LoveReading4Kids Says
August 2014 Book of the Month
The third adventure for Hylas, now landed on the plague ridden island of Keftiu which is also gripped by the coldest winter ever known and covered in ash from the eruption of the enormous volcano. Hylas’s reception is far from welcoming and his hope of finding his companion Pirra and the lion cub Havoc looks hopeless.
While Hylas fears the worst about his former companions, Havoc is also searching for the human company he so badly needs. Michelle Paver brings the devastated world of the past vividly to life and is especially good at seeing events from an animal’s point of view.
Reviewed by Julia Eccleshare M.B.EJulia Eccleshare has a lifetime of working within children’s books as a critic, an editor, an author and a commentator.
More reviews by Julia Eccleshare M.B.E About The Eye of the Falcon
Winter has been colder than anyone can remember, and there is no spring. The eruption of Thalakrea has shrouded the sky in ash, and blotted out the Sun. Fate brings Hylas to the island of Keftiu. He is desperate to find his friends: Pirra, the daughter of the High Priestess, and Havoc the lion cub. But Keftiu has suffered more than anywhere from the fury of the gods, and the once-prosperous island has been ravaged by cold, famine and plague.
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The Eye of the Falcon Synopsis
Winter has been colder than anyone can remember, and there is no spring. The eruption of Thalakrea has shrouded the sky in ash, and blotted out the Sun. Fate brings Hylas to the island of Keftiu. He is desperate to find his friends: Pirra, the daughter of the High Priestess, and Havoc the lion cub. But Keftiu has suffered more than anywhere from the fury of the gods, and the once-prosperous island has been ravaged by cold, famine and plague.
As Hylas sets off alone to seek his friends, he is tormented by the fear that Pirra and Havoc may not have survived the winter...
The Gods and Warriors series
The Outsiders
The Burning Shadow
The Eye of the Falcon
You can download a letter from Michelle Paver to her readers here which tells more about the time the book is set and how she used her research to bring the Gods and Warriors series to life.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780141339313 |
| Publication date: |
7th August 2014 |
| Author: |
Michelle Paver |
| Publisher: |
Puffin Books an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
309 pages |
| Series: |
Gods and Warriors |
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About Michelle Paver
Born in Malawi in 1960 to a Belgian mother and a father who ran the tiny 'NYASALAND TIMES', Michelle Paver moved to the UK when she was three. She was brought up in Wimbledon and, following a Biochemistry Degree from Oxford, she became a partner in a big City law firm. She gave up the City to follow her long-held dream of becoming a writer. She is the author of the brilliantly successful children's series, THE CHRONICLES OF ANCIENT DARKNESS, the final book of which won the 2010 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.
An Interview with Michelle Paver
What’s the first book you remember reading?
The first book I remember looking at was a big illustrated book about Stone Age people, although at the time I was too young to read the captions. Two of the first books I actually read were Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, and a terrifically exciting adventure about a horse, called The Sagebrush Sorrel. I’ve still got all three books.
What’s the greatest influence on your writing?
Concerning literary influences, I’d name two principal ones: J.R.R. Tolkien, who inspired a lifelong love of myth and Anglo-Saxon and Norse literature, and who also deepened my appreciation for trees and forests; and Anthony Trollope, whose page-turning novels taught me much about storytelling.
Concerning non-literary influences, I’d have to name my parents, who ensured that I grew up surrounded by books (despite not having much money at the time), and who always encouraged me to follow my interests and take risks, while somehow managing to instill a bit of commonsense about how far to go!
Typewriter, Word Processor, or pen?
I scribble the first version of each chapter on a pad with a rollerball pen, but it’s such a scrawl that I can only read it while it’s still fresh in my mind, so I try to type it onto the wordprocessor on the same day. Then I go over it a few times on the computer before moving on to the next chapter, and so on.
Name your favourite literary hero and villain
They change from time to time, but here are the ones that have lasted. For heroes, it’s Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings and Hector from The Iliad. For villains, it’s Dracula (the Bram Stoker one, of course), and Stavrogin from The Devils.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Nyasaland (now Malawi), but came to England when I was small, and lived in Essex till I was eight, when we moved to Wimbledon. Apart from a couple of years in central London, I’ve lived there ever since.
Did you enjoy school? What is your most vivid memory of your school years?
In the main I did, but my most vivid memory concerns my one bad year. When I was about eleven, a new girl joined the class and took such a dislike to me that she got everyone else to gang up against me. It doesn’t sound too bad, but it was miserable and very lonely to go through. My mother told me to ignore the lot of them, which I did – and after a pretty rough year, the ringleader left, and things drifted back to normal. But I’ve never forgotten it. And it probably helped make me a writer, because for that year, I retreated into my imagination.
What were the first pieces of writing that you produced?
I wrote my first stories on my mother’s typewriter when I was five. I’ve still got some of them. One was about a rabbit called Hamish and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Another, Ebany the Mouse Goddess, concerned a tribe of mice who burrowed to safety beneath an oncoming glacier. At school I wrote several plays, including one about the murder of Tutankhamun, and another about a family of cavemen.
What jobs did you have before you started writing?
I worked as a solicitor in the City for thirteen years: lots of all-nighters and weekends in the office. The challenge made it fun for a while, but that soon palled. I don’t miss it at all.
If your house was burning down what would you save?
Nothing. I’d just try to get out alive. (And lest anyone think me callous, I should add that I don’t have any pets!)
Click here to read more about Michelle Paver and The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness:
And you can keep in touch with Michelle through Michelle LIVE! – her monthly show on YouTube. You can send her a question in advance, or post a comment on Twitter, YouTube or Instagram live during the show itself!
More About Michelle Paver
