Snow - Walker by Catherine Fisher

He did not move or say anything, but the witch slowly bent before him like a candle too close to heat. Her eyes widened; she staggered to the table and clutched it, one hand gripping the edge, her knuckles white.
"This is pain," he said quietly, coming up behind her. "This is how it feels. And these are nightmares- see them? This is silence. This is fear."

Everyone knows who should be the Jarl, according to the line of succession, but before he can become Jarl, the Snow-Walker came. She came with a man who wished to be Jarl, and who had come and asked her to help. Before long, the evil magic of the Snow-Walker, named Gudrun, begins to work. The old Jarl dies, nothing to show what killed him except a white handprint on his throat. Soon the people are terrified. Whoever stands up to Gudrun pays. With his life. Needless to say the people bow to her, and her husband. It seems as if she is all powerful, and that she will rule forever, but she has one weakness. Her son, Kari.

She had sent him away, banished him, to a place called Thrasirshall, an abandoned fortess far north from the Jarlshold, where she thought he would either die, or leave her in peace. No one knows why she banished him, the only clue is that the Midwife screamed when she delivered the baby. No one has layed eyes on him for many years, but that is about to change.

Her name is Jessa, and her and her cousin Thorkil are banished to Thrasirshall, because their fathers stood up the Gudrun. They are the first two to learn the secret. What will they find? A monster? A way to stop Gudrun? Or both?
Jessa was chewing the ends of her hair. She thought how sudden everything was. "But there's nowhere we can go where she can't see us."
"Or where I can't see her." Kari sat on the chair by the window, his knees huddled up.
"She'll hunt us, yes, like a wolf, sly and sudden, but I'll know. She and I are the same." He glanced up at Brochael, a bleak, swift look. "And we have to choice, do we?"
"None at all," Brochael murmured.


This book, at least the copy I read, was actually a collection of the three books about the Snow-Walker, and her son. If you are unable to find it all together, here are the names of the individual books. The Snow-Walker's Son, The Empty Hand, and The Soul Thieves.

I really liked this book. My mom actually found it in the adult section, but there is no adult content. I think it is simply a little hard to read. Thats the only reason I put it under eleven and up. I was a little jealous of Kari at first, the author made him the main character, and in the first book it all seems to revolve around him. In the other books though, the only way he can actually do anything without dying, was with the help of his friends. I would give this book 3 1/2 stars.


oh, and one hint, don't get too attached with Thorkil, it's not that he dies, but the author just drops him, like in the first book he is really important, but in later books he is only mentioned once. ;) he is a weak character though, don't feel to bad. =D