Angel Isle
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
‘They are terrible. They are like the demons of old . . . They must be stopped, and you are here to bring that about, where everyone else has failed. You must find the Ropemaker.’
Despite his immense powers, the Ropemaker alone could not control the chaos raging through the Empire, so he chose twenty-four magicians to aid him in his task – the Watchers. They pledged to use their magic only to protect the people but the promise that bound them has now corrupted them. They have become a single, terrible entity with a limitless desire for domination. The Ropemaker may be able to stop them, but he has not been seen for over two hundred years.
Into this dangerous world come Saranja, Maja and Ribek. They are seeking the Ropemaker so that he might restore the ancient magic that protects their Valley. It is the task they were born to, but now it seems there is far more at stake should they fail . . .
In Angel Isle, Peter Dickinson takes readers on another spellbinding adventure, further into the enthralling fantasy world first encountered in his Carnegie Medal shortlisted novel, The Ropemaker .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For the right reader one who is able and willing to fall in with its stately pace this novel marks a welcome return to the lavishly imagined lands Dickinson first mapped in The Ropemaker. Twenty generations have passed and once again the Valley and, as it turns out, most of the surrounding Empire are in dire need; only a quest undertaken by a woman of the Urlasdaughter family with an Ortahlson man can produce a magician able to help. This time around, the predestined pair is Saranja, who grew up determined to flee her family's heritage, and easy-going Ribek, who would just as soon stay at home and work his mill. Accompanying them, and providing the point of view from which most of the tale is told, is Saranja's orphaned cousin Maja, whose extreme sensitivity to the presence of magic gives this story an inward, contemplative focus that mostly compels but occasionally veers into self-indulgence. With its imaginative shape-shifting, worlds within worlds and stories within stories, this tale seems to tap into a body of lore that has always existed. High adventure calls: Dickinson treats readers to visions of flying horses, fearsome demons and the twin Ice-dragons who preserve the balance of the planet. A luxuriant exploration of the nature of magic, storytelling and love. Ages 14-up.
