Flint and Mirror
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A spellbinding blend of history and magic from award-winning author John Crowley, hailed as "generous, obsessed, fascinating, gripping" by Peter Straub.
In Flint and Mirror, ancient Irish clans fight to preserve their lands and way of life as the Queen and her generals strive to tame the wild land and make it English. Hugh O'Neill, lord of the North and newly dubbed Earl of Tyrone by the Queen, finds himself a divided man. The Queen bestows upon Hugh her love and commandments through an obsidian mirror he can never discard, while the ancient peoples of Ireland rise from their underworld to make Hugh their champion, sealing their vow with a chip of flint.
From the masterful author of Little, Big comes an exquisite historical fantasy of heartbreaking proportions. Flint and Mirror weaves a rich tapestry of alternative history, magical realism, and political intrigue set against the backdrop of the Tudor era British Isles. Crowley's imaginative storytelling and vivid worldbuilding transport readers to a realm where the line between reality and magic blurs, and the fate of nations hangs in the balance.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Crowley (the Aegypt tetralogy) triumphs with this beautiful, subtle fantasy, set in a 17th-century Ireland subject to both the desires of Queen Elizabeth and a host of magical forces. Crowley introduces his protagonist, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, as an adult in Rome, where he lives in fear despite residing in apartments provided by the pope himself; his past actions mean that he must sleep with a sword within arm's reach because "on any night he might be murdered by agents of one or another of the powers he had striven with, or betrayed, or failed." Having hooked his audience, Crowley flashes back to previous chapters in O'Neill's life, starting with his childhood, to explain how he came to be at odds with both the English and Spanish Crowns, and his own Irish clan. Rich, evocative prose ("The ship she had watched could still be seen, dis-masted now and smashed in the rocks like unswallowed fragments in a mastiff's mouth"), one of Crowley's hallmarks, elevate this above similar works. Fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will be mesmerized.
