Foxmask [Paperback]

Juliet Marillier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2005

At his coming of age, Thorvald learns a shocking secret about his parentage, and sets out on a perilous voyage in search of a father he has never known. His loyal friend, Creidhe, was never meant to be part of this desperate journey. But love works in strange ways. In the Lost Isles they find a population gripped by terror. The Unspoken sing away the souls of the newborn and the chieftain of the isles answers to nobody. Creidhe and Thorvald become enmeshed in a battle for survival, in which they find themselves on opposing sides. For the future of the islands depends on a visionary child: the powerful seer Foxmask. Snatched away in infancy by a young kinsman, the boy is held in a place protected by ancient forces of nature. Before the summer is over, Thorvald and Creidhe will learn truths about themselves and about the world that will change them both forever. Praise for "Wolfskin": 'An engrossing and enjoyable tale' - "Starburst". 'A powerful narrative...a truly rewarding experience'. - "SFX".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this captivating historical fantasy, the sequel to Wolfskin (2003), Australian author Marillier sweeps the reader to Dark Age Britain's northernmost islands, where life is hard and opportunistic raiders have forced change on the peace-loving, magic-believing inhabitants. When 18-year-old Thorvald reads a letter from his unknown true father, Somerled, his world collapses. Somerled was exiled forever after slaying his chieftain brother, Ulf. Fearing that he may be subject to the same curse that afflicted his father ("I'm the son of some evil madman, a crazed killer"), Thorvald decides to search for the disgraced Somerled. He persuades his friend Sam the fisherman to transport him by boat to the island where he believes his father to be. Unbeknownst to both Sam and Thorvald, a young woman, Creidhe, stows away on the boat. Creidhe becomes a key player in the stirring events that unfold when they reach the Northern Isles. Though this artful mix of myth and magic starts out a bit slowly, the pace picks up nicely in the novel's second third and barrels onward to a rousing finish.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The daughter of her people's leaders, 16-year-old Creidhe is beautiful, highly skilled in midwifery and the domestic arts, completely qualified to be the perfect wife. Unfortunately, though she has loved moody Thorvald since childhood, his name isn't among those her parents suggest as suitors. And then Thorvald discovers that his father is the infamous, brutal king, Somerled. Feeling cursed to become a tyrant himself, Thorvald embarks for the distant islands in which Somerled may have resided. Creidhe stows away in his boat, which is swept off-course to the Long Knife people, childless warriors haunted by the Unspoken, possessors of powerful magic who suck the life out of newborns. Years ago the Long Knife stole priest and seer Foxmask, who anchored Unspoken society, and, until Foxmask is returned, must pay with their infants' lives. Kept from recommencing the journey with Thorvald, Creidhe slowly realizes that the Long Knife intend to give her to the Unspoken for a horrific mating ritual and to bear a new Foxmask. Crucial elements of the story then come sharply into focus: the tenuous peace between two opposing peoples in Creidhe's homeland; her friendship with a Thorvald fixated on finding his father and emerging as leader of the Long Knife; and the compelling inner call Creidhe feels to go to a deserted island whereon lie danger and destiny. Another great story full of well-developed characters from this fine fantasist. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan (March 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330411845
• ISBN-13: 978-0330411844
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #897,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a beautiful story..., September 19, 2004

By 

Kseniya Slavsky (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Foxmask: Children of the Light Isles, Book Two (Hardcover)

I loved the first two volumes of the Sevenwaters series. I loved Wolfskin. Of Foxmask, I have the same opinion as I did of Child of the Prophesy - very readable, with well-portrayed characters and a good plot... but it could have been pulled together better.

One mildly disappointing surprise was the slip in the author's treatment of dialogue. I've never known her approach to be less than crisp and poignantly effective. In Foxmask, however, there were instances when a group of exhausted, dirty warriors - good folk, but simple - would be sitting around a fire. Suddenly, one would rise and pronounce a speech fit for podiums and marble halls. Declarations of love, too, seemed somewhat over-dramatized - which shadowed the fact that those scenes really were dramatic and un-trivial. Some of the more significant emotional moments seemed a tad rushed, while some of the inconsequential ones ran a little loose and lengthy.

Nonetheless, the story is still the magical, intriguing, and utterly human tale we have come to expect from this fine writer. It is steeped in history and legend. If our world's mythology had not actually held some of these tales, it very easily could have. Nothing here feels foreign or forbidding.

For those who liked Wolfskin, I will say that the story of Eyvind and Somerled is, indeed, continued and concluded to perfect satisfaction. However, the main focus is on Eyvind's and Nessa's daughter, Creidhe, who follows Margaret's son across the sea, to the Lost Isles, where Somerled might, or might not, have ended his journey. There is quite a complicated web, here, of friendship, abandonment, mislaid trust, dangerous assumptions, ambition, and love. It is impossible to predict, from the first, the pattern of the story. Like life, it takes wholly un-looked-for twists. Because of that, the books is quite difficult to put down until you've turned the last page. I do recommend it, highly.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fresh medieval Nordic world tale, August 3, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Foxmask: Children of the Light Isles, Book Two (Hardcover)

At the top of the world, Norseman Eyvind met and married local Celtic seer Princess Nessa, but the couple and their loyal followers had to struggle to survive the betrayal of his best friend Somerled (see WOLFSKIN). Several years have passed since Somerled was exiled.

Widow Margaret raised her son Thorvald. He learns that his biological father was not his mother's deceased husband, but instead is the traitor Somerled. Needing to learn more about his patriarchal heritage, Thorvald goes on a quest to find his sire while wondering if he might be a murderous chip off the old block.

Sam the fisherman takes him to look for his father, but at sea both are shocked to find a stowaway, the daughter of Eyvind and Nessa, Creidhe, who loves Thorvald. When they are shipwrecked on an island beyond the known world, Asgrim, leader of the Seal People, provides hospitality to the trio. The tribe has terrible troubles as a malevolent force is killing their newborns. Everyone feels Asgrim's son caused the curse when he kidnapped the prophet the Foxmask. Believing that Asgrim is Somerled, Thorvald joins their cause not knowing what the islanders plan to do to Creidhe.

This sequel starts fast with the sea voyage, decelerates to introduce several subplots on the island of the Seal People, but then picks up speed when the various storylines converge. Thorvald is an intriguing soul struggling to find his identity. Creidhe is his key causing Thorvald to choose between his father and the young woman he loves. By moving to another locale, introducing a new tribe and the next generation, Juliet Marillier furbishes a fresh tale in her medieval Nordic world.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (4.5 stars) In terms of the story it's great-but not my favorite of her books, September 26, 2006

By 

Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Foxmask: Children of the Light Isles, Book Two (Hardcover)

"Foxmask" is the last of the duology that Juliet Marillier wrote concerning the mixing of the roaming Saxon warriors and a race of island people known only as the folk. The first book "Wolfskin" was about a warrior named Eyvind who found out that telling the truth and being faithful to the ideal of truth was more important than blind faith in those you trusted. In that book Eyvind ended up with a young priestess of the folk named Nessa, and in the end cast out his blood brother Somerled, who had turned the islands into a blood bath of war between the two races, to the sea to meet his fate.

But Somerled left something behind-a child growing in the belly of his brother's widow, who had loved him, but had known that he was selfish and somewhat evil. This child grew up to be called Thorvald. Around his 18th birthday his mother gives him a letter Somerled wrote to her upon his exile to the seas, and Thorvald, feeling cursed by the horrible acts his father committed, heads out on a boat to find him, thinking he may have found far off islands to live on.

But with him on the boat sneaks Creidhe, Eyvind and Nessa's daughter who has loved Thorvald forever, though she knows he isn't perfect. The two, along with Sam (who owns the boat) land upon strange islands, which are devoid of children, and all the men take place in a yearly hunt to find a child who is the only salvation they could ever have from the forces ruining their lives. But this child id protected by a valiant keeper. Thorvald thinks his father is the ruthless leader of the island people, but he can't be sure, and while he works to impress the man who may be his sire Creidhe is about to find out exactly what is the truth in the strange world she stumbled into...

This isn't my favorite of Marillier's books, but in terms of technical storytelling it may be her best work yet. The writing is haunting, the suspense is well played out, and the ending is something you would never see coming. I enjoyed this, and it made me want to read more of the author's works.

Four point five stars.