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Summary
Summary
From the frozen mists beyond the edge of the world comes Gudrun, the Snow-walker, to rule the Jarl's people through fear and sorcery.
But the enchantress has one weakness -- her son, Kari, banished as a child to Thrasirshall, the forbidding fortress in the desolate, snowbound north. The people of the Jarl have never set eyes on Kari, but in secret they wonder: Are the rumors true? Was he born a monster?
Now, two will discover the truth.
Because their fathers were loyal to the rightful ruler, Gudrun has exiled Jessa and Thorkil . . . to Thrasirshall. The cousins wonder if they can survive the impossible trek to the ruined castle. And if they do, what will they find at the end of their journey? A beast? Or the means to stop Gudrun?
In this spellbinding saga, a resourceful heroine and an unexpected hero must discover a way to free the Jarlshold from tyranny or lose it forever -- to the Snow-walker.
Author Notes
Catherine Fisher was born in Newport, Wales in 1957. She graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in English. She is a fantasy writer and poet. Her books include The Conjuror's Game, The Snow-Walker's Son, and Sapphique. She also writes the Book of the Crow series and the Relic Master series. She has won numerous awards including the WAC Young Writers' Prize for Immrama in 1989 and the Mythopoeic Society of America's Children's Fiction Award for Incarceron in 2007. She has worked in education and archaeology and as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-9-Snow-walkers drift across great plates of ice, through sleet and snow, in the farthest north, where nothing else lives. When these terrible beings come into contact with humans, they can freeze people with a touch or enmesh them in dreams and steal their souls. The story of a protracted conflict between the Snow-walker witch, Gudrun, and her half-human son Kari, her mirror image, is told mostly from the point of view of Jessa, the daughter of a dispossessed nobleman. With her two knives and equally sharp wits, she makes a satisfying heroine, the only female in a group of companions who resist Gudrun's efforts to conquer their realm and draw Kari under her spell. Their adventures, steeped in Norse mythology and Old English epic poetry, unfold in three books, published separately in England and bound together in this edition. The middle tale, "The Empty Hand," with its monster created by Gudrun's spells, recalls Beowulf. Fisher is a skillful storyteller, using clear language and plenty of action to keep the plot moving. She is at her artistic best when she evokes the northern landscape, with its green pastures, vast haunted forests, and icy reaches where the northern lights glow. Her characters are painted with broad strokes, their conflicts and relationships simple and direct. However, patching together the three titles into one continuous narrative leaves some rough spots. A character from the first book is dropped without explanation, and the second book offers unnecessary retelling of previous events. Still, fantasy readers will happily follow the adventures of Jessa, Kari, and their brave companions.-Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Originally published in Great Britain as three separate volumes, Fisher's (The Oracle Betrayed) ice-coated saga tells of an evil sorceress and her lust for power. The witch Gudrun, the Snow-walker of the title, has come to the Jarlshold from the far north and used her magic to overthrow the Wulfings, the rightful rulers, and install her husband as "Lord Jarl," as a puppet leader. Most of the subjects live in dire fear of the new regime, but young Jessa, from the Wulfing lineage, whose father was killed in the coup, speaks her mind in front of the Jarl. She and her cousin, Thorkil, are now "old enough to be dangerous," so the ruler exiles them to a faraway outpost where Gudrun has imprisoned her son, Kari, since his youth. "The child is a monster," say the rumors. But Jessa learns otherwise: "[Kari] has her powers. [That's] the reason she locked her son away and never even let him be seen." After Gudrun kills the Jarl, the four know they have little time before she shows up there. Over the course of the three books, Kari confronts Gudrun, who flees the Jarlshold; the witch sends monsters to seek revenge; and the books build to the inevitable mother vs. son showdown. Because of the episodic nature of the tales, originally intended to stand alone, the bigger story arcs do not fully develop and ancillary characters remain thin. Still, the author creates an atmospheric setting, and fans of Norse myths and magic may be swept up in this frosty tale. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) Set in a frozen Nordic land, in a time when only a thin line separates superstition and magic, and lands beyond the map's edge really do hold monsters, this three-part fantasy features a young enchanter fighting to remain uncorrupted by his power. The wicked enchantress Gudrun, one of the Snow-walker people of the north, has the Jarlshold trapped in her frozen grasp; clever Jessa and Gudrun's exiled son, Kari, return the throne to the rightful Jarl. In the book's second section, Gudrun sends a magic-spun monster that Kari must defeat, using his inherited magic power and Jessa's help; in the third section, Gudrun's spell brings a sleep like death over the Jarlshold and forces Kari, Jessa, and their party to seek out and confront Gudrun in her own country in the icy north. The story starts out slowly, but once the stakes are established, Kari's struggle between needing his power to defeat his mother and fearing it will make him evil like her gains readers' sympathies. Developing a theme she originally took up in The Oracle Betrayed (rev. 3/04), Fisher comes out with another winner. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Richly atmospheric Nordic fantasy aswirl with snow and magic. Many years ago, a pale sorceress walked out of the North and gripped the Jarlshold (ruling house of the realm) in her evil grasp. When her son was born, she hid him away. A girl named Jessa meets him and finds out the secret: Kari is just like his mother, a Snow-walker with phenomenal power. Jessa and a bard named Skapti join Kari and his fiercely devoted caretaker Brochael in defeating Gudrun over the course of this tale, divided into three sections because it was originally published in three separate volumes. A final journey into the frozen spirit world beyond the North tests Kari's powers and his strength to resist Gudrun's call to become a soul thief like her. Chapter-head quotations come from Norse poems and Beowulf. Delicately written yet unquestionably solid, this supremely satisfying one-volume trilogy combines snow and ice with loyalty, love, trust, and adventure. (Fantasy. 10-15) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-9. Drawing on Celtic and Norse mythology (chapter headings are taken from Beowulf and Norse poems), Fisher spins a fantasy quest with all the classic elements. Long ago, the evil sorceress Gudrun the Snow-walker banished her powerful son, Kari, to a distant castle, then seized control of the Jarl's people. Now, the Jarl's subjects Jessa and Thorkil seek to restore the kingdom to its rightful ruler. Gudrun exiles them to Thrasirshall, where Kari is imprisoned. Clever Jessa, Kari, and a small band of friends, including writer-storyteller Skapti, set off on a hero's journey to the far north for a showdown between the wicked ruler and her son. Originally published in Britain as three separate books, this newly melded story suffers from occasionally awkward pacing and narrative shifts that will demand a dedicated, sophisticated reader. In addition, the bard Skapti, who rarely tells any stories, could have been used more effectively to share the unfamiliar mythology. It's the description of the icy backdrop and the mythological beings in the cast, most notably the predatory rune creature, that reveals the beauty of Fisher's prose. For larger fantasy collections. --Cindy Dobrez Copyright 2004 Booklist