Blurb:

In a dying land, the armies of the dead hold sway. And those who rule them are more god than human.

James Culdaine, the last heir of the Northern Throne, was just a young man when the armies of the South murdered his parents and subjugated his lands. He has never forgotten those responsible, nor has he forgiven. He has spent the last ten years living in isolation with The Feldarra; a sacred Northern clan of fierce warriors, led by the fearless Wulfee who, still reeling from the loss of her own children, finds new meaning in protecting what only family she has left.

Now, an ancient order of warlocks has returned to the North, singing dark songs composed of blood magic that null the elements and threaten all that is living.

With nature depleted and the Southern armies returning to the North, James struggles to embrace the unique power he has long tried to repress; the ability to commune with the spirits of the dead. In the bitter heart of a growing war, with the world dying around them, James and Wulfee desperately seek answers, vengeance, and a way to save the ones they love... No matter the cost.

Fires refuse to burn. The skies are thirsty and breathless. The earth won't eat its rot...
Welcome to Ardura.

Review:

I'm fairly certain this is Scott Palmer's debut and what an undertaking at a little over 500 pages. I've seen a lot of people compare this to GoT, and I'm not going to do that because I haven't read/watched it. My lack of pop culture aside, there are a lot of things going on in this debut and I'm going to start with what I liked.

I love a good bit of world lore in a book and A Memory of Song has so much lore. A lot of it came from "Gran" and I feel like Gran was probably a great storyteller, if not a bit superstitious as well. 

We follow two main characters, James and Wulfee, along with their supporting characters. I definitely enjoyed some storylines more than others but the one I found most interesting we only get a little background for. "Do you mean Eurick?" Of course I mean Eurick. Sure, he ended sentences with "man" so often I had mentally cast him as Tommy Chong but I would love to get more of his story and the Ravens going forward. Pike was also pretty good as supporting characters go and his scene when he goes absolutely ham was great. 

I will admit I struggled a little bit with Wulfee, despite generally enjoying her storyline more than James’. She kept saying she had to do this, she had to get vengeance but I didn't really feel like she did. She also could've just like...not abandoned her other child? It would've been very easy not to do. This actually also really hit me when she is saying war was no place for her child but then takes Gen with her on this whole journey. That's before I get into how confused I was by Gen being eighteen with the behaviour of a young child. And more importantly, Scott did him dirty, and I have a lot of words for him on the matter.

There are two confrontations that are the focal points for each storyline and in both cases I found them a little anticlimactic. Not least because there is the rescue just in the nick of time and truthfully I think I can't stand those unless there's a very good reason for them to work. I'm also still not entirely clear on how "kill the Mother of Nature" meant the elements would come back (surely the Mother of Nature is central for elements???) but the following scene was very good. Good riddance to bad wizards. Probably helps that I liked the general appearance of the dead and ghosts popping up and being on the fringe of everything. Wulfee's final decision felt so out of character for her previous choices I'm not really sure how/why we ended up there with her. I almost felt like if Pike had just picked her up/dragged her along it would’ve worked better. Maybe it'll become clearer as it all goes on.

On that same note, if this is part of a longer series, which I believe it will be, I'm not entirely convinced it needed to be as busy as it was. It also made it slightly difficult to follow which plot I was on: are we getting elements back or fighting the Wolf or trying to find each other or something about a hermit hovel? Why are there so many Words?! (I don’t mean book words, I understand how books work. I mean the Words of blah blah in the actual book.) I think the link between songs and words and how they fit in the world could’ve also been a little clearer, especially with Song in the title. I thought there’d be a bit more on that…and more bards…

I'd be lying if I said I didn't think there was room for improvement but this is a story with good bones. It just needs a little bit of clarity and refining in certain places. And like I said, I was really into the lore of the world. It's an impressive and promising start to Scott's works and you won't be disappointed to pick it up — you might be a little confused here and there though. It's fine. I was too. Now go read the book.