January Brings the Snow -- Susan Price
If that's the view from the front door, I'm staying in. That Storm Goretti was some storm.
Still....
 |
| The Ghost Drum |
In that country the snow falls deep and lies long, lies and freezes until bears can walk on its thick crust of ice. The ice glitters on the snow like white stars in a white sky! In the north of that country all the winter is one long night, and all that long night long, the sky-stars glisten in their darkness, and the snow-stars glitter in their whiteness, and between the two there hangs a shivering curtain of cold twilight.
In winters there, the cold is so fierce the frost can be heard crackling and snapping as it travels through the air. The snow is so deep that the houses are half-buried in it, and the frost so hard that it grips the houses and squeezes them till they crack.
My story begins (says the cat) in this distant Czardom, on Midwinter Day: the shortest, darkest, coldest day, followed by the longest, darkest, coldest night of the whole year. On this day-night, this night-day, a slave-woman gave birth to a baby...
He told me about the deep-frozen snow that could support bears' weight, and the frost crackling and snapping in the air. He told me about the houses half-buried in snow, their timbers cracking as the cold gripped.
He also told me about hearing trees going bang! as their frozen sap expanded and loudly split their bark-- but I couldn't find space for that.
The Ghost Drum has recently been republished by Faber (its original publisher) as a 'Faber Classic' but there are three other books in the 'Ghost World' series, which I self-published after Faber let them go out of print -- and I've kept them in print.
Each book stands alone, though set in the same world.
***
 |
| Ghost Song by Susan Price |
Malyuta, slave and hunter, names his first born son 'Ambrosi' because it means 'Immortal.'
Then comes Kuzma, the bear-shaman, claiming the baby as his apprentice, promising Malyuta riches in return for his son. Throughout a long night, Malyuta refuses. When the bear-shaman leaves, at last, he declares that the baby will bring Malyuta only misery.
Thwarted, Kuzma vents his spite on a family of reindeer herders, cursing them with being 'wolves by darkness.' In the far north, the darkness is six months long. The reindeer people soon long to be released from their curse.
Ambrosi becomes a beautiful, bright little boy, joining his father on hunting trips. Into their tent, lost in the vast Arctic darkness, comes the bear-shaman. He summons Ambrosi to be his apprentice.
Ambrosi says he will join Malyuta when his ageing father dies. But the bear-shaman will not wait. He strikes a bargain with the reindeer people: if they kill Malyuta, he will free them from their curse.
In their wolf-shapes, they set out on the hunt.
Can Ambrosi protect his father and escape the bear-shaman?
***
 |
| Ghost Dance by Susan Price |
In her innocence, she little understands that the Imperial Palace is a place of treachery and murder, ruled by a madman with a mind like 'a broken mirror, reflecting all things crookedly.'
The Czar welcomes Shingebiss, mistaking her for an angel sent to him by God. But none of her spells seem able to blunt his greed and cruelty.
And Shingebiss has a rival at court who hates her - the English wizard, Master Jenkins, who pretends to the Czar that he can summon demons.
Fearing that Shingebiss will unmask him, Master Jenkins plans to be rid of her. He tells the Czar that he can make him an Elixir of Immortality. The most potent ingredient is the blood of an angel.
The Czar orders the elixir made immediately.
Can Shingebiss save the Northlands?
Can she save her own life?
An intense, Gothic fantasy
***
 |
| Ghost Spell by Susan Price |
But night after night, his dreams are stalked by his rescuer, the wolf-witch. She leads him to the Ghost World and makes him a shaman.
The villagers begin to fear him and he grows into a lonely man -- until a young wolf-witch comes from the forest and claims him as her mate.
But Vulchanok longs for more human company and, by firelight, looks for visions in the spinning of an ice-apple. In a distant city he sees a lovely girl as lonely as himself, imprisoned in a small room. Shrugging on his falcon skin, he flies to find her.
When a falcon drums its wings against her window, Kristiana opens it and is astonished when the hawk lights on the floor and turns into a man. She and Vulchanok are soon in love.
But Kristiana's brother forbids her to marry a dirty northern huntsman and Vulchanok's wolf-wife is fiercely jealous.
Can the lovers survive the hatred and jealousy surrounding them?
A Gothic Romance
* * *
Comments