Books with title Ghost Drum: Book 1 of The Ghost World Sequence

The Carnegie Medal winning modern classic. On a Midwinter night, a shaman demands a new-born baby girl from her slave-mother - and carries the child away in a hut that stalks across the snow on chicken legs. The new-born son of the Czar is imprisoned, for life, in a tiny room at the top of a tall tower because the Czar is afraid his son will outdo him. The slave’s daughter, and the princeling, both long for freedom but their search for it earns them vicious enemies - the ruthless Princess Margaretta, and Kuzma, the shape-shifting bear-shaman. Can the slave's-daughter and the prince survive? This classic novel, winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal, is now available again as a large 'trade' paperback. Suitable for readers of 9 to teenage./p> "Whenever you poke your nose round the door, pack courage, and leave fear at home." The Ghost Drum is an original fairy-tale of shamans, shape-shifters, magic-battles, slaves and kings, set against darkness, Arctic cold, starlight and the brilliant jewel colours of folk-art. REVIEWS A find for lovers of folklore and fantasy. The Kirkus Review Price provides an icy, intense setting for her fantasy, which haunts almost as much as her unique characters. When she describes how, “the sky stars glitter in their darkness, and the snow-stars glisten in their whiteness, and between the two there hangs a shivering curtain of cold twilight,” readers will know they are in the palm of a writer whose magical eye for detail matches her ability to draw a story sweeping in scope. - Booklist A spell is indeed cast over the reader: ‘Words can alter sight and hearing, taste, touch and smell. Used with a higher skill they can make our senses clearer.’ Susan Price is happily blessed with this higher skill; it is the clarity of her prose which particularly impresses. It is difficult for an individual to attempt a form sharpened and clarified by generations of story tellers – a folk tale brightens with use and all the extraneous material wears away over the years. There is nothing out of place in THE GHOST DRUM: as in a spell every word counts: ‘The alphabet in the book spells out words you can say, but the alphabet in the drum spells out things that can never be said.’ The reverberations of this new-minted myth continue to echo after the story’s finished. - Mary Cutler Susan Price is an acclaimed author of over 60 books, which have been translated into many languages, including Japanese, Chinese and Russian. She has won several awards, including the Carnegie and the Guardian, and has been short-listed for the Whitbread. She is a founder member of the Authors Electric Collective (Find them on-line.) Visit her Amazon Author Page to find out more about her books, and links to her website and blogs.

"Whenever you poke your nose round the door, pack courage, and leave fear at home."The Ghost Drum is a cruel fairy-tale of shamans, shape-shifters, magic-battles, slaves and kings, set against darkness, Arctic cold, starlight and the brilliant jewel colours of folk-art.On a Midwinter night, a shaman demands a new-born baby girl from her slave-mother - and carries the child away in a hut that stalks across the snow on chicken legs.The new-born son of the Czar is imprisoned, for life, in a tiny room at the top of a tall tower - because the Czar is afraid his son might outdo him.The slave’s daughter, and the princeling, both long for the freedom to live in their own way, but their search for freedom earns them vicious enemies - the ruthless Princess Margaretta, and Kuzma, the bear-shaman.Can the slave's-daughter and the prince survive?A classic children's novel, winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal, now available again in paperback.REVIEWS>A find for lovers of folklore and fantasy.The Kirkus ReviewPrice provides an icy, intense setting for her fantasy, which haunts almost as much as her unique characters. When she describes how, “the sky stars glitter in their darkness, and the snow-stars glisten in their whiteness, and between the two there hangs a shivering curtain of cold twilight,” readers will know they are in the palm of a writer whose magical eye for detail matches her ability to draw a story sweeping in scope.Booklist A spell is indeed cast over the reader: ‘Words can alter sight and hearing, taste, touch and smell. Used with a higher skill they can make our senses clearer.’ Susan Price is happily blessed with this higher skill; it is the clarity of her prose which particularly impresses. It is difficult for an individual to attempt a form sharpened and clarified by generations of story tellers – a folk tale brightens with use and all the extraneous material wears away over the years. There is nothing out of place in THE GHOST DRUM: as in a spell every word counts: ‘The alphabet in the book spells out words you can say, but the alphabet in the drum spells out things that can never be said.’ The reverberations of this new-minted myth continue to echo after the story’s finished.Mary CutlerDownload a free sample, or click on ‘Look Inside’ to try the book.Susan Price is an acclaimed author of over 60 books, which have been translated into many languages, including Japanese, Chinese and Russian. She has won several awards, including the Carnegie and the Guardian, and has been short-listed for the Whitbread.She is a founder member of the Authors Electric Collective (Find them on-line.)Visit her Amazon Author Page to find out more about her books, and links to her website and blogs.

'Are you cold, my children? Are you cold?'The Northlands are dying… The trees are cut down to build ships and cities, the animals and people slaughtered.The young witch, Shingebiss, pleads with the ancient shaman, her grandmother to save the land. But the shaman refuses because, 'All things must change. All things must die.'After her Grandmother’s death, Shingebiss travels to the Imperial City, to ‘spell the Czar,’ and save the NorthlandsBut the Czar is mad – his mind ‘like a broken mirror, reflecting many things and all crookedly.’The only advice he heeds is that of the English wizard, Master Jenkins. He has promised to make the Czar a potion which will make him immortal. But Jenkins is a fraud.When Shingebiss arrives at court, with her true magic, the Czar takes her for an angel, sent to him by God. With her dark colouring, she becomes 'The Czar's Black Angel.'The English wizard is jealous of Shingebiss. He tells the Czar that the most important ingredient for the Elixir of Immortality is the blood of an angel.The Czar fears death even more than he loves his angel.Can Shingebiss survive the fear, jealousy and hatred at the Czar's court?This is the third book in the Ghost World Sequence, which begins with the Carnegie winning 'The Ghost Drum' and continues with 'Ghost Song.'REVIEWSIn Ghost Dance, Price transports us to the palace of a Czar whose avarice and suspicion are destroying the beautiful Northlands... Here again, the complete seriousness and integrity of the writing makes for a quietly terrifying read. Highly recommended.Guinevere VaughanThis third book of the sequence is still rich and deeply powerful. It’s full of the physical awfulness of human existence and human fears and the magic of storytelling which veers between the safe and the dangerous, the fascinating and the uncomfortable.Books For KeepsDownload a free sample, or click on ‘Look Inside’ to try the bookSusan Price is an acclaimed author of over 60 books, which have been translated into many languages, including Japanese, Chinese and Russian. She has written for almost every age-group, and has won several awards, including the Carnegie and the Guardian, and has been short-listed for the Whitbread.She is a founder member of the Authors Electric Collective (Find them on-line.)Vist her Amazon Author Page to find out more about her books, and links to her website and blogs.

It’s midsummer and midnight: the endless white night of the far north. Malyuta, a slave and hunter, feels richer than the Czar because he holds his first new-born, a son. He names the baby ‘Ambrosi’ which means immortal.Then comes Kuzma, the shape-shifting bear-shaman, who demands the baby from him. The child was born to Kuzma’s apprentice in witchcraft. “Give him to me,” says Kuzma. In return for the baby, he will make Malyuta rich or even return his youth.Malyuta refuses. All through the long summer night, he refuses. The hour of midnight passes and the shaman leaves but as he goes, he tells Malyuta that the baby he holds is a world-walker, a child of the Iron Ash, born to be a shaman. “Keep him, little man, and he will bring you misery!”Ambrosi grows into a beautiful, bright little boy, adored by his father. When Malyuta’s beloved wife dies, he finds comfort in his child.Every winter, Malyuta has to leave the village on hunting trips. He leaves Ambrosi behind in the care of his grandparents. At the end of each trip he hurries home, eager to see his son again but on each return finds the villagers fear Ambrosi more and more. The child is uncanny, they say. Malyuta must take him away.Malyuta leaves the village forever, taking Ambrosi with him. From then on, Ambrosi shares his father’s life and learns to be a hunter. In their small tent, in the vast frozen darkness of the arctic, Ambrosi dreams that a white bear comes to him. It is the bear-shaman, calling on him to follow his true nature.Ambrosi learns that there can be no peace for him until he accepts that he is a child of the Iron Ash and a world-walker. But he cannot bear to abandon the ageing Malyuta, whom he loves. He promises to become Kuzma’s apprentice after his father is dead.But the cruel bear-shaman is not prepared to wait. If Malyuta’s life is all that prevents Ambrosi becoming his apprentice, then Malyuta’s death will come soon.Is there any way that Ambrosi can protect his father and escape from the bear-shaman?If you like mythic tales with fascinating villains and vivid imagery, then you’ll love Susan Price’s stark classic.Buy Ghost Song to dream of the northlands today.