Songmaster by Orson Scott Card [1980 HARDCOVER]

Songmaster by Orson Scott Card

FIRST BOOK CLUB EDITION [1980] THE DIAL PRESS 

Rare early title from the author of Ender's game.  Notable for a gay relationship that develops between two male characters, a stark contrast to Orson Scott Card's views on the subject.  Kind of a head scratcher.

Hardcover with dust jacket in beautiful condition.   Minor shelf wear to jacket.  Reads like new. 

Kidnapped at an early age, the young singer Ansset has been raised in isolation at the mystical retreat called the Songhouse. His life has been filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any heard before. Ansset's voice is both a blessing and a curse, for the young Songbird can reflect all the hopes and fears his audience feels and, by magnifying their emotions, use his voice 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.

Songmaster is a haunting story of power and love--the tale of the man who would destroy everything he loves to preserve humanity's peace, and the boy who might just sing the world away.