The Fetch (The Runestone Saga, 1)

FETCH: The apparition, double, or wraith of a living person.

In the attic, in an old sea chest, secreted away, are a mysterious journal and a set of runes: 24 stones that will change Sky’s life forever.

When Sky and his cousin Kristin find their Norwegian grandfather’s runes, Sky feels like the wait is over, like he can now release the breath he wasn’t even aware he’d been holding. But when he lays out the stones in a runecast they find in Sigurd’s journal, he is catapulted into a world filled with more possibilities and more danger than he ever imagined.

This first entry in the Runestone Saga is an utterly unique blend of horror, supernatural possibility, and historical truth that will leave readers wrung out from tension and clamoring for more.

Grade 7 Up–Born with a caul over his face, possessing a distinctive unibrow, and having a tendency to sleepwalk, Sky bears all of the marks that the Norse associate with a person able to travel with his fetch, or spirit double. But it isn't until the British 15-year-old discovers an old set of runestones belonging to his Norwegian grandfather that he discovers his bizarre destiny. Aided by Sigurd's spirit and his cousin Kristin, Sky embarks on a wonderful and frightening spiritual journey–inhabiting the body of a Viking ancestor, taking the form of a hunting hawk–all the while hunted by a dark, hungry presence. Humphreys's writing is tense and atmospheric, and both Sky and Kristin are well-developed, interesting characters. However, several plot elements (such as the two teens being able to make a trip from England to Norway without their parents knowing) test the bounds of credibility. The use of runestone divination and old Norse history and culture is effective, and may draw teens to seek further information on those subjects.–Christi Voth, Parker Library, CO
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Gr. 9-12. Here's another doorstop of a British fantasy, this one based on its author's ancestral roots and myths. Born with a caul over his face, 15-year-old Sky, a dreamer and sleepwalker, discovers a sea chest left behind by his Norwegian grandfather. Inside, he and his cousin Kristin find runestones--and Sky discovers his fetch, his other self, who can move through time and space without him. Guided by the voice of his grandfather and assisted by Kristin, Sky travels with his fetch deep into the past, where he meets his Viking ancestors and a shape-changing beserker, and learns more about the powerful poetry of the runes and of their casting. Humphreys is more interested in telling the rune lore than in developing characters or advancing the story, but bloody history and a dark, violent present keep the pages turning. Here, Sky and Kristin end up in Norway; the Runestone Saga's next installment will bring them to Corsica, where more family history awaits exploration. GraceAnne DeCandido
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