The Year of Ancient Ghosts

De: Kim Wilkins

Narrado por: Caroline Lee

Award-winning author Kim Wilkins compiles five novellas (three reprinted, two original) in this strong collection.

The Year of Ancient Ghosts features five novellas of the fantastic, all centred around medieval myth and history.

A mother and her daughter come to the remote Orkneys to grieve and find themselves instead dealing with a ghostly Viking legend.

A Dark Ages king doesn’t realise his wife carries another man’s child, and she is desperate for him not to find out. A young woman, who has spent her whole life hiding her supernatural strength, discovers on the eve of her wedding that she is Odin’s daughter.

Sir Percival’s sister finds herself trapped in a castle of bloodletting sorcerers with only her sexuality as a weapon. In the wake of the Norman conquest, the daughter of an abusive man falls in love with a Norman priest whose abilities blur the line between religion and magic.

©2013 Kim Wilkins (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing

Omgees

Every one of these stories is a heavy dose of mythological fantasy in a fully realized and believable setting. I feel unequal to the task of writing a proper review for such a bumper crop of Awesome stories, but I'll have to try.

This collection of novellas contains stories of what I think must be the perfect length. They aren't long enough for things to get overly drawn-out or boring or whatever, but they are long enough to really get into the characters' perspectives, get into their heads and their strange, long-buried lives. After reading this, I feel like I have a more intimate understanding of pre-American, western history, and I definitely feel like I've found a new favorite author.

The skill of this author is apparent in how she can keep a story always moving forward, but without ever making the reader feel like they're missing anything important about her setting, her characters, or anything else. She has this cadence that is like an in-person storyteller, which lends itself well to audio.

If you've been looking for something solid and professional in the myth and fantasy genres, grab this one, for sure.