Review: The Sound of Starfall by Scott Palmer
Blurb:
When History is Written in Blood Magic Its Songs Are Best Forgotten.
The Warlocks of Yehven have ruled over the Remembered Lands with their songs of dark sorcery since the skies were new.
But now, the Abori, a mysterious death cult from the wild lands of Edura, have arrived in the name of Nature to exterminate the Warlocks and their sorcerous Words with them.
As the Abori close in and the golden city of Ailar crumbles into anarchy, three people try to find meaning in their lives on their last day breathing.
Rebels rule the streets.
New orders replace the old.
The sound of Starfall eats all else.
Review:
There aren’t many books I can recall that have made me feel true fear in the way that The Sound of Starfall does. I’m talking about the kind of fear that sits deep in your stomach, reminding you constantly that something inevitable is coming, and you won’t know the time or hour that it strikes.
For the sheer size of this novella, it’s an impressive feat of Scott Palmer’s, as a follow up to his strong debut novel, A Memory of Song. This story packs a punch for the seventeen-or-so thousand words that it runs, and it doesn’t shy away from the grimmer side of dark fantasy, which I found to be both contrasting and equally complementary to AMOS. A Memory of Song was certainly a dark fantasy, but the light at the end of the tunnel remained, whereas this novella is a much bleaker story in tone, and reminds us of how small and meaningless we are before the grandeur of mother nature, and the expanse of Space. The concept of the Starfall itself is intriguing, to say the least, while also being especially terrifying.
I will keep this review spoiler-free, of course, but I mention that only to say that the ending of this novella was fantastic. There is a serious twist that will shake readers, particularly if they read this novella before AMOS. The novella shows off some other aspects of magic that AMOS hints at, as well as delivering a lesson on lore that is never boring or info-dumpy.
On the topic of reading order, I think The Sound of Starfall works in either position, whether it be an entrypoint for a new reader into The Last Ballad series, or a supplementary read after AMOS. As with the full-length novel, everything Scott is good at presents itself here: strong emotive writing, interesting characters with layers of depth and history that you want to find out more about, and bone-crushing climactic writing.
I highly recommend The Sound of Starfall not just for the reading experience and the further context it offers readers of A Memory of Song; but equally, as a lesson in concise yet brilliant short-form storytelling that stands on its own feet, with or without the novel that it is a companion to. This is an all-round tonally rich dark fantasy that will have you on the edge of your seat, not because it’s fuelled by action, but rather because it feels brooding and monotonous in the way it rises to its climax and delivers an assault of an ending.
