English / New Zealand
Mortal fire
Knox, Elizabeth
(text)
Wellington: Gecko Press, 2013. – 434 p.
ISBN 978-1-877579-53-0
Island | Magic | Search for identity | Love | Stepbrother | Fantasy
Reading age: 14+
White Ravens issue: 2014
Renowned New Zealand author Elizabeth Knox writes both adult and teenage fiction. Her latest work for young readers is set in the same parallel world as her two popular “Dreamhunter” books, namely a Pacific island called Southland, albeit half a century later, in 1959. Canny, a mathematically gifted but socially awkward sixteen-year-old, is forced to spend her school holidays in a remote Southland valley, helping her older stepbrother and his girlfriend with their university research. She soon notices that the Zarene family members, the valley’s only inhabitants, do not only use a form of magic alphabet to perform spells but they also have some sinister secret to hide. Against all kinds of (magically enforced) resistance, Canny gains entrance to a hidden house and discovers a connection to her own mysterious past. In this gripping fantasy novel, the author weaves a cast of complex characters and various, seemingly unrelated events into a satisfying whole.