This enables him to cross the Blasted Plain and enter Sidhedark, where he learns a great deal more about the nature of the Realm and its various inhabitants. Michael is 'adopted' by the Crane Women, a trio of Breed sisters of great age, who train him in some of the skills he will need to survive. More recently, tensions had arisen over Clarkham's ambition to establish hiself in power as the Isomage, the most powerful of the handful of mages (magicians capable of 'grand magic') in the Realm. Beyond the Pact Lands, where humans are not allowed to travel, is Sidhedark.Īll of this was the creation of one of the Sidhe gods - Adonna, or Tonn - in order to provide a land where the Sidhe could live in peace after a ferocious inter-species war many millions of years before.

These towns, and the Blasted Plain desert surrounding them, are known as the Pact Lands. There is another town nearby where the Breeds live (the result of mating between humans and Sidhe) Halftown. The Sidhe (think Tolkien's elves, hostile to humans) only permit those humans who have arrived in the Realm to live in one town: Euterpe. Michael acquires the key and enters the house, only to discover that it is a gateway to another world - the Realm of the Sidhe - from which there is no escape. Some of them disappeared not long afterwards, including David Clarkham, another friend of the composer who had bequeathed him a book and a key to Clarkham's house. Michael Perrin is a teenage poet who befriends a composer, Arno Waltiri, who has written a concerto whose performance had some strange effects on the audience. For it is a world of great danger as well as great beauty - and it is not good to be human in the Realm of the Sidhe. When the Song calls to you, you must resist. It is a gateway to another world - a gate that will lock behind you as you pass, barring you from the Earth forever.

There is a song you dare not sing, a melody that you dare not play, a concerto that you dare not hear. The blurb for The Infinity Concerto reads: These form one continuous story and have since been published together as Songs of Earth and Power. However, early on in his career, he wrote two novels in the fantasy genre which are very different: The Infinity Concerto (1984) and its sequel The Serpent Mage (1986). Greg Bear (1951- 2022) was a well-known SF writer who concentrated mainly on classic science-focused SF.

Greg bear songs of earth and power