Thornspell - Hardcover

Lowe, Helen

3.63

1,014 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375855815 ISBN 13: 9780375855818

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008

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Helen Lowe reimagines the Sleeping Beauty story from the point of view of the prince who is destined to wake the enchanted princess in this lush, romantic fantasy-adventure.

Prince Sigismund has grown up hearing fantastical stories about enchantments and faie spells, basilisks and dragons, knights-errant and heroic quests. He'd love for them to be true—he's been sheltered in a country castle for most of his life and longs for adventure—but they are just stories. Or are they?

From the day that a mysterious lady in a fine carriage speaks to him through the castle gates, Sigismund's world starts to shift. He begins to dream of a girl wrapped, trapped, in thorns. He dreams of a palace, utterly still, waiting. He dreams of a man in red armor, riding a red horse—and then suddenly that man arrives at the castle!

Sigismund is about to learn that sometimes dreams are true, that the world is both more magical and more dangerous than he imagined, and that the heroic quest he imagined for himself as a boy . . . begins now.

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Book Description:

Award-winning poet Helen Lowe's first novel, Thornspell, is a poetically and dramatically rich fairy tale. Her magical suspense story parallels the German epic poem and opera, Parsifal, a man's search for the Holy Grail, as well as the film, Sleeping Beauty. It is an imaginative story with distinctive and complex plots and extraordinary characters.

Sequestered within the castle walls for his own protection, young Prince Sigismund spends his time daydreaming about the enchanted world of King Arthur's knights, unaware that soon he will embark on a quest of his own. As the prince approaches his 18th birthday, a carriage with the evil fairy (faie), Margravine zu Malvolin, arrives at the castle gates. She attempts to entrap the prince. This bold move prompts the King to assign Balistan, master-at-arms, to prepare his son for the inevitable. The prince discovers, with meditation and interpretation of dreams, his own magical powers.

The prince learns that Margravine placed an evil spell a hundred years ago on a kingdom in the Wood where a princess remains asleep. Sigismund, a true-blood prince, is the only one who can rescue the sleeping princess and her family. If Margravine can control Sigismund, she will have a power over both the fairy and mortal world. Sigismund goes against Margravine's strong magic. He discovers his own strength, and with the help of a magic sword, Quickthorn (like King Arthur's Excalibur), he is able to escape Margravine's control and lift the spell.

Lowe suspends the reader's reality and thrusts us into an imaginary world with vivid descriptions and lyrical language such as the final confrontation. Sigismund sees Margravine floating in the air, "her hair streaming out like a banner and billowing into the growing storm. Shadows flared on either side of her like the batwings he remembered, and the clouds rolled close, dark as nightfall with lightening at their heart."

This young readers book is a thrilling read. Like the story of Parsifal, it conveys messages of compassion and honor. --Kate Padilla

From the Publisher:

"I'm always amazed by the power of a fairy tale and the many ways it can be told and retold. Just when you think you've read every possible variation on a story, some wonderful new author arrives to spin it fresh and make it new again. Such was the pleasure of reading Helen Lowe's remarkable Thornspell--a new take on the Sleeping Beauty story--for the first time. By approaching the story from the point of view of the prince who is destined to wake the sleeping princess, she found a whole new way to send shivers up my spine. Her language is rich and romantic and there is a perfect magical kiss at the end. But this is very much the prince's tale. It's a swashbuckling story, filled with sword fights and danger and dragons that will keep readers' hearts racing." --Nancy Siscoe

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