Drinker of Souls is, on balance, a fairly average fantasy book. While there’s nothing particularly special about the story it tells, it is, at least, an interesting tale. The characterization is pretty good, especially Brann’s. The writing varies. I found parts of the book rather difficult to get through (most notably the first section; fortunately, things got better), while others elicited eager anticipation. (Partly, this is because I have a weakness for performing art. I found the descriptions of the music and dancing of some of the characters to be quite compelling.)
I have several books by Jo Clayton. The others are from the 70s and have covers that tend to imply crappy hack-and-slash fantasy, so I decided to use this one as a litmus test for Clayton’s writing. It’s at least good enough that I’ll give the others a go.