A wonderful journey to shadow

Alison Croggon The Singing:
the fourth book of Pellinor
Walker Books 2008

As with the author, I finished (reading, in my case, writing, in hers) the Pellinor tetralogy with mixed feelings. Regret, first of all, because there was a sense of closure on the whole series: any hint of sequels was firmly dispelled by a note at the beginning of the appendices that outlined the subsequent history of Maerad, Hem and their friends, leaving little chance of another epic undertaking by the characters we had grown to know and love. But satisfaction, too, was there: that wrongs had been righted, balances restored and friendships deepened.