Songmaster

Songmaster (1980) is a science fiction book by Orson Scott Card.  The story of the Songmaster occurs in a future human empire, and follows Ansset, a young boy whose singing voice has the power of making people's feelings stronger.  This makes him both a possible healer and destroyer. He is trained in the art of singing so perfectly that his songs can show ideas and feelings better than words.  This book was based on Card's short story "Mikal's Songbird".

Literary significance & criticism
One reviewer said that Songmaster was "Quite possibly Card's best published work, ever."Alma A. Hromic, from a review  at sfsite.com The publisher described the story as "...a haunting story of power and love—the tale of the man who would destroy everything he loves to preserve humanity's peace, and the boy who might just sing the world away".Amazon, quoting Tom Doherty Associates copy

Awards and nominations
As with some other Card novels (Ender's Game, for example), this book started out as a shorter story "Mikal's Songbird", which was a Nebula Award finalist in 1978.Per Card's  Hatrack river bibliography Songmaster got the Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award in 1981.

Translations
  ("Songmaster"), published by Meulenhoff.
  ("Master Singer"), published by Bastei Lübbe.
  ("Master Singer"), published by Nova Ciencia Ficcion.

References

Other websites
 About the novel Songmaster from Card's website

Category:Books by Orson Scott Card
Category:American science fiction books
Category:1980 books