Songs of the Dead cover art

Songs of the Dead

The Strata Wars, Book 1

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Songs of the Dead

By: Brandon Sanderson, Peter Orullian
Narrated by: Jack Ayres
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £17.69

Buy Now for £17.69

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

When Jack Solomon, a struggling American musician who works in London's West End, is killed, he awakens to a new reality in which light and music are used to create magic and where living eras of the past sprawl beneath modern London, layer upon layer, all the way back to recorded history.

Jack soon discovers that many of those who reside in the stratums of London's past have grown angry with the present world, and that their anger is being channelled by a powerful society of magic wielders who can cross the realms between life and death, between the present and the past. A past where the dead are sowing revolution against the living, and all of history is at stake...

Welcome to the Strata Wars.

©2026 Dragonsteel, LLC, Rock Hammer LLC (P)2026 Bolinda Publishing Dark Fantasy Fantasy Historical England War
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

'Sanderson's touch is evident in the complexity of the magic system, and Jack's journey of discovery is an entertaining diversion, with plenty of conflict to drive sequels.' (Booklist)
All stars
Most relevant
Performance was great and the story has real potential. But it just got confusing at times and left me wondering what was going on. Sorry not for me.

Had potential but sad to say couldn’t finish

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found the entire premise rather contrived and, at best, appealing only to a very niche audience. It's difficult to explain exactly why without giving away spoilers, but when creating a fantasy world, it still needs to feel relatable and accessible. The plot and the characters' motivations should be clear enough for the reader to follow. Here, everything becomes so convoluted and overcomplicated that the already thin plot is buried beneath endless, increasingly implausible exposition about the world.

By the end, it all dissolves into meaningless babble about characters I never had the chance to care about or invest in. Perhaps dedicated music enthusiasts will get more out of it, but even with some formal musical training myself, I found it impossible to connect with the story. It simply lacked credibility, making the whole experience a disappointment.

Complicated and not involving.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Disappointing. The author should watch Brandon Sanderson’s creative writing course. This novel makes a number of the mistakes he warns his audience about. The protagonist is unsympathetic . There is a by-the-numbers tragic backstory which is meant to make us root for him, but does not. Side characters are two-dimensional. There is overuse of one character’s battle cry. The lack of sympathetic characters meant I did not care who won / died. The lack of engagement also meant that the bow and lantern magic seemed very silly. Not to mention the protagonist going novice-to-master after one sentence of advice. So many of these were explicitly covered in the writing course. If only the author could have attended.

Disappointing, by-the-numbers, and unsympathetic protagonist

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I shouldn't have carried on past the first chapter. Nothing happened, Sanderson's worst. Some sort of cheesy metal head teenage nonsense, devoid of plot or drama.

outstandingly dull

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was really looking forward to this book and while its clear a lot of historical and musical research went into it, the story lacked mommemtum and relied to heavily clichéd plot twists. At times it felt like reading an academic text while at others felt like a meandering daydream. This audio format also missed a huge opportunity to build in actual music to bring the story alive - all the bands named felt like a trivia test but their naming did nothing for the telling.

Disappointed - such a missed opportunity

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews