The setting is Saxon-about-to-become-Norman England. King Edward (the Confessor) is dying, the countryside is beset by murderous men who turn out to be working for one of the claimants to the throne, and two women, Alison and Wildecent, raised as sisters, are caught in the struggle when a young Norman male, Stephen, staggers to their stronghold, wounded. Stephen has been attacked while trying to take a despatch cross country for his uncle. Raiders subsequently menace the countryside around, and Alison's father, Saxon lord of the settlement, has to ask Stephen's uncle for help against the raiders, even though this puts him in a difficult position because Duke William of Normandy is a rival claimant to the throne and it is not clear whether William should be Edward's successor, or Harold Godwinson or Godwinson's brother.

Alison's companion Wildecent has been passed off as an illegitimate half sister to Alison, although it emerges that she was brought to the settlement when she was five and is no relation at all. Alison has been secretly taught ancient goddess based magic from Celtic and pre-Celtic times by the sister of her dead mother. Wildecent has shared in the herbal lore taught them both, but feels left out because she lacks the psychic abilities that Alison has been trained in. They must be wary of anyone else finding out, as the church would view their abilities as witchcraft.

Despite the opening sequence of the attack on Stephen, this book is slow to get going and I struggled to keep interested. Partly because it focuses on two young women in Saxon-about-to-become Norman England, and their lives mainly consist of spinning and weaving, and creating herbal remedies, realistically enough. However, the book is fantasy, not straight historical fiction because Alison has the ability to read people's minds, and later on, a Norman male character is introduced who is a sorcerer whose magic actually works.

Wildecent's feeling left out leaves her vulnerable to the attractions of the sorcerer, Stephen's friend Ambrose, who might teach her his different magic, based on sympathetic magic and physical objects and not dependent on the psychic abilites which Alison and her aunt use, and which they view as linked to the ancient worship of the goddess. It remains ambiguous as to how much of a villain Ambrose really is, since although he is hostile to Alison and her aunt, he seems to have Stephen's best interests at heart.

I did not find the characters well defined. There is a lot of head hopping and it is hard to find any of them sympathetic, for example, Stephen makes a half hearted attempt to seduce Wildecent. Alison is characterised by being headstrong and is sometimes rash in using her gifts, and both she and her aunt are quick to assume that Wildecent - who has vague memories of her real parents and seems to be Norman - must be a supporter of Duke William of Normandy and hence cannot be trusted. The relationships don't ring true. Wildecent is probably the most sympathetic character, level-headed and putting up with a lot of suspicion from her nearest and dearest, especially as we learn that when six years old she was locked in a dark cellar for hours just for asking about her real parents.

There is one jarring continuity error where Wildecent defends herself against an attacker with a knife she had in her sleeve, but then a couple of pages later it is back in her sleeve in circumstances where she cannot have put it there herself.

Like Abbey's Rifkind books, this is illustrated, but by a different artist, and unlike those, the reproduction here is very poor and indistinct.

The story ends, not exactly with a cliffhanger, but with a question mark over the future of the two women, though it continues in 'The Green Man' which I intend to read next. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of historical accuracy that went into this book: everything from the embroidery on the garments to the bathing to the construction of a Saxon castle. The characters are flawed in ways that only someone who has written fearlessly for a while can describe them, and the insight into the many conflicts of this time is also good.

The action takes place in the winter of 1065, months before the Norman invasion of England. The rightful King lies dying without an heir, and his sons and daughters have made outlaws of one another. In Wessex, a landholder, his sister-in-law, his daughter, and his foster daughter live in relative safe comfort until the arrival of a wounded stranger makes real to them the outlaws living in the forest on the ridge. These same outlaws are the followers of one of the sons of King Edwards who are in exile from their Northumbrian lands, and they pillage and rape both homesteads and monasteries. The household and manor are saved, perhaps, by the Norman liege lord who brings both more swords but also a new way of life.

The conflicts are numerous during this time period, and perhaps that is why she chose a time just before 1066: the conflicts between the sisters fit in well with a household conflicted in its loyalties and the reality of inheritance, and the conflict between the old ways of the Goddess and the Christianity of the priests are also in good balance.

My one drawback to totally loving this book is the editorial one: sometimes the she" or the action is unclear in a paragraph, and I found myself more than once returning to re-read a page just to be clear on the actions or motivations it described." ( )

OK historical fiction with a pagan/psychic element. I have to admit I picked it up due to the lovely Robert Gould cover.
The book is also supposed to be 'illustrated' by Robert Gould, but don't buy this because of that: this edition, at least, has the very worst printing quality I've ever seen in a book, and most of the 'illustrations' are indistinguishable masses of grey dots.

The story: set in 11th-century Britain, two 'sisters.' Allison is blond, beautiful, legitimate and not only that, heir to secret pagan powers, including the ability to influence others' minds. Wildecent is dark, unassuming, and seemingly without any remarkable powers. She's also not Allison's true sister - was she kidnapped? Adopted?
Into their manor house comes a young man, rescued from both wolves and outlaws. Since they don't get to see new people too often in their sheltered life, it's not unbelievable that both women develop crushes on him. Conflict and jealousy ensues, mixed in with magic and political conflict between Anglo-Saxon and Norman factions.

Not bad; there's a sequel which I may pick up one of these days. It has a little bit of a Mists-of-Avalon feel to it. ( )

Excellent young adult book on a difficult time in England's history. There are many transitions going on; Saxon to Norman, Celtic Goddess to Christianity and freemen to feudalism. The two sisters who are the main characters are well done, as are some of the minor characters. The author has a pretty clear bias in favor of the Saxons so the Normans come out on the short end of the stick, but it is still well done. ( )