As a Scottish born Australian writer I grew up reading tales from Celtic and Norse mythology and always wanted them to be fact. With a passion for history, including tales of lost civilizations, and with a deeply rooted love of story, I have spent decades exploring how myth and story intertwine. Where do our stories come from? I have fantasized for many hours about what it would be like if there was an older magical world beneath ours. My first novel, The Lost Soul, began when I asked myself one question: What if myth was true?
Black eyes. Seeing eyes. Death eyes. The Keeper of the Dead can see, hear, and feel souls that no longer walk among the living.
Twenty-two years after Sondra Carstairs ran away from being Keeper, she receives an appeal from a lost soul that drags her back to the mystical world of Anona. A land that is the doorway of the Land of the Dead. When she returns Sondra must decide whether becoming Keeper is worth stepping on the path she’d avoided for so long. For the Keeper protects. She protects the dead. She protects the living. Embracing the darkness within is Sondra’s only chance to survive.
The second book in Susan Cooper’s children’s fantasy series based on Celtic mythology focuses on Will Stanton, a seventh son of a seventh son. Susan Cooper details a magical world beneath the English countryside where the main character, the last of the beings known as the Old Ones, is celebrating his eleventh birthday.
There are so many legends touched on in this book that I felt spoilt for choice. The magic of this book has stayed with me for over forty years even though I first read it as a young adult. This is a book I still read to this day. A book that reminds me there is still magic in our world, if you know where to look.
On the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers a special gift-- that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to keeping the world from domination by the forces of evil, the Dark. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid the Old Ones in the final battle between the Dark and the Light. And for the twelve days of Christmas, while the Dark is rising, life for Will is full of wonder, terror, and delight.
Katherine Neville delights her audience in a story that spans centuries. We’re seamlessly taken from the era of the French Revolution to 1972 and the imminent restructuring of the world’s oil production by OPEC as we follow Catherine Velis, a modern computer expert, as she learns of a powerful relic, Charlemagne’s legendary chess set.
Amid a backdrop of mysterious alchemical rites, larger-than-life historical figures and events, the key characters weave a magical tale of an eternal chess game between opposing forces. Where the pieces are people. An eternal game where pawns can become queens. The novel is a historical delight and so expertly crafted that myth and fantasy blend into one cosmic treasure hunt. Anyone for chess?
A fantasy novel from the author of A CALCULATED RISK. The secret of the Eight is a puzzle whose solution has challenged the most brilliant minds known to humanity. Catherine Velis is manipulated into using her unrivalled problem-solving skills to find and reassemble to legendary chess set.
Anne Bishop weaves European myth and historical witch-hunting into a fantastical tale of Fae, Witches, and those without magic. All three books in this series are unputdownable. So real is the imagery and the variety of characters, each with their own blend of magic and relationship to the natural world, that no matter how dark the tale gets, I can’t stop reading.
Tir Alainn blends the natural, spiritual and physical world of myth into a grassroots world with characters that live and die for what they believe. With a strong moral core to the story, the richness of myth brings the inhabitants of Tir Alainn to life. An enchanting dark fantasy trilogy that is a must-read.
The first novel in New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop's Tir Alainn Trilogy.
The youngest in a long line of witches, Ari senses that things are changing—changing for the worse. For generations, her kin have tended the Old Places, keeping the land safe and fertile. But with the Summer Moon, the mood of her neighbors has soured. And Ari is no longer safe.
The Fae have long ignored what occurs in the mortal world, passing through on their shadowy roads only long enough to amuse themselves. But the roads are slowly disappearing, leaving the Fae Clans isolated and alone.…
Raymond E Feist takes a Celtic legend, massages it, and transports it to the new world with such ease that I could really believe the Hill of the Elf King existed in New York state. An earth-based fantasy from an author that has a wonderful knack of making his characters jump off the page, the tale hints at an unseen world. A fantastical world of powerful beings that exists deep below the land.
I love the thought that just below the level of our modern urban world is another world of otherworldly beings where even a simple stroll in nature can take a turn for the worst when we don’t understand the land we are walking on. Throw in an ancient Irish legend and you have the recipe for disaster.
Reissued in spectacular new cover of Feist's chilling dark fantasy
Successful screenwriter Phil Hastings decides to move his family from sunny California to a ramshackle farmhouse in New York State. The idea is to take some time out, relax and pick up the threads of his career as a novelist.
Good plan, bad choice. The place they choose is surrounded by ancient woodland. The house they choose is the centrepoint of a centuries-old evil intent on making its presence felt to intruders.
The first book in the trilogy, Key of Light, hooked me from the opening page and the rather sassy Malory Price who is driving in a storm to an intriguing dinner invitation and worrying about the bad day she’s just had. A thoroughly delightful woman, a born organizer, with a warrior streak a mile wide who sets off on a quest with her newfound friends to hunt for a mystical key with the power to lift the enchantment cast on three sleeping Celtic demi-goddesses.
I always love seeing how Nora Roberts crafts a boy meets girl story with a touch of Celtic fantasy. A fun read. A blend of myth, magic, and romance amid the backdrop of a hunt for a mystical key. Who could ask for more?
The pleasure of your company is desired for cocktails and conversation. 8pm, 4th September. Warrior's Peak. You are the Key. The lock awaits.
When Malory Price is issued with the above invitation she is naturally suspicious, especially as Warrior's Peak is a local mansion house straight out of a Hollywood horror movie. But with her overdraft at crisis limit and on the verge of losing her job at a local art gallery, she has little to lose by attending the event.
But Malory is about to get more than she bargained for. At Warrior's Peak she finds that she and…
Liveaboard sailor Cass Lynch thinks her big break has finally arrived when she blags her way into skippering a Viking longship for a Hollywood film. However, this means returning to the Shetland Islands, the place she fled as a teenager. When a corpse unexpectedly appears onboard the longship, she can run from the past no longer: Cass and her family come under intense scrutiny from the disturbingly shrewd Detective Inspector Gavin Macrae.
Even if Cass’s local knowledge and sailing wisdom help to clear the Lynch family of suspicion, they may not be enough to stay ahead of the murderer’s game... and avoid becoming the next victim.
Death on a Shetland Longship: The Shetland Sailing Mysteries
When she wangles the job of skippering a Viking longship for a film, Cass Lynch thinks her big break has finally arrived - even though it means returning home to the Shetland Islands, which she ran away from as a teenager. Then the `accidents' begin - and when a dead woman turns up on the boat's deck, Cass realises that she, her family and her past are under suspicion from the disturbingly shrewd Detective Inspector Macrae. Cass must call on all her local knowledge, the wisdom she didn't realise she'd gained from sailing and her glamorous, French opera singer mother…
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