The Seven Songs of Merlin

The Seven Songs of Merlin
by T.A. Barron

To save his ailing mother, Merlin must master the Seven Songs of Wisdom passed down from his grandfather, a legendary wizard. Only then can he journey to the spiritual Otherworld to obtain the elixir he needs. But the quest involves a task Merlin must perform – defeating a vile ogre whose merest glance means death. And eve more difficult for the young wizard, he must discover the secret of seeing not with his eyes but with his heart…

Book Two of the Lost Years of Merlin series!

Which, of course, naturally means that I loved this book. I love Merlin revisiting characters he first met in Book One and exploring more of Fincayra than he could have done before.

But this is one of those instances where I wished this book wasn’t intended for such a young audience. There are seven tasks he must complete in this story and, as a child, I had no trouble believing the difficulty of achieving these. However, after having spent many years away from this world and reading many other long quest books, the tasks seem quite simple and short now.

Also, I feel that this book lacks the sting of consequences that were so keenly felt in the first book. Perhaps I will see the consequences I expected to see in this book in another book later on, but it seemed like more terrible things should have happened as a result of Merlin’s arrogance.

But, to balance that all out, DRAGON. I love dragons. I love tasks involving dragons. I love the thought of Merlin with dragons. It simply makes everything better.

I stand by my initial recommendation. If you like Arthurian legend based stories or even just stories about Merlin or fantasy stories in general, you should pick up this series.