Tag young adult fiction

Celtic Fantasy

Gary Nilsen Leave a comment

Alfheim, an award winning young adult fantasy novel, and Alfheim Resurrections, the second book of the series, are featured in a special Bookfunnel promotion for Celtic Fantasy.

While Alfheim opens in a rural New Hampshire setting, the story quickly moves to the ancient forests of Killarney, Ireland along the shores of Lough Leane. Celtic mythology weaves through the worlds of humans, elves, and fae creatures.

The first book introduces Timothy Brennan, a seventeen year old whose life unravels by the day. He suffers from bullying, romantic rejection, and a wicked uncle. Driven to the brink of suicide, a fae creature named Aenya intervenes. They discover there is more to Timothy than anyone knew, with powers no one could have known. Still reeling from the loss of his mother, he finds her death wasn’t as it appeared along with the shock that he is heir to the confluence of two, other-worldly families. Drawn deeper into this hidden world, Timothy becomes the one chosen to restore the legendary and lost realm of Alfheim.

Alfheim Resurrections continues Timothy’s struggles as he tries to summon the inner strength to fight against the malevolence of Cadwaladr, an elf-lord, who would see him dead all the while lamenting the loss of Aenya and his newly found grandmother. But war is looming and he must find a way to uphold the promise he made to find and restore Alfheim for his people. The stakes mount as Timothy, the chosen one, still grapples to understand the world he never knew existed. Worse still, a long-dormant evil is being resurrected that threatens the centuries-long peace between the world of elves and the forces of the dark Sidhe, the Unseelie court. Destiny demands resilience and leadership and time is running out. The stories touch on the world of elves and fairies, Celtic and Nordic mythology, and Arthurian legend. I hope you’ll pick up copies of the books, or download them to your e-reader, and enjoy the journey.

Celtic Fantasy

Also Available at:

Fae, Fate, & Forbidden Magic

Gary Nilsen Leave a comment

Alfheim, an award winning young adult fantasy novel, and Alfheim Resurrections, the second book of the series, are featured in a special Bookfunnel promotion for stories centering on a fae creatures and the majic that surrounds them.

The first book introduces Timothy Brennan, a seventeen year old whose life unravels by the day. He suffers from bullying, romantic rejection, and a wicked uncle. Driven to the brink of suicide, a fae creature named Aenya intervenes. They discover there is more to Timothy than anyone knew, with powers no one could have known. Still reeling from the loss of his mother, he finds her death wasn’t as it appeared along with the shock that he is heir to the confluence of two, other-worldly families. Drawn deeper into this hidden world, Timothy becomes the one chosen to restore the legendary and lost realm of Alfheim.

Alfheim Resurrections continues Timothy’s struggles as he tries to summon the inner strength to fight against the malevolence of Cadwaladr, an elf-lord, who would see him dead all the while lamenting the loss of Aenya and his newly found grandmother. But war is looming and he must find a way to uphold the promise he made to find and restore Alfheim for his people. The stakes mount as Timothy, the chosen one, still grapples to understand the world he never knew existed. Worse still, a long-dormant evil is being resurrected that threatens the centuries-long peace between the world of elves and the forces of the dark Sidhe, the Unseelie court. Destiny demands resilience and leadership…and time is running out.

The stories touch on the world of elves, fairies, and other fae creatures, Celtic and Nordic mythology, and Arthurian legend. I hope you’ll pick up copes of the books, or download them to your e-reader, and enjoy the journey.

Fae, Fate, & Forbidden Magic

Fantasy with a Chosen One…

Gary Nilsen Leave a comment

Alfheim, an award winning young adult fantasy novel, and Alfheim Resurrections, the second book of the series, are featured in a special Bookfunnel promotion for stories centering on a “chosen one”.

The first book introduces Timothy Brennan, a seventeen year old whose life unravels by the day. He suffers from bullying, romantic rejection, and a wicked uncle. Driven to the brink of suicide, a fae creature named Aenya intervenes. They discover there is more to Timothy than anyone knew, with powers no one could have known. Still reeling from the loss of his mother, he finds her death wasn’t as it appeared along with the shock that he is heir to the confluence of two, other-worldly families. Drawn deeper into this hidden world, Timothy becomes the one chosen to restore the legendary and lost realm of Alfheim.

Alfheim Resurrections continues Timothy’s struggles as he tries to summon the inner strength to fight against the malevolence of Cadwaladr, an elf-lord, who would see him dead all the while lamenting the loss of Aenya and his newly found grandmother. But war is looming and he must find a way to uphold the promise he made to find and restore Alfheim for his people. The stakes mount as Timothy, the chosen one, still grapples to understand the world he never knew existed. Worse still, a long-dormant evil is being resurrected that threatens the centuries-long peace between the world of elves and the forces of the dark Sidhe, the Unseelie court. Destiny demands resilience and leadership…and time is running out.

The stories touch on the world of elves and fairies, Celtic and Nordic mythology, and Arthurian legend. I hope you’ll pick up copes of the books, or download them to your e-reader, and enjoy the journey.

Fantasy with Chosen Ones

Book Review: The Beast Is An Animal

Gary Nilsen Leave a comment

The Beast is an Animal

 

Obviously, as an author of fantasy fiction, I love fairy tales. The Beast Is An Animal is such a story; think Brothers’ Grimm. Immersing in the story was like a cool swim on a hot day. The fictional setting felt like seventeenth century New England with small changes in the spelling of names and places to suggest a landscape that was different; forest became fforest and Alice became Alys, the story’s heroine.

The book touts the story of a girl coming of age while learning to deal with good and evil, beauty and ugliness. One cannot exist without the other, but she finds it all exists, within both her own character and her immediate environment.

I didn’t work hard to study the thematic treatments Peternelle van Arsdale infused in the work, but one especially relevant statement for our times rose to the surface, at least for me. Specifically, Beast demonstrates how extremism gives birth to evil, which continues to feed on itself until everything around it becomes tainted and ripe for destruction. In reflection, I’m not quite certain what role the Beast plays in the narrative as Alys must deal with creatures who morphed from children to something sub-human. The Beast itself did not appear to have much in the way of malevolence, and in fact, it seemed to be at risk right along with the humans of Alys’ world.

If there was one disappointment, it came at the end. Alys serves more as a spectator to the defeat of evil than an active defender of good, and the heroine who saves the world for the people she loves.

Overall, van Arsdale is a competent storyteller and should be on a short-list of authors to look for again.