Five hundred years have passed since Ragnarók, and the world has rebuilt itself anew. The old gods are no longer revered. Their tales have been banned. Magic has been outlawed, and a new religion – called the Order – has taken its place. The Order is a crusading religion. It works from an ancient text – simply called The Good Book – and its ultimate mission is to bring Perfect Order to all the Worlds. This means an end to Chaos, to magic, to superstition, to false belief, to dreams, to stories (except for the stories in the Good Book) as well as to Faëries, goblins, dwarves, witches - and of course any old gods who still happen to be around. In a remote valley in the north of Inland (the “civilized” part of the Middle Worlds), lives a girl called Maddy Smith. She is the heroine of our tale, and she is nearly fourteen years old. No-one in the village likes her much; she is reputed to be imaginative, she tells stories, talks to goblins and worse still, she has a ruinmark on her hand, a sign associated with the Bad Old Days. What the villagers don’t know is that Maddy has skills. According to One-Eye, the secretive Outlander who is Maddy’s only real friend, her ruinmark – or runemark, as he calls it – is a sign of Chaos blood, magical powers and gods know what else... And now, as the Order moves further north, threatening all the Worlds with conquest and Cleansing, Maddy must finally learn the truth to some unanswered about herself, her parentage, and her powers. What lies under Red Horse Hill, that barrow of the Elder Days? Why do the goblins gather there? Who is One-Eye, her old friend, and what is he afraid of there? Most of all, what is the Whisperer, that artefact of the Elder Age that must be found – before someone else does? One-Eye says that a war is coming; a war between the old and the new. But will rune magic be enough to combat the Examiners of the Order, and what is the source of their secret weapon, a devastating power known only as The Word?
Meeka says:
You know when you forget to eat that a book is good. Based on old Norse legends, this brought the world of the "old Ones" back to life and carried me far away to a place that was lovely and exhilirating. Pick up a copy today, but I don't think this should be read by pre-teens.

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