This is the Ultimate Fantasy: a quest of epic reach spanning the globe under the mythologies of five great cultures - and finally crossing the barrier between life and death. Jack Churchill, archaeologist and dreamer, walks out of the mist and into Celtic Britain more than two thousand years before he was born, with no knowledge of how he got there. All Jack wants is to get home to his own time where the woman he loves waits for him. Finding his way to the timeless mystical Otherworld, the home of the gods, he plans to while away the days, the years, the millennia, until his own era rolls around again ...but nothing is ever that simple. A great Evil waits in modern times and will do all in its power to stop Jack's return. In a universe where time and space are meaningless, its tendrils stetch back through the years ...Through Roman times, the Elizabethan age, Victoria's reign, the Second World War to the Swinging Sixties, the Evil sets its traps to destroy Jack. Mark Chadbourn gives us a high adventure of dazzling sword fights, passionate romance and apocalyptic wars in the days leading up to Ragnarok, the End-Times: a breathtaking, surreal vision of twisting realities where nothing is quite what it seems.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Chadbourn has achieved significant depth and emotional engagement and that can't be a bad thing. Mark Chadbourn always plays for high stakes in his novels and this latest offering is no different." -- Sandy Auden SFX "The first book in the remix of Mark Chadbourn's work offers a more gritty take on a war between good, evil and indifference. Think the spirit of V for Vendetta mixed with Neal Stephenson's historicism and infused by the spirit of Shakespeare's Puck: a featured character certain to invigorate future books." EDGE
About the Author
Mark Chadbourn was raised in the mining communities of South Derbyshire. He studied Economic History at Leeds before becoming a national newspaper journalist. He is the award-winning author of several novels, including The Age of Misrule and The Dark Age trilogies.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
A two-time winner of the prestigious British Fantasy Award, Mark has published his epic, imaginative novels in many countries around the world. He grew up in the mining community of the English Midlands, and was the first person in his family to go to university. After studying Economic History at Leeds, he became a successful journalist, writing for several of the UK's renowned national newspapers as well as contributing to magazines and TV.
When his first short story won Fear magazine's Best New Author award, he was snapped up by an agent and subsequently published his first novel, Underground, a supernatural thriller set in the coalfields of his youth. Quitting journalism to become a full-time author, he has written stories which have transcended genre boundaries, but is perhaps best known in the fantasy field.
Mark has also forged a parallel career as a screenwriter with many hours of produced work for British television. He is a senior writer for BBC Drama, and is also developing new shows for the UK and US.
An expert on British folklore and mythology, he has held several varied and colourful jobs, including independent record company boss, band manager, production line worker, engineer's 'mate', and media consultant.
Having travelled extensively around the world, he has now settled in a rambling house in the middle of a forest not far from where he was born.
When his first short story won Fear magazine's Best New Author award, he was snapped up by an agent and subsequently published his first novel, Underground, a supernatural thriller set in the coalfields of his youth. Quitting journalism to become a full-time author, he has written stories which have transcended genre boundaries, but is perhaps best known in the fantasy field.
Mark has also forged a parallel career as a screenwriter with many hours of produced work for British television. He is a senior writer for BBC Drama, and is also developing new shows for the UK and US.
An expert on British folklore and mythology, he has held several varied and colourful jobs, including independent record company boss, band manager, production line worker, engineer's 'mate', and media consultant.
Having travelled extensively around the world, he has now settled in a rambling house in the middle of a forest not far from where he was born.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Super Reader,
By Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Jack of Ravens (Kingdom of the Serpent 1) (Hardcover)
Not just trilogies.
When you start this book, you will see that Chadbourn actually has a series thing going, that presumably is being marketed as trilogies as that is what the garden variety fantasy reader wants and what sells. The first two perhaps logically break at the start, but the end of the last book is definitely a cliffhanger leading into this one. This is nothing like your standard walk walk walk walk chop stuff cast fireball run away type epic fantasy, either, being largely urban. In fact, a lot of this novel is more reminiscent of Poul Anderson's time police type stories, if you added in Sidhe gods, and celtic magic powered superheroes like the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, of course. Church is plunged back in time, and is instrumental in grouping the very first band of Brothers and Sisters, something which is corrupted later. Veitch is still running around, basically leading the supervillain black Brothers and Sisters version. A very bad lot called the Army of Ten Billion Spiders is out to get rid of existence, enslaving everything from Roman Legions to Greek, Roman and Celtic gods to do so. One serious flaw in their plan is currently they can't just bump off Church and company, they need Veitch and his black 5 to do so. A time odyssey from then on, as Church goes from his original trip, to Rome, to Elizabethan England (teaming up with a super spy that I think Chadbourn has writtten a short story about, Will Swyfe), to Vietnam, the Summer of Love, and more. The other usual suspects are around, and the Spider types are trying to keep Ruth, Laura, Shavi, Caitlin, Mallory, Hunter, etc. under wraps to keep the pressure on Church. The series has hence evolved from creeping horror to a political tour, if you like, which may interest some people more than the elf gods and dragons batles of the middle books. Jack Churchill, which all this time travel of course gets all archetypal to an even greater degree than his initials and running around with Excalibur type swords had made him before. 3.5 out of 5
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jack is back!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Jack of Ravens (Kingdom of the Serpent 1) (Paperback)
If you have read the other two trilogies in this series then you will be happy to see that Jack Churchhill is back and his past will help construct his future--and he will do it himself. If you like thinking about the past and future then please read all three series by Mark Chadbourn.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
