Fantasy Fiction, Other Fantasy Fiction Categories, Religion & Beliefs - Fiction, Phases of Life - Fiction
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Overview
When he brought Maggie Christensen and fencing buddy, Ian Silverstein, home to Hardwood, N.D., for spring break, Torrie Thorsen anticipated nothing more than a carefree vacation, He never expected that werewolves would drag his mother and his girlfriend screaming from the house in the dead of night - or that he and his father, Thorian, would end up joining them as hostages on a secret trail into an inconceivable world. For the Thorsen destiny lies where the family's history began - in a place of legend called Tir Na Nog, where Thor thundered and Odin still walks. It is here where the blade of Thorian del Thorian once loyally served the House of the Sky - until the able swordsman transgressed...and was forced to flee through the Hidden Ways to seek refuge in Earth. Prisoners of the House of Flame in the city of Falias - pawns in a treacherous intrigue that threatens to bring war to the Middle Dominion - there is no turning back now for the two Thorians, father and son. But an unlikely champion approaches from the reality they have abandoned - a displaced young hero who travels in the company of Gods. For it is Ian Silverstein who must raise his sword to save his captive friends - and prevent the fiery coming of Ragnarok, the End of All Days.A student's carefree college vacation is suddenly filled with werewolves, Norse gods and inconceivable worlds as his family's destiny leads him to a place of legend and peril. Soon he and his father both suffer from ancient transgressions as a mystical civilization threatens their existence.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Rosenberg is best known for his popular Guardians of the Flame series, which postulated a crossover between our universe and a dungeons-and-dragons-style world. Here, he creates a new crossover world, this one based on a rambling version of watered-down Norse mythology. Torrie Thorsen, Ian Silverstein and Maryanne (Maggie) Christensen are college buddies and expert fencers who go vacationing together at the Thorsen residence in North Dakota. A wolf hunt draws Torrie, Ian and the rest of the menfolk away from the house, allowing Maggie and Torrie's mother to be kidnapped by agents of the Fire Duke. To rescue them, Ian must join forces with Torrie's Uncle Hosea, a mysterious and powerful being who helps the young man channel his latent anger at his abusive father into a positive and deadly force. This paean to masculinity, swordsmanship and the Norse way is often hard to take seriously-as when Torrie cheerfully notes that he was more frightened the first time he tried to slip his hand into a girl's bra than he is facing the deadly Fire Duke. Still, armchair Errol Flynns and latter-day Vikings will probably enjoy all the exuberant, if boyish, derring-do. (May)Roland Green
Rosenberg inaugurates a new and highly promising fantasy series, Keepers of the Hidden Ways. While visiting at a friend's family's farm in the Dakotas, a young fencer discovers that the father is a refugee from Faerie, that the family handyman is something on the order of a Norse god, and that the folk of Faerie (both good and evil) maintains interest in the family. What follows is an excellent and intelligent fantasy adventure in which both a small Great Plains community and the world of Norse mythology (given a few original and witty twists) are used to good effect. In evidence are the wit, scholarship, brisk pacing, good if sometimes wordy characterization, and appreciation of good food that have become hallmarks of Rosenberg's work and bode well for the rest of the series.Book Details
Published
April 30, 1996
Publisher
Avon Books
Pages
354
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780380722075