An enjoyable, quick read. A tomboyish princess falls in love with a foreign suitor. Unfortunately for him, her father is a demented wizard who kills those seeking his daughter's hand. fantasy3 s Gail CarrigerAuthor 58 books15.1k

Playing with various fairy tale and Greek mythos this story begins with the classic trope of evil sorcerer father killing the suitors for his daughter's hand. But our young heroine doesn't remain passive for long. We are, instead, taken on a courageous journey with a powerful female protagonist. Soulstring pulled on my heart strings with its sweet hidden love story and an utterly charming conclusion. fantasy2 s Isen238 4

Soulstring is a fantasy novel about Magda de'Stain, a daughter of a sorceror and heir to his power, and her attempt to escape from her father and start a new life in the land of Thall.

What is pleasant about the book is that this is pretty much the plot of the story. No dark, ageless force is awakened, no worlds are saved from destruction, no timestreams are restored to their proper path; just a girl's struggle for her freedom and her life. The curse of the epic is everywhere in the fantasy genre, and the humblest drink in a tavern tends to start one on the road to saving the multiverse yet again, so it's nice to read a low-key story about magic and sorcery for once. Unfortunately this also means that not a great deal happens. The book is already short, but it nevertheless starts to drag on in the second half, which deals with a relatively uneventful flight through a forest for a month. And since the story is told in the first person, the reader is forced to follow along for that entire month; exciting things may be happening off camera, but we do not know about them until after the fact. Perhaps this could have been handled better by better spacing of flashbacks and backstory, as at present the first half seems a bit cluttered with the exposition, followed by a great deal of nothing happening. Kinda the film Apocalypto.

I also felt that the main character came across a bit unstable with rapid mood shifts. I don't think this was an intentional characteristic of Magda (it's not developed into anything, at least), but rather a side effect of the author trying a bit too much to convey how she feels about any given thing.1 Fantasy Literature3,226 165

In the first few pages of Soulstring, I was worried that I was reading another book about a spoiled princess who was going to do nothing but complain about how hard she suffered in her privileged life. But by page thirteen, I was deeply engrossed in the story of a young woman who is hated by her parents for the sin of being the firstborn and a girl. Soulstring is a high fantasy story about a young woman who has to discover a way to reclaim the magical power that has been taken from her by her father, wrapped inside a retelling of the Tam Lin myth.

Midori Snyder has the gift of being able to write deeply fascinating characters and show personalities through dialog that many authors lack. She builds a detailed world without a lot of excess prose. In a slender volume of 182 pages she creates two competing countries, and different cultural groups within those countries. The terrain plays an important role in the story, and Snyder paints a vivid picture of this setting. At places, her descriptions get repetitive, especially in contrasting the clothing of the de’Stain family with that of the other noble houses of Moravia, but this stops after the first few chapters. My other major criticism of the book is with the head of house de’Stain — the villain. It always bothers me when authors who manage to write multidimensional protagonists write antagonists who act they have stocked up on evil at a warehouse store.

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A nice, quick read to the point. I enjoyed the journey and look forward to it again. It got a little weird towards the end but not unbearably so. Easy to follow and you pick up on the characters quickly. Katie6 6

This was a really clever meld of a couple different classic fairy-tale elements (evil sorcerers, clever hero, shape-changing curse, dark forest, etc.) and I really, really enjoyed it. After reading Midori Snyder's short story, Tattercoats, I couldn't wait to read more of her work. In brief, a princess with immense (but uncontrollable) magical abilities is being held out as a prize to lure men to their death as they try to win her hand. A simple farmer finally passes all three of her evil father's quests, but the wicked sorcerer refuses to let them go and intends to kill them both. They escape the castle itself, but then have to deal with even more peril while being hunted in the forest. Along the way, the princess must learn to control her wild, bloodthirsty magic and confront her own cruel nature. I know that sounds simple, but I didn't want to give away to much of the story! Please read it -- it's a quick, easy read of maybe 150 pages. If you retold fairy tales or fantasy, you will this book. fantasy Megan M109 1 follower

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