Song of the Huntress
A captivating folkloric fantasy of treachery, loyalty and lost love
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SISTERSONG
'Magic, myth, political intrigue, and a fierce and unique love story . . . I devoured it' – Cassandra Clare, author of Sword Catcher
A must-read for fans of Circe, Song of the Huntress recasts the folklore behind the Wild Hunt into a dark, feminist fantasy set amidst the legends and beauty of ancient Britain.
Britain, 60 AD. Hoping to save her lover and her land from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the Otherworld King. She becomes Lord of the Hunt and for centuries she rides, reaping wanderers’ souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield – a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes.
Queen Æthelburg of Wessex is a proven fighter, but after a battlefield defeat she finds her husband’s court turning against her. Yet King Ine needs Æthel more than ever: the dead kings of Wessex are waking, and Ine must master his bloodline’s ancient magic if they are to survive.
When their paths cross, Herla knows it’s no coincidence. Something dark and dangerous is at work in the Wessex court. As she and Æthel grow closer, Herla must find her humanity – and a way to break the curse – before it’s too late.
'Striking, bold and beautifully written’ – Angela Slatter, author of The Briar Book of the Dead
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Holland (Sistersong) dives into the myth of the Wild Hunt in this powerful and evocative historical fantasy. In 60 CE Britain, the Saxons, led by their king, Ine, and his warrior queen, Æthelburg, spread Christianity across the land, rooting out the remaining pagans, most of whom are Britons. Despite this ongoing conflict, Geraint, the king of Dumnonia and the Britons, reaches out to warn them of a greater supernatural threat. At the same time, Æthel is attacked by an unknown band of riders, an encounter that leaves numerous men, both Saxon and Briton, dead. As more mysterious attacks follow, the pagan legends that the Saxons have dismissed as folklore come to life around Ine and Æthel. Chief among the mythic figures the Saxons must contend with is the immortal Herla, once a pagan peasant who bargained with the dangerous Otherworld in hopes of saving her people. Now she's cursed to ride out once a month with her huntsmen and cut down all in their path. Herla and Æthel form an unlikely alliance and, together, they must stop forces from the Otherworld from taking over Britain, free Herla from her curse, and thwart a more mundane yet no less consequential threat that comes from much closer to home. Lyrical and captivating, with an ending that will leave readers devastated, the narrative hits just the right balance of action, romance, and character development. In Holland's skilled hands, this stands out from the crowded field of legends retold.
