Ysolda loves her home in the Glaw Wood; alongside her older sister, Hari, and pet sea hawk, Nara, she feels safe and loved. Their village is small, close-knit and just a little magical. Many of the inhabitants have magical powers firmly connected to the natural world around them; some can sense when water is nearby, others have an instinctive knowledge of forest foraging. But it’s Hari who has the most prized power – for she knows and understands the language of trees.
Beyond the Glaw Wood though, danger creeps ever closer. The Wolf Queen is on a power-hungry quest and will destroy all who stand in her way. When the evil queen has Hari kidnapped, Ysolda determines to save her beloved older sister.
The first in a new fantasy series, this is a middle grade novel rich in Millwood Hargrave’s exquisite, atmospheric style. The world building is rich, as the reader is carried through ship-carcass built castles and eerily silent, boggy woods. In one chapter you feel you are hiking through the forest alongside Ysolda, in another rotting, salty sea air wafts from the page.
Though it reads like a classic children’s fantasy adventure, this is a novel rooted firmly in the modern day. Strong well-rounded female characters abound, both protagonists and antagonists. Respect for nature, and the implications of what might happen when respect is not shown, is a big part of Ysolda’s story. The human desire for power has ravaged the landscape, and now nature replies with earthquakes, freak storms, eerie red skies and poisoned waters. There is a message for us all here.
Award winning Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s epic new trilogy launches with this gripping first volume. As ever, Millwood Hargrave has created a richly imagined new world as the setting for her pacy adventure. The power of nature and the power of love fuel this beautifully written story as Ysolda, the younger of a pair of orphaned sisters, sets out from the deep shades of her forest home with her loyal and wise sea hawk for company on a dangerous mission to find her sister after she is snatched away by the forces of the evil wolf queen. Ysolda can read the signs of nature easily but now she must learn to understand the different qualities of the new people around her. Who can she trust in the dangerous situations in which she finds herself?
The start of an epic new fantasy trilogy from bestselling, award-winning author Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
The earth is stirring . . . Ysolda has lived her life in the shadow of the wolf queen's tyrannical rule but, safe in her forest haven, she has never truly felt its threat. Until one day when a mysterious earthquake shakes the land and her older sister Hari vanishes in its wake.
Accompanied by her loyal sea hawk, Nara, Ysolda embarks on a desperate rescue mission. But when she is forced to strike a bargain with the wolf queen herself, she soon finds herself embroiled in a quest for a magic more powerful - and more dangerous - than she could ever have imagined ...
'The kind of fantasy adventure I have always loved: evocative and imaginative and destined to be a classic' - Garth Nix
'A stunning adventure story - masterly storytelling from Kiran Millwood Hargrave' - Cressida Cowell
'Fierce, lyrical and compulsively readable; an earth-shattering fantasy' - Piers Torday
'The Wolf Queen herself is majestically ambiguous, sometimes magnetic and inspiring, sometimes chilling. And every adventure is better with giant sea wolves' - Frances Hardinge
A truly epic fantasy adventure, full of wild magic, fierce bravery and the incredible power of love. I was utterly swept away by this masterpiece! - Catherine Doyle
'Kiran Millwood Hargrave has crafted a wholly original world full of wild magic and thrilling adventure. The story sings and soars with her gorgeous, lyrical prose. This is a book to treasure' - Katie Tsang
'Lyrical and engrossing from the first line' - Lizzie Huxley-Jones
'A stunning start to a dazzling trilogy' - Jasbinder Bilan
'An epic adventure rooted in elemental magic of the natural world' - The Bookseller
'First in a very special trilogy' - The Bookseller
Author
About Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Kiran Millwood Hargrave is an award-winning poet, playwright, and bestselling author. Her debut The Girl of Ink & Stars won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017 and the British Book Award's Children's Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Jhalak Prize, the Branford Boase Award and the Little Rebels Prize.
Her second novel The Island at the End of Everything was released in April 2017, and was shortlisted for both the Costa Book Award and Blue Peter Children’s Book Award. Her fourth poetry collection OE, a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice in collaboration with the artist Tom de Freston, was published by Bloomsbury in October 2017.
Kiran lives by the river in Oxford with her husband, Tom, and their cat, Luna.
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