons who serve pure evil, royalty and brave commoners...Spirit Singer holds more than just solid characters and an exciting plot. It is about deception, both external and internal, in the eternal search for love and acceptance. It is about the need to accept oneself to be able to move forward and achieve great things and the need to be wise and discerning about others.", Lynn (J.R.) Wytenbroek, Canadian Literature magazine

"This is a fast-paced, spiritual quest book, full of narrow escapes, evil masquerading as good, good appearing in nasty people (just like in real life!), adventure, dreams and bits of wisdom. The writing is spare and the words well-chosen, so that complex characters and interesting places emerge full-blown in the reader's mind, and the plot moves apace. I felt always in the story, and not a mere spectator/reader. Written for teenagers, but this 50-something guy had a great time.", David Waltner-Toews, 2002 Saskatchewan Book Awards

"Clearly defined characters, setting & plot carry a reader eagerly from page to page through adventure-filled chapters that deftly conclude with cliff-hangers...The plot is fast-paced and clever, the writing never disappoints and the author clearly keeps his target audience in mind. A great read from start to finish.", Shirlee Matheson, 2002 Saskatchewan Book Awards

"...a fun novel with engaging characters and having all the basic elements of a good fantasy...young readers would likely get much more out of this book in terms of good succinct plotting and writing than they'd ever be likely to from the droves of role-playing game tie-ins and fat fantasy trilogies.", Georges T. Dodds of the SF Site

"...a story that the teen-agers certainly will like. But not only them. The tale possess a rich symbology that doesn't slows down the pace, but instead add greater depth to it and will enthrall the more mature readers...In short, a story enjoyable by readers from 13 to 100 years...It will resonate with deep impact in your soul.", Gianfranco Cazzaro of Caribooks

Spirit Singers made their own journeys to the Gate; they were not Sung themselves. But she had seen the Path swallowed by the Beast. Had her grandfather found his way to the Upper World? Or did he wander the Between World, lost? That prospect alone was enough to make Amarynth feel sick, but there was a worse possibility that she hardly dared consider -- that the Beast had somehow taken him.

And what about Davin? His father's question of the night before burned in her mind, but she still had no answer. When the boy's parents had left the night before she had almost re-entered the Between World to search for him and her grandfather, but her fear of the Beast was too great, the memory of its horror too fresh.

Now she wondered miserably if she had failed them both. Perhaps if she had gone back to the Between World at once she could have done something, anything -- she would never know, unless sometime as a full-fledged Singer she found their spirits wandering...

A full-fledged Singer? she thought. When will that be, with no one to teach you? And can you ever bring yourself to return to the Between World, knowing that thing lurks there?

For a moment she wished more strongly than ever before that she had never been born with the Gift, had lived out her life in the same village as her unknown parents, unaware of what lay beyond.

Someone knocked on the tower's front doors, which she had closed and barred after Davin's parents left. She straightened, repeated her calming exercise, then entered the antechamber, lifted the big wooden bar and swung the doors inward.

Three men bowed and touched their chests, then came in, water streaming from their gray cloaks as they stamped mud from their boots.

"Elder Caison, Elder Eklar, Elder Achan," Amarynth greeted them gravely. Despite their titles, they were only middle-aged, at least twenty years younger than her grandfather. Chosen by the villagers, they were all steady, thoughtful men, "one eye on the rigging and the other on the horizon," as the saying went. Now Amarynth read the concern in their eyes, but they did not start with questions, instead following her silently into the Spirit Chamber and kneeling by her grandfather while she stood by the lighted candle at his head.

Caison, the usual spokesman, stood first. "We share your grief," he said.

Amarynth inclined her head calmly, though the true warmth and compassion she heard in his voice threatened to melt her composure from the inside.

"I must ask you," he went on, "if Covedrift now has a Spirit Singer."

Amarynth knew the implications of the question; if she could not carry out her grandfather's duties, another Spirit Singer would have to be found. Otherwise the village would dwindle, as Leeshore had when Penrod died.

"I am a Spirit Singer," she replied carefully. "But I am yet only an apprentice."

"Then we must look elsewhere," said Caison heavily, and she nodded.

"It is as I said," said Eklar, the youngest of the three. "We must seek out the wandering Spirit Singers those mountain traders told us of a month ago."

"The traders did not seem easy with them," pointed out Achan. "They were very pleased to learn that our Spirit Singer had been here more than fifty years. You remember they said they would mark our village on their maps and return should any of their number die on their journey further north."

"These wandering Singers are something new and unknown, it's true," said Eklar. "But what choice do we have? Scindar in Rockwatch is a week's journey away, and none of us can afford to lose two weeks of fishing. We'd starve, come winter."

"Eklar is right," said Caison. "We must send someone to bring one of these wandering Singers from the mountains to Covedrift." He looked at Amarynth. "Perhaps he need only stay until Amarynth finishes her training."

Amarynth nodded and smiled slightly, but inside she was in turmoil. Wandering Singers? How was it possible? Her grandfather had told her it took days for a Singer to establish a Path, and it was terrible work, physically and mentally draining. A Singer could enter the Between World from anywhere, and he could use another Singer's Path, but if he tried to Sing without a Path both he and the spirit he Sang would be lost.

"But who shall we send?" Achan was asking. "As you say, none of us can afford to leave now."

Amarynth took a deep breath, and said, "Elders, if you please." They turned to her. "There is only one person who can and should make the journey -- me."