PRINCE OF WOLVES - Book 1 of The Legend of Genghis Khan - by Katherine A Roberts. Reviewed by Ann Turnbull.

Any new book by Katherine Roberts is a cause for celebration, and this one is extra special because Katherine has written, designed and published the entire three-book project herself. Prince of Wolves is the first of three novellas, each narrated by a different character: Temujin (the man who became known as Genghis Khan), his wife Borta and his blood brother Jamukha.

Based on Mongol legends, this is a story of rival clans battling for power. Nine-year-old Temujin is betrothed to Borta, the daughter of a neighbouring chief, in fulfilment of what their fathers believe to be a prophecy in which a wolf will mate with a deer and create a great nation. The two children seem to be the pair in the prophecy - but are they? Someone throws a stone during the betrothal ceremony and, soon after, Temujin's father is murdered by rival tribes and his wives and children forced to flee to the mountains. There Temujin meets Jamukha, who becomes his blood brother.

Many trials await Temujin in the years to come before the Mongol Alliance calls him Khan and his enemies are reduced to "ashes blowing in the wind". He knows he must find followers and raise an army if he is to avenge his father and keep his family safe. But who can he trust?

This is a short, action-packed story that is hard to put down. Told in Temujin's first-person narrative, it's full of images that conjure up the landscape and people: the horse-skull violins carved and played by the shamans; the beautiful sable fur that Borta brings as her dowry; the "trembling silence" that stretches between Temujin and Borta "like the rope on a wild horse". Temujin is as violent and ruthless as a Mongol leader needs to be, and yet he remains a sympathetic character, vulnerable in his relationships with those he loves.

Anyone who liked I am the Great Horse would enjoy this book, though it's for a slightly older readership. Book 2, out soon, is Borta's story, and Book 3 Jamukha's. Available now as a Kindle e-book, Prince of Wolves will shortly be available to read on all devices, and a POD paperback may follow.


www.annturnbull.com






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The Echorium Sequence., by Katherine Roberts, reviewed by Cecilia Busby

Katherine Roberts' Song Quest, originally published in 2000, was reissued by Catnip in 2012. Recently Roberts has added the two sequels, Crystal Mask and Dark Quetzal, to the growing numbers of her back catalogue which have been reissued as e-books. I became a fan of Roberts' writing after coming across an early, book, Spellfall, in my local library. My daughter and I both loved it, and kept an eye out for her other books, subsequently devouring the whole Echorium Sequence, as well as the later Seven Ancient Wonders series (also now reissued as e-books and highly recommended!) I thought it might be time for a review of the Echorium books which are particular favourites of mine.

Song Quest opens on the Isle of Echoes, where apprentice Singers are trained in the songs of power. These are songs that can be used to bring healing, songs for laughter, sadness, death, fear - in essence this is the form magic takes in this world. Not all apprentices go on to become fully-fledged Singers - some lose their voice at adolescence and have to take menial jobs as orderlies - but the main protagonist of the story, Rialle, is a particularly gifted apprentice, and one who, unusually, finds she can communicate with the Merlee, the fish-people. All is not right in the world the Singers inhabit. Merlee are being killed and their eggs stolen - and it is Rialle, together with her best friend Frenn, one of those apprentices who have been demoted, who ultimately have to find out what is wrong and try to remedy it. At the same time, Rialle's great rival, Kherron, finds himself on the other side, working for the Karcholders who appear to be responsible for the Merlee killings. The story is told alternatively from Rialle's and Kherron's point of view, and while Rialle is an easy heroine to like and sympathise with, Kherron is an altogether more divided and difficult character. Is he on Rialle's side or not? Will he help or hinder Rialle and Renn in their quest to help the Merlee and stop the Karholders?

Song Quest reminded me of Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books, and I loved the originality of the idea that magic here was done through song. Rialle, Renn and Kherron are strong protagonists, and the Khiz priest, Frazhin, who is ultimately responsible for all the evil going on, is suitably creepy. Its a great read, deservedly winning the Branford Boas Award the year it came out - and it's a world you really want to return to at the end. Which brings me on to...

... The Crystal Mask, the second Echorium book. This is set twenty years after Song Quest, and features Renn, Rialle's son, as well as a half-wild girl called Shaiala, who arrives on the Isle of Echoes with half memories of centaurs, and of a sinister crystal mask. The mask is made of the khiz crystal used by Frazhin in the previous book to manipulate people's thoughts, and the suspicion begins to rise that the evil Frazhin might not, after all, be dead.

In the final book of the sequence, we get to hear more about the mysterious bird-people, the Quetzal, and we see Frazhin once more trying to use khiz to destroy the Echorium. Dark Quetzal is set eleven years after The Crystal Mask, and features a grown-up Renn, older Rialle, and promising novice Kyarra, the daughter of Frazhin, brought up from a baby on the Isle of Echoes. The story is as complex and spell-binding as the previous two, and we grow to love the new characters while also enjoying meeting old friends again - especially Shaiala. All the books have a fabulous assortment of half-creatures - the Merlee, the Quetzal, the centaurs - and Roberts does a great job of making them both familiar and alien, fully imagined and intriguing non-human characters. And Frazhin, the twisted and bitter source of all the nastiness in the sequence, is a great invention, who sends shivers up your spine.

All in all, it's a great trilogy, and I thoroughly recommend it to any fantasy fans out there who haven't yet read it!



Cecilia Busby writes as C.J. Busby. Her new book, DEEP AMBER, is a multiple worlds adventure aimed at age 8-10, which was published by Templar in March

Website: www.cjbusby.co.uk
Twitter: @ceciliabusby

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Pendragon Princess: reviewed by Sue Purkiss

Sword of Light, by Katherine Roberts: Book 1 of The Pendragon Legacy
Published by Templar @ £9.99

I wonder what it is that has made the legend of King Arthur endure for so long? Is it the romance? Is it the quest at the centre? Is it the fighting? Is it because the central battle is between good and evil, the Dark and the Light? Is it the relationships - between Arthur and Merlin, between Arthur and his knights? Is it the magic? Could it even be the clothes? (Those beautifully cut mediaeval gowns - SO flattering!) Or is it the compellingly attractive notion that somewhere, in a well hidden cave, the King lies sleeping, ready to wake and save us all when no-one else can?

Whatever it is, the magic shows no sign of fading - just look at all the versions of the legend that have appeared in the last fifty years. There's T H White's great classic, The Once and Future King and Kevin Crossley Holland's beautifully written Seeing Stones trilogy. Michael Morpurgo had a go at it too, as no doubt have countless others. Then there are the books in which the legend plays a significant walk-on part: Susan Cooper's brilliant sequence The Dark Is Rising, Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Then there are the film and TV versions - Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, Camelot with Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Harris, King Arthur with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley, and on TV the very popular Merlin. The Grail has its own fan club: Dan Brown for one.

So is there really room for a new variant? Well - yes, there is. Katherine Roberts has brought something entirely new to the Round Table  in the form of a girl with bright copper hair and plenty of attitude - meet Rhianna Pendragon, daughter of Arthur. She has been hidden away on the magical Isle of Avalon in the care of its king, Avallach, but at the beginning of the book, after Arthur's death in battle against his nephew Mordred, Merlin comes to Avalon to tell Rhianna of her true identity and her destiny - which is to collect the Four Lights - the Sword Excalibur, the Lance of Truth, the Crown of Dreams and the Grail - in order to save the world from the Dark.

So, together with her friend, Elphin, the son of Avallach, and her magical horse Alba, she leaves Avalon. On the way through the mists which separate the two realms Merlin is waylaid; but Rhianna soon meets up with and gains the loyalty of the knights who were with Arthur at his death - and at this point, as the companions head for Camelot, the adventure really begins.

This is an enchanting re-imagining of the Arthurian legend, with a strong, charismatic heroine, a new quest and a generous sprinkling of magic. Katherine Roberts has taken on board the notion that if Arthur really existed, he was probably a sixth century warlord fighting against the Saxon invaders; this is a Dark Age Arthur, rather than a mediaeval one. There are references to the former glories of Rome, traces of which remain, like the mosaic floor which Rhianna notices in the woods.

She uses the notion that Arthur's heir could be a girl to explore attitudes to warfare. Like the real-life Alfred two centuries later (for an account of whom you might like to see my own book, Warrior King), at two crucial points in the story Rhianna chooses to take the more peaceful of two options open to her - even though the instinct to avenge her father is hard to resist.

The book ends with a preview of the next one, and Katherine Roberts leaves her readers with several pressing questions regarding the fates of the characters she has introduced which readers will surely be eager to have answered. The book is altogether as intriguing, as colourful, and as charming as its young heroine.

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DEATH SINGER by Katherine Roberts. Reviewed by Susan Price

Death Singer by Katherine Roberts

          Susan Price is the Carnegie Medal winning author of The Ghost Drum, and The Sterkarm Handshake.

          ‘On my one hundredth birthday, Papa made me a present of a mortal man…’  So we’re told by Kryssa, the heroine of ‘Rubies’, one of seven fantasy stories in ‘DEATH SINGER.’

          ‘Rubies’ reminded me of Bradbury’s tales of supernatural families, not only in its subject, but in its sensuality: ‘Her hair, black as mine, glittered with diamonds that outshone the early stars…’  And later, as Kryssa, her hair threaded with rubies, looks at her reflection in a lake: ‘Yes, I could see myself. Or…I could see moon-pale flesh shimmering with gold, and the pinpricks of red stars surrounding me: Grandpa’s rubies blurred with the millions of worlds above…’

          ‘Rubies’ is romantic, lush, Gothic, and its theme, like the other stories, is that of rebelling against the rules your society insists you live by. And, in these stories, at least, the rebels mostly gain a kind of victory.

          Roberts imagines other worlds and other ways: her characters spirit-travel and meet singers whose voices can heal or kill, savage unicorns and soul-leaders. There is horror, and humour, and beauty.

          ‘Mars Take Seed Make Man’ is the closest to science-fiction, set in a Martian colony where soldiers are grown to supply Earth with fodder for its wars.  But the peaceful women farmers of Mars have found a use other than killing for their 'man-roots'! - and the roots themselves are not quite the vegetables Earth's Generals took them for.

I Am The Great Horse by Katherine Roberts

          The final story, and perhaps my favourite, ‘Empire of the Hare’ is historical-fantasy, featuring the most audacious take on Boudicca I’ve read in a long time: and possibly closer to the truth than the usual druid-hugging, noble freedom-fighter. As in her wonderful book, I Am The Great Horse, Roberts demonstrates that although she mingles fantasy with history, she is sharply aware of the machinations of politics, both ancient and modern, giving her stories a cynical edge.

          These seven stories are available for download from Amazon kindle for £1-71 – seven thoughtful, beautifully written stories for less than half the price of a glossy magazine filled with adverts.

          And the cover was designed by Roberts herself, using her own photograph. This is hand-crafted, designer fiction at a give-away price!

          Title: DEATH SINGER

           Author: Katherine Roberts

           Kindle e-book, Price £1-71 or $2-99.  Download it here.

          Both Katherine Roberts and Susan Price can be found at Kindle Authors UK

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ANGEL'S FURY by Bryony Pearce; I AM THE GREAT HORSE by Katherine Roberts. Reviews by Gillian Philip

Everybody loves a villain, especially when you’re not quite sure who the villain is, and that’s one of the things that makes Bryony Pearce’s ANGEL’S FURY such an absorbing read. Who really is on the side of the angels? And would you really want the angels on your side?

Conflicted characters make a writer’s life worth living. OK, that’s hyperbole; maybe I should say conflicted characters make it fun to sit down in front of the laptop in the morning. There’s only one thing more fascinating than the villain with a touch of good, and that’s the hero with a touch of evil. And of course, what’s good for the writer is wonderful for the reader. Nothing keeps you turning the pages faster than wondering what the characters are up to, and why.

Bryony Pearce delves into myth and theology in her debut novel, and they are a rich vein of moral conflict and uncertainty. She keeps you guessing about the motivations of each and every one of her characters. Cassie Farrier suffers from insomnia caused by horrific nightmares; in desperation her parents send her for very unconventional therapy under the mysterious Dr Leaza Ashworth. Once confined at Mount Hermon with her fellow patients, Cassie has to try to unravel the ties between not just them and herself, but the lives of the long-dead. It’s a tense and occasionally horrifying journey that leads to the revelation of more than one spectacularly scary enemy.

When it comes to complex characters from history, one of my absolute favourites is Alexander the Great. There’s much about him that isn’t known – especially his motivations – and he tends to provoke wildly different reactions. Was he a thug and a tyrant, or an immensely skilful warrior, strategist and diplomat? Or a bit of all of those?

Alexander has been seen from the human perspective in fiction and non-fiction, from Mary Renault to Robin Lane Fox. Katherine Roberts’ sidelong approach gives an entirely new and enlightening angle – one alpha male on the quirks and foibles, the triumphs and disasters of another.

I AM THE GREAT HORSE is not just the story of Alexander’s war horse Bucephalas, though that would no doubt have been a terrific read in itself. Told by Bucephalas in the first person, it’s also his take on the humans around him – Alexander, but also the stable girl Charm who wins his trust by keeping away the ghosts of battle.

Bucephalas’s voice is completely convincing: arrogant, proud and all horse (and he’s funny, what with his habit of ‘dominating dung’ and the way he compares it to the behaviour of human kings). Yet somehow, through his eyes, Katherine Roberts tells a subtle and nuanced story of real human struggles. Mingling fact and fiction, myth and legend, the story manage to be completely convincing.

Bucephalas died before Alexander, and I wondered how Roberts would deal with that. But with only a minor tweak of history, she makes the ending convincing and moving. It was beautifully done.

ANGEL’S FURY Bryony Pearce (Egmont, ISBN 978-1-40525153-8)

I AM THE GREAT HORSE Katherine Roberts (Chicken House, ISBN 978-1-90529427-5)

www.gillianphilip.com
www.facebook.com/gillianphilipauthor
Twitter: @Gillian_Philip

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