Bard stories.

September 29, 2012 2:24 PM

Looking for stories featuring/about bards/musicians/historians.

The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy has always been one of my favorite bits of fiction, and features a couple of harpists pretty prominently. McKillip has other done other books (Bards of Bone Plain, for instance) with that sort of protagonist. I tried The Dragon's Bard from the Hickmans and wasn't interested, so maybe less of the D&D route. What else is out there?

posted by curious nu to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

The Name of the Wind (and the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear) by Patrick Rothfuss. They are AMAZING books about a lute player, and music plays a pretty significant part in his life. It's told through a historian writing down the guy's life story, and oh, I can't even tell you how many of your requirements I think this book meets. It's long, but I liked it so much I wanted it to be longer.
posted by meggan at 2:31 PM on September 29, 2012

Also - possibly worth a mention is The Naming by Alison Croggon and the rest of the Pellinor series. According to Goodreads, it's "Presented as a new translation of an ancient text," so it sometimes felt a little... forced? Like it was trying too hard with the exposition of the world/lands/customs, etc. (It's hard to explain but it sometimes felt extremely slow-paced.) It follows the story of a slave girl who discovers her hidden Bardic power. She's also a musician (she plays the harp, I think?) so it checks that box for you too.
posted by meggan at 2:41 PM on September 29, 2012

This is way out of left field and possibly specifically what you're not looking for, but as a teenage girl when I was going through my Pern phase (see, I told you), I really enjoyed the Harper Hall Trilogy. It's about a teenage girl with uncanny musical talent who eventually escapes her dull/abusive fishing village and becomes a bard, or whatever bards are called in Pern world. A world that I know nothing about. No, nothing at all. These are not the fantasy novels about bards you're looking for.
posted by Sara C. at 3:00 PM on September 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana features a troupe of musicians and actors.

If you're into scifi at all, I would definitely suggest The Golden Globe by John Varley, about a classically trained actor that travels the solar system. He punctuates all of his thoughts with a mental recounting of the reviews he got after playing specific roles.

I can't speak to the quality of it, as I just bought it a few days ago, but I'm currently reading Dan Simmons' Muse of Fire, which is about a troupe of actors that travel through human-controlled space. Simmons isn 't a stranger to the mix of classical literature, having produced Olympos and Ilium.
posted by thanotopsis at 3:10 PM on September 29, 2012

And I'm right there with you on the love for Hed. My eldest son, who turns 20 this November, is named after the main character.
posted by thanotopsis at 3:11 PM on September 29, 2012

Mary Renault's The Praise Singer is about the Greek poet Simonides.
posted by verstegan at 3:36 PM on September 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mercedes Lackey, the Bedlam Bards series. She also has a series called Bardic Voices, but I haven't read these.

Tanya Huff, Quarters series.

Not sure if you want books about historians who are not bards?
posted by paduasoy at 4:00 PM on September 29, 2012

If the Christian elements won't put you off, you might enjoy C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, which stars an Oxbridge philologist (supposedly modeled after Lewis' friend Tolkien). I admit a bit of a perhaps unjustified soft spot for this series as an ex-medievalist, however, given how few books have as their protagonist geeky linguisticky people... :-)
posted by UniversityNomad at 4:14 PM on September 29, 2012

Response by poster: paduasoy: I'd be interested!

Also, doesn't have to be novels. Novellas, short stories, or even smaller fiction (is there something between micro and short?) are all good.
posted by curious nu at 4:29 PM on September 29, 2012

Bardic Voices is medieval fantasy, as opposed to the Bedlam Bards urban fantasy. Both will probably scratch that itch.

L.E. Modesitt's Spellsong Cycle is about an opera singer-turned-magic bard.

Elizabeth Haydon's Symphony of Ages series is also pretty solid.

For the gentle satire take on this whole subgenre, definitely pick up Terry Pratchett's Soul Music.
posted by restless_nomad at 5:08 PM on September 29, 2012

The main character of Glen Cook's Black Company series is the historian for the mercenary company.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:11 PM on September 29, 2012

Fflewddur Fflam is a bard of sorts and a prominent character in Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain (a young adult series based heavily on Welsh mythology.)
posted by usonian at 7:53 PM on September 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana features a troupe of musicians and actors.

His A Song for Arbonne probably fits the bill too, though I wouldn't rank it among his strongest novels.
posted by brennen at 12:00 PM on September 30, 2012

Oh! And if you haven't read Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth", it is an absolute classic.

You can download an X Minus 1 radio play of it from archive.org which is really pretty great, but I'd read the story first.
posted by brennen at 12:03 PM on September 30, 2012