Showing results by author "Marcus Sedgwick" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

The days between 27 December and New Year's Eve are dead days - days when spirits roam and magic shifts restlessly just beneath the surface of our everyday lives. There is a man, Valerian, whose time is running out, who must pay the price for the pact he made with evil so many years ago.

Imagine that a few years from now England is covered by water, and Norwich is an island. Zoe, left behind in the confusion when her parents escaped, survives there as best she can. Alone and desperate among marauding gangs, she manages to dig a derelict boat out of the mud and gets away to Eels Island. But Eels Island, whose raggle-taggle inhabitants are dominated by the strange boy Dooby, is full of danger, too. The belief that she will one day find her parents spurs Zoe on to a dramatic escape in a story of courage and determination that is handled with warmth and humanity.

Nobody likes a sticky monkey... As self-appointed Guardian of Otherhand Castle, Edgar's alarmed when a nasty looking black tail slinks off under the rhubarb plants, kitchen maids go missing and the castle begins to flood. There's never a dull moment for the strange Otherhand family; Lord Valevine, Minty his wife, 10 year old Cudweed, his pet, Fellah (the sticky monkey), and his big sister, black-haired, gothic-ly gorgeous Solstice, as they come face to face with the owner of the black tail.