Foxmask

From Publishers Weekly
In this captivating historical fantasy, the sequel to Wolfskin (2003), Australian author Marillier sweeps the reader to Dark Age Britain's northernmost islands, where life is hard and opportunistic raiders have forced change on the peace-loving, magic-believing inhabitants. When 18-year-old Thorvald reads a letter from his unknown true father, Somerled, his world collapses. Somerled was exiled forever after slaying his chieftain brother, Ulf. Fearing that he may be subject to the same curse that afflicted his father ("I'm the son of some evil madman, a crazed killer"), Thorvald decides to search for the disgraced Somerled. He persuades his friend Sam the fisherman to transport him by boat to the island where he believes his father to be. Unbeknownst to both Sam and Thorvald, a young woman, Creidhe, stows away on the boat. Creidhe becomes a key player in the stirring events that unfold when they reach the Northern Isles. Though this artful mix of myth and magic starts out a bit slowly, the pace picks up nicely in the novel's second third and barrels onward to a rousing finish. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* The daughter of her people's leaders, 16-year-old Creidhe is beautiful, highly skilled in midwifery and the domestic arts, completely qualified to be the perfect wife. Unfortunately, though she has loved moody Thorvald since childhood, his name isn't among those her parents suggest as suitors. And then Thorvald discovers that his father is the infamous, brutal king, Somerled. Feeling cursed to become a tyrant himself, Thorvald embarks for the distant islands in which Somerled may have resided. Creidhe stows away in his boat, which is swept off-course to the Long Knife people, childless warriors haunted by the Unspoken, possessors of powerful magic who suck the life out of newborns. Years ago the Long Knife stole priest and seer Foxmask, who anchored Unspoken society, and, until Foxmask is returned, must pay with their infants' lives. Kept from recommencing the journey with Thorvald, Creidhe slowly realizes that the Long Knife intend to give her to the Unspoken for a horrific mating ritual and to bear a new Foxmask. Crucial elements of the story then come sharply into focus: the tenuous peace between two opposing peoples in Creidhe's homeland; her friendship with a Thorvald fixated on finding his father and emerging as leader of the Long Knife; and the compelling inner call Creidhe feels to go to a deserted island whereon lie danger and destiny. Another great story full of well-developed characters from this fine fantasist. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
The Norseman Eyvind, a fierce and loyal Wolfskin, came to a new land on top of the world to find his destiny. With his priestess bride Nessa he saved the land and weathered the treachery that was caused by Eyvind's blood-sworn friend Somerled. After much pain and sorrow the two lovers have managed to create a society where the Norse warriors and the gentle folks of the Orkney Isles live and thrive in contentment at last. A decade and more has passed since the devastating events of the creation of the settlement and Eyvind and Nessa have watched their children grow and thrive in peace.

But not all on the islands are content or at peace. Thorvald, the young son of Margaret, widow of the slain king and Eyvind's war leader, has always felt apart and at odds with all he knows. He learns upon his coming to manhood that he is not his father's son but that of the love that Margaret bore for the hated Somerled and that Somerled was not killed for his treachery but sent on a boat, adrift with little more than a knife and skein of water, doomed to the god's will. Thorvald is determined to find a boat and cast off to the West in a desperate bid to find a father he never knew...and to find out if he is made of the same stuff as the henious traitor.

The tragedy of this scheme would be horrific enough...if it were not for the fact that Creidhe, the winsome daughter of Eyvind and Nessa has loved Thorvald since birth and unbeknownst to him conspires to go along on this most perilous of quests.

What happens to them on their journey of discovery will ultimately change the lives of all they know and love...and will doom (or redeem) an entire people.



About the Author
Juliet Marillier was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, a town with strong Scottish roots. She currently lives in a rural area of Western Australia, sharing her house with a cat and a dog. A university graduate in music and languages, she has had a varied career that includes working for government agencies, opera singing, and raising four children. Juliet now writes full time. Her lifelong interest in myth, legend, folklore and traditional music is a strong influence on both style and theme in her writing. A passion for early British history, reflecting her Celtic ancestry, is evident in her choice of settings.

Juliet Marillier achieved international recognition in 1999 with the publication of her award-winning novel Daughter of the Forest. This is the first book of the Sevenwaters Trilogy, a historical fantasy set in Ireland and Britain in the ninth century, and is loosely based on the traditional fairy tale, The Six Swans. The second book in the series, Son of the Shadows, won the 2000 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel. Child of the Prophecy completes this trilogy.

Juliet Marillier's second series is based on the first Viking voyage from Norway to Orkney, and weaves history and folklore into a saga of adventure, romance and magic. The series is made up of two novels, Wolfskin and Foxmask. Juliet is currently working on a new trilogy set in the north of Britain in the time of the Picts.

Juliet is a member of the druid order OBOD and of the Australian Greens Party, reflecting her commitment to environmental causes.




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Sequel to Marillier's Wolfskin (2000), following the children of the previous novel's main characters. Thorvald, brought up by his widowed mother Margaret in the Orkneys, learns that his father is Somerled, an exiled murderer. Suddenly, his place in the half-Norse, half-Celtic community is in question; he decides to learn the truth about himself by going in quest of Somerled. He enlists the aid of Sam, a fisherman friend who owns Sea Dove, a well-built fishing boat. The two are joined by a stowaway: Creidhe, a young girl whose father was Somerled's blood brother before the crime that led to his exile. After they are all but wrecked on a wild group of islands beyond the edge of the known world, they find a tribe led by Asgrim, a man of about the right age to be Thorvald's father. Creidhe is immediately segregated, housed with the tribe's women, and made to cover her hair. The two young men, needing to buy material to repair their boat, go off with the tribe's men, who are preparing for a hunt-or perhaps a battle-on a nearby island. Disturbing revelations follow. Creidhe learns that the islanders' children are being attacked, immediately after birth, by foreign spirits that kill them within a day. Meanwhile, the reader learns that Asgrim's son has gone into exile after kidnapping the Seal People's prophet, the Foxmask, thus bringing down their curse on the tribe's children. Asgrim has called the hunt in order to capture Foxmask, return him to the Seal People, and end the curse. Believing that Asgrim is his lost father, and hoping to win his approval, Thorvald decides to help the clumsy islanders prepare for the hunt. When Creidhe learns what the islanders have planned for her, she attemptsto escape them, setting off a conflict that seems doomed to end in tragedy. Slow-moving, but emotionally charged. Agent: Russell Galen/Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency


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