| Description: |
|
Product Description
In the distant land of deserts and islands, the servants of the god rule the land, his wishes conveyed through the Oracle and interpreted by the High Priestess. Mirany is the new Bearer, afraid of her perilous duties for the god in the rituals of the Oracle, and fearful of her secret questioning ...Does the god truly exist? The priestess is corrupt and in secret partnership with the General, ruler, since the God-on-Earth, the Archon, has no real power - chosen as a child, his face always masked, never seen by outsiders. Should any national tragedy occur, he is also the sacrifice. When the old Archon dies, his spirit migrates into a child, and there are several candidates for succession. But Mirany begins to experience the real visions of the god, discovers which child is the rightful heir, and that the General and High Priestess intend to choose another child and seize power. With only a tomb-robbing scribe and a mad musician for allies, Mirany begins her quest - knowing that, if she is betrayed, her fate will be to be walled up alive in the Archon's tomb ...
Amazon.com Review
After wowing kids and critics alike in the UK, this smart and suprisingly gritty historical fantasy from award-winning Welsh author and poet Catherine Fisher finally arrives in the US. Fisher grabs readers quickly with a convincingly imagined Greco-Egyptian setting and characters that defy quick classification. Our heroine, Mirany, begins the story as a timid teen serving the High Priestess, the masked Speaker who discerns the wishes of a god through a mysterious island oracle. When the current Archon (the sequestered God-on-Earth) passes a secret note to Mirany just before he's sacrificed, the story throws intrigue onto intrigue with a murder plot, a drunken musician, a conflicted scribe, a slick tomb robber, an offended Rain Goddess, and no shortage of mystic burial rituals and dusty tombs.
Fisher's biggest accomplishment is that for all the page-turning action, she still manages to raise some pretty heady ideas about death, ambition, and the nature of faith. Expect both kids and grownups to be reaching for Fisher's follow-up. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes
|
