"Orson Scott Card is a fine writer with great insight, great idealism, and love."
--Science Fiction Review

"Card understands the human condition and has things of real value to say about it. He tells
the truth well--ultimately the only criterion of greatness."--Gene Wolfe

Kidnapped at an early age, Ansset has been raised in isolation at a mystical retreat called the
Songhouse. His life is filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a
voice that is unlike any other. But Ansset's voice is both a blessing and a curse--for it reflects
all the hopes and fears of his audience, and, by magnifying their emotions, can be used either
to heal or to destroy.

When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is
summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Ansset's hands, and his songs
will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror or drive him,
and the universe, into mad chaos.