Saturday, November 29, 2008

Triskellion by Will Peterson


I realized that I didn't post on this book. I don't remember a lot of details other than my impression, so to push things along for our December meeting, I'm posting the Kirkus review which nicely sums up the plot (with a few ***spoilerish*** details)

Author Mark Billingham and television scriptwriter Peter Cocks collaborate on their debut novel, the first of a planned fantasy trilogy. Fourteen-year-old New York City twins Rachel and Adam are uprooted to spend the summer in the home of a grandmother they barely know. A group of hostile characters inhabits her isolated English village, lending a mood of mystery and threat. Gabriel, a shadowy outcast teen who readily participates in the twins' shared extrasensory mental dialogue, befriends them but has a plan of his own, aided, inexplicably, by hordes of bees. Digging beneath an ancient chalk circle in the village, a television show archaeology crew recovers part of a three bladed talisman, the Triskellion; a group of evil Morris dancers makes every effort to steal it for their own purposes, as the twins quickly realize that even their grandmother may be plotting against them to protect some long-hidden secret. Told in brief but exciting episodes, the breathless pace helps to make up for the rather flat personalities that people this often suspenseful but somewhat predictable novel. (Kirkus)

Triskellion has flavor of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, and the dark extrasensory abilities of human and animals that Mary Stewart included in some of her books. It will serve as readers advisory suggestions for this genre, but I don't think it is TU award worthy. NAY

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