The Infinity Concerto () is a 1984 fantasy novel written by Greg Bear. The plot centers around teenager Michael Perrin's search for what is a Song of Power and why some think he can create such a thing. Transported to another realm, he discovers beings known as the "Sidhe" intervened in Coleridge's incomplete poem, "Kubla Khan". They have stopped others from creating Songs of Power and now they are looking at him.Bear, Greg; The Infinity Concerto; Legend; New York: 1988. 342p.
The Infinity Concerto was followed in 1986 by The Serpent Mage.
Synopsis
In 1939, a composer named Arno Waltiri premiered his latest work, Concerto Opus 45: "Infinity". After the concert, another composer, who had been in the audience, filed a lawsuit against Waltiri, claiming that he was no longer able to properly hear or compose music after hearing Waltiri's work. Over the next several months, dozens of people simply disappeared, and the only thing they had in common with one another was that they had been in the audience at that same performance. Waltiri had been inspired to write the concerto by several conversations with a mysterious man named David Clarkham. The Concerto turns out to have been a "Song of Power". Songs of Power, if properly applied by those who understand them, have the power to literally remake the world. Songs of Power can exist in many artistic forms, including music, poetry, dance, art, architecture, and some less obvious creative fields. Clarkham had disappeared after the performance too, but he had left Waltiri a book and the key to his house, which Waltiri had never used.
The book's present story follows the experiences of a 16-year-old young man named Michael Perrin, a would be poet, who lives close to Waltiri and befriends him. Michael meets Waltiri two months before the latter's death, and receives from Waltiri the book and the key. Following the instructions on a piece of paper he found inserted in the book, Michael enters Clarkham's house, which has been vacant for decades and, through a creepy garden and back-alley acting as planar gates, Perrin finds himself in Sidhedark, a world inhabited by a powerful race of beings calling themselves the Sidhe (pronounced "shee"), who are divided into many sub-races (Faers, Umbrals, Riverines, Meteorals, Pelagals, Arborals and Amorphals) of different shapes and magical abilities, and are associated with many ancient human myths about fairy folks. Michael appears at what he learns is the dilapidated house of someone called the "Isomage", who disappeared years ago, and here meets a huge, strange woman named Lamia, who is cursed to grow larger and larger and periodically shed her own skin as does a serpent. Her curse also forces her not to leave the ruined mansion of the Isomage. Michael is already in danger, because by treaty there is only one town where humans are safe from being hunted and killed by the Sidhe: Euterpe, where Lamia hastily sends Michael before anyone finds him.
Humans occasionally find their way to Sidhedark, and those who survive all live in Euterpe, a town in the Pact Lands, which is the only place humans are permitted in Sidhedark, following an ancient war between Sidhe and the Isomage. There Michael is befriended by a former teacher, Savarin, and learns that the humans are barely tolerated by the Sidhe, who detached a small army of riders led by Alyons the Wickmaster to act as wardens of the treaty.
He returns to the Isomage's house to talk to Lamia, asking her how he can get home, and she said that he will need training in order to make his way back to Earth. She orders him to go see the Crane Women, who are a trio of "Breeds" (part human, part Sidhe), who live on the outskirts of another town populated by other Breeds called Halftown. They train him with exercises that seem pointless and incomprehensible, and also provide fragments of lore hinting at a primordial magical war between the humans and the Sidhe that is at the origin of the current distrust among the races and of the general status of both Earth and Sidhedark realms. During his training Michael returns periodically to Euterpe, telling Savarin about things that he has seen and learned. He also learn that humans are persecuted by Alyons and his riders, who just abide to the letter of the treaty, and exploit every loophole to make the lives of the humans as miserable as possible. The people of Euterpe are not allowed to produce music of any kind, for fear they may create some Songs of Power, and they get only very limited supplies of wood and clothing. During winter time, Alyons and his minions rarely come to Euterpe, to avoid addressing any issues caused by the cold weather to the humans.
One night a number of creatures called Riverines and Umbrals raid Halftown and kidnap three of the Breeds who lived there, taking them to serve Adonna, a sort of god of the Sidhe, by bleeding them of magic. They attack and try to take also Michael, but he barely survives because is discarded as being a mere inferior human, unfit for the service to Adonna; the young man makes his way back to the Crane Women.
To provide Michael with a basic way of defense against such attacks the Crane Women intentionally place the young man on a trafficked path used by Meteorals, where he is easily spotted by them. To escape their persecutions Michael is forced to use his training to throw a "shadow" of himself as an illusion that deceived the Meteorals long enough for him to escape.
The Crane Women take him with them on a journey across a desolate area known as "the Blasted Plain", which surrounds the Pact Lands. The Blaster Plains were created by the war between the Isomage and the Sidhe, and are populated with Adonna's failed experiments, magical monsters originally buried underground which were freed by the energies unleashed by the war. Only a magical powder called 'sani' can allow for a safe passage, and further protections are necessary to avoid being lured by the monsters who crave for the souls of the passers-by. In a lush forest joust outside the Blasted Plain, in main part of the Sidhe world, the group meets Biri, a young Sidhe who has been sent to the Crane Women for training as a priest to Adonna. He and Michael come to live in huts close to the Crane Women's shack in Halftown, and share some knowledge about each other's worlds. Meanwhile, Michael reads Clarkham's book that Waltiri gave to him, which is a book of poetry, and tries to write some of his own in the dirt. Sometimes, though, it seems as if he is writing words that aren't his own; he likens this experience to being "tuned into Death's Radio", giving a name to this strange contact, which comes and goes.
Michael finds himself attracted to Helena, a human woman of Euterpe who, prior to his arrival, was the most recent arrival from Earth (a pianist and dancer from New York). He learns from her that it is dangerous for humans to have sex in Sidhedark, because if the woman conceives, as no human souls are available for the baby, the body of the newborn will be occupied by one of Adonna's abortions, who will turn the baby into a monster. Many of such 'Children' are imprisoned in dark pits in a kind of asylum in Euterpe, after having killed their parents or other people. Alyons would be able to get rid of such magical monsters, which the humans are not able to kill, but he sadistically decided to let them live among the other humans. Michael also learns that the humans of Euterpe are secretly working on a plan to rebel and escape from the Pact Lands into the rest of Sidhedark, where they hope to find a place to live free of Sidhe control. Meanwhile, a Breed woman of Halftown named Eleuth is attracted to Michael, and it doesn't bother her that he is in love with Helena, because Sidhe men apparently don't fall in love, although the women do. Michael, while appreciating Eleuth's attentions, is not in love with her. Eleuth lost her job at the local warehouse following the kidnapping of her father Lirg during the Umbrals' raid and, albeit being only one-quarter of Sidhe blood, started practicing Sidhe's magic in the attempt to better her lot. The Sidhe are possibly more disrespectful toward Breeds than they are towards humans, except for those possessing magical abilities, like the Crane Women.
In the meantime, also Michael's inner powers increase thanks to the Crane Women training, and he becomes able to generate heat and warm from inside and to hide his thoughts and memories from external scrutinies, becoming able to perform a superficial screening of the aura of the other beings. He also learned that the Isomage was a human very gifted in magic who reached Sidhedark from Earth centuries before and appealed to the humans there, stating that he was able to bring all of them back home and free from Sidhe abuses. This sparked the war with the Sidhe, which ended into a stalemate as the Isomage faction was defeated and exiled in a far-away corner of Sidhedark, but the Sidhe were afraid of the magic curses the Isomage hid in the lands, so established the creation of Euterpe and Halftown as relatively safe havens for the humans and the Breeds.
One night Eleuth accedes to Michael's request and tries to send Michael home to Earth, believing that she has learned enough magic to do so, but only manages to send him as far as the gateway within the Isomage's house. Michael no longer has the key, though, and cannot unlock the gate, and Lamia's monstrous sister nearly captures him, but Eleuth sacrifices her life to save him. At the same time, the humans in Euterpe stage their rebellion, and the Sidhe retaliate violently. Michael returns to Lamia's house and rushes to try to help his people, but ends up being pursued by Alyons into a circle of stone teeth at the outskirts of Euterpe, where one of the Isomage's leftover magical traps goes off and kills Alyons, allowing Michael to escape.
Now that he has killed a Sidhe, the Crane Women know that his race will not stop until they catch Michael, so they give him what they can, advices on how to access the inner knowledge of unshielded people, how to shed parts of his personality he does not want anymore and how to get some kind of extracorporeal vision. Then the Crane Women disappear, leaving Michael to fend off by himself in his quest to find the Isomage, the only one that perhaps could help the humans trapped in Sidhedark - including Michael - to come back to Earth.
Michael crosses the Blasted Plane on foot and without protective 'sani' powder, evading the monsters there only by means of using the training the Crane Women gave him. After he crosses, a shadow of Alyons comes to him and tells Michael that since Michael killed him, he must now accept Alyons' horse. Michael argues that he didn't kill Alyons; a trap set by the Isomage did, but it is to no avail; as a matter of honor he must accept the horse. So he does, and the horse makes his travel quicker.