Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge
Jan. 30th, 2011 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
On Gullstruck Island the volcanoes quarrel, beetles sing danger and occasionally a Lost is born ...
In the village of the Hollow Beasts, above the treacherous reefs and azure sea, live two sisters. Arilou is a Lost – a precious child with the power to leave her body and mind-fly with the winds – and Hathin is her helper. Together they hide a dangerous secret. Until sinister events lead to even deadlier lies, and to disaster ...
With a blue-skinned hunter on their trail and a greater enemy behind him, they must escape. Can the fate of two children decide the future of Gullstruck Island?
Discover a dazzling world, a surprising heroine ... and an incredible adventure. For on the island of Gullstruck nothing is exactly as it seems!
Hathin and Arilou are Lace – a tribe viewed with suspicion by Gullstruck Island’s other inhabitants due to a ‘misunderstanding’ with the Cavalcaste settlers who arrived two centuries earlier. When an inspector comes to see if Arilou is a Lost (someone who can send their senses away from their bodies) Hathin must protect the future of her village as no one is certain if her sister is really a Lost or merely an idiot. As Hathin schemes to beat the tests, someone else has a bigger plan in mind and when the inspector is found dead Hathin and Arilou find themselves plunged into a nightmare – a nightmare that threatens the whole island.
As you’d expect from a Frances Hardinge novel, this is a wonderfully imagined world that’s chock filled with cultural, geographical and historical details that bring it to – at times a delightfully absurd – life. I particularly loved the development of the history of the Cavalcaste conquest of the island as resulting from a need to have new spaces to place their dead and the awful consequences that this has had generations down the line. There’s a brilliant glossary at the end, which further expands on the world she’s created. Hardinge weaves elements from many different cultures into her story and its world – including Polynesia, Maori, Aztec and Mayan civilisation and hints at some African cultures – although she is careful to say that the world itself is entirely of her own making.
The plot is intricately constructed – part escape story, part revenge story – and there are many layers to it as Hardinge brings in the wider context. What I really liked about the novel is the way it plays with the concept of a ‘chosen one’. Convention would demand that Arilou – the magically gifted and socially important focus of her village – be the heroine of the story. Instead it’s her sister, the slight and overlooked Hathin who drives events. She is very much the driving force of both their destinies and the key to unravelling the mysteries that they encounter.
There are some terrifying moments – particularly the depiction of mob violence, which is both chilling and vivid in its depiction without being gratuitous – but there are also moments of touching humanity. All in all, this was a clever, enjoyable beautifully imagined book and one that I have no hesitation in recommending to young and old alike.
The Verdict:
A gorgeously imagined children’s fantasy that combines a vividly created world that draws on many different cultures and traditions with a tightly written story of escape and revenge. It’s a long book but it held my attention from start to finish and left me hungry for more.
In the village of the Hollow Beasts, above the treacherous reefs and azure sea, live two sisters. Arilou is a Lost – a precious child with the power to leave her body and mind-fly with the winds – and Hathin is her helper. Together they hide a dangerous secret. Until sinister events lead to even deadlier lies, and to disaster ...
With a blue-skinned hunter on their trail and a greater enemy behind him, they must escape. Can the fate of two children decide the future of Gullstruck Island?
Discover a dazzling world, a surprising heroine ... and an incredible adventure. For on the island of Gullstruck nothing is exactly as it seems!
Hathin and Arilou are Lace – a tribe viewed with suspicion by Gullstruck Island’s other inhabitants due to a ‘misunderstanding’ with the Cavalcaste settlers who arrived two centuries earlier. When an inspector comes to see if Arilou is a Lost (someone who can send their senses away from their bodies) Hathin must protect the future of her village as no one is certain if her sister is really a Lost or merely an idiot. As Hathin schemes to beat the tests, someone else has a bigger plan in mind and when the inspector is found dead Hathin and Arilou find themselves plunged into a nightmare – a nightmare that threatens the whole island.
As you’d expect from a Frances Hardinge novel, this is a wonderfully imagined world that’s chock filled with cultural, geographical and historical details that bring it to – at times a delightfully absurd – life. I particularly loved the development of the history of the Cavalcaste conquest of the island as resulting from a need to have new spaces to place their dead and the awful consequences that this has had generations down the line. There’s a brilliant glossary at the end, which further expands on the world she’s created. Hardinge weaves elements from many different cultures into her story and its world – including Polynesia, Maori, Aztec and Mayan civilisation and hints at some African cultures – although she is careful to say that the world itself is entirely of her own making.
The plot is intricately constructed – part escape story, part revenge story – and there are many layers to it as Hardinge brings in the wider context. What I really liked about the novel is the way it plays with the concept of a ‘chosen one’. Convention would demand that Arilou – the magically gifted and socially important focus of her village – be the heroine of the story. Instead it’s her sister, the slight and overlooked Hathin who drives events. She is very much the driving force of both their destinies and the key to unravelling the mysteries that they encounter.
There are some terrifying moments – particularly the depiction of mob violence, which is both chilling and vivid in its depiction without being gratuitous – but there are also moments of touching humanity. All in all, this was a clever, enjoyable beautifully imagined book and one that I have no hesitation in recommending to young and old alike.
The Verdict:
A gorgeously imagined children’s fantasy that combines a vividly created world that draws on many different cultures and traditions with a tightly written story of escape and revenge. It’s a long book but it held my attention from start to finish and left me hungry for more.
