Fantasy writer Janny Wurts is not to every taste. "The Wars of Light and Shadow" is a yet-to-be-completed series of world-building fantasy books, all of them long. One of the, for want of a better word, Warriors (adversaries?) is a musician so gifted that he has been trained by the MasterBard of his nation, and at his master's death has succeeded him as the MasterBard. There is a great deal going on in these books besides music. However, when the MasterBard, also known as the Master of Shadow, pulls out his fantastical stringed instrument (name: "lyranthe"), something transformational usually happens. There is a lot of emphasis on music as a multi-dimensional force of life and healing. In the most recent of the books, "Initiate's Trial," a dying man is literally musicked back to life with the lyranthe. If Janny Wurts is not to your taste, you will know it within a paragraph or two. If she's not too much for you, her reverence for music is edifying.