The Summer Country [Paperback]

James A. Hetley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

Maureen Pierce has led a fairly ordinary life, maybe a slightly tough one for a woman her age, growing up on the wrong side of the poverty line in Naskeag Falls, Maine. But everything changes when she meets Brian Albion. If she can believe him, she carries a blood legacy that goes back to the old country. Only this is the really old country, the land of Mordred and Merlin, where deadly battles are still fought with magic, and a woman who carries the blood of the Old Ones is a prize to be desired-or a threat to be destroyed.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Stuck in a dead-end convenience store job, young Maureen Pierce has no hope of a better life. She is crazy: she hears voices and sees visions no one else does, and she may not live past shift's end. Walking home alone through the wintry midnight, Maureen is attacked by a stranger. Her gun misfires. Then a second man appears, attacking her attacker--and Maureen must be going crazy again. For the newcomer looks sometimes like a modern man, and sometimes like a knight in shining mail--and he claims that both he and Maureen have the Old Blood of the Summer Country in their veins...

Readers weary of fantasy novels that reuse the same old faerie stereotypes will be happily surprised by James A. Hetley's strong, gritty debut novel The Summer Country. Hetley boldly reimagines the Celtic otherworld for modern times, and he doesn't forget the dark danger at the heart of the myth. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Celtic myth is run through the mill of cynical realism and ultra-violence in Hetley's harsh fantasy novel debut. Handsome stranger Brian Albion comes to the rescue when a rapist attacks emotionally troubled Maureen Pierce, a night clerk in a Naskeag Falls, Maine, convenience store. After the bad guy spontaneously combusts, Brian explains that her attacker as well as Maureen herself are "Old Ones," supernatural creatures out of Irish mythology. Through the book's first half, Brian and Maureen battle more evil Old Ones seeking to capture them for breeding purposes, while attempting to work out "issues" brought up by all these shenanigans. Along the way they drag in Maureen's sexually voracious sister, Jo, and Jo's boyfriend, David. Eventually, this group carries their problems into "the Summer Country," the Old Ones' alternate-universe home, which is "two steps away from you, in any direction." Hetley ruins his efforts to make this region believable by lacing it with intrusions from the modern world, including plenty of foul language and brand names. Computers and genetics experiments brush shoulders with dragons and curses, and with one world as pointlessly violent as the other, there's no good reason to have two. Readers used to gentler Celtic fantasy, e.g. Fiona MacLeod, are in for a rude surprise. "Frigging magic," indeed. )
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ace Trade (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441009727
• ISBN-13: 978-0441009725
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,467,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous Blending of Fantasy and Real World, October 30, 2002

By 

C Sherwin (Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Summer Country (Paperback)

Jim Hetley does a marvelous job of blending modern day Maine to his Celtic Fantasy universe "Summer Country."

Hetley starts the book having us follow Maureen who seems quite paranoid; it turns out that she has reason to be! Shining knight Brian comes to her rescue and vanquishes her foe...oh, wait...he isn't a knight. Maureen lets him walk her home, where she dumps him upon finding her "boyfriend" in bed with her sister Jo.

Hetley's characterization is phenominal and true to life. His settings are detailed, but not intrusive.

If you like extraordinary fantasy, dragons, magic and a good read, you will like this book. I did. I've already read it twice!

Candy

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkly Different Read!, December 23, 2004

By 

P. Roeder "Somewhat eccentric bibliophile" (Kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Summer Country (Paperback)

Maureen Pierce, a 30 year old stuck in a dead end job, is going crazy. Talking to trees, petrified of all men, and hearing voices that no one else hears, her sister Jo is fed up. With a new man in her life, Jo doesn't need the baggage her sister presents and threatens to kick her out of the house...that is, until a tall, blonde stranger walked into Maureen's life.

Brian Arthur Pendragon Albion is a Templar, of a race of Ancient Ones from a magical land three steps away in any direction. The Summer Country is a place where talented witches shape the land, and everything is only as good or bad as you make it. Brian scents the power in Maureen's blood, and that one smell tells him that she is also an Ancient One, separated from her true home.

Through the work of a ruthless dark witch, Brian, Maureen, Jo, and Jo's fiancé all end up in the Summer Country. Maureen captured by a warlord, Brian serving as a pleasure slave, and Jo and her fiancé trapped as blood sacrifices to the land. Does Maureen have the power she needs to escaper her prison and save the others?

With this novel, James A. Hetley has woven a mystical Celtic world that is as dark as it is beautiful. Unlike most Celtic novels on the shelf today, he doesn't shy away from the blacker side of Celtic myths, and that is what makes the book so unique and wonderful. The characters are engaging and the dialogue true to life, the villains wonderfully crafted and the world richly described. This book is a fabulous debut from a new writer, and I hope Hetley continues in this same vein for future books.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW! So good I'll have to buy my own copy now!, August 24, 2003

By 

Mary Chrapliwy (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Summer Country (Paperback)

I borrowed this book from my local library. It's so good that I know I'll want to read it again someday!

This is story of a quartet of characters drawn into amazing circumstances - Maureen, Jo, Brian, & David. The main character is Maureen. She remembers stories told to her of the old country, the summer country, told by her departed grandfather. She assumes those are stories of Ireland. Maureen also talks to trees and sometimes hears things and sees things that no one else hears or sees. Maureen believes she is insane. She lives with her sister Jo who also believes her sister is insane. By some unspoken agreement with her highly dysfunctional family, Jo keeps watch over her sister.

In the beginning of the book Maureen is stalked by a large man on her way home from work. He corners her in an alley and as he approaches is hacked to bits by Brian. Though dressed in ordinary clothes, he is actually a Pendragon - a knight who protects human's from the "old ones." Maureen believes Brian must also be insane until she sees her would-be attacker consumed by blue flames and disappear. Initially she believes in him, then later does not trust him, blaming her suspicions of her own insanity for creating the deadly scene. Her sister Jo and boyfriend Brian are lovers who live under the same roof with Maureen. Their relationship irritates Maureen. She believes Jo stole David from her.

As the story progresses Maureen is drawn into the summer country by one of the "old ones" by magic. The summer country, once a wonderful placed, is twisted and full of hate and fear, and terrible violence. Jo sees her sister disappear before her eyes. She stands still and closes her eyes and wills herself to find her sister. Both Maureen and Jo are of faery blood, but don't know it. Jo opens her eyes and finds herself in the summer country in the middle of an enchanted, dangerous forest. Brian and David discover that both women have disappeared into the summer country and go there after them.

What follows is not a sweet faery tale. It's a fearsome faery land filled with terrors beyond belief and dangers that stretch the bonds of love. To tell more would ruin the story.

This book is so well written that the characters seem real to the reader and you actually learn to care what happens to them. Scenes are so well crafted that you can picture everything. As you close the last page of the book and the story ends you feel like you are saying goodbye to an old friend. Not many books can evoke that feeling. I sincerely hope the author comes out with another book. I would stand in line to buy one. I'll be buying this one for my own shelf as it is one of the most engrossing, wondrous stories I have every read!