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Summary
Summary
A desperate mother spirits away her infant son, seemingly drawn (chased, perhaps?) to the small English village of Thornyhill. She ends up on the doorstep of old Bartlemy, a curious man who has lived on the forested land for as long as anyone can remember--and who comes to believe that the child is destined for great things. . . . While growing up under Bartlemy's protective eye, Nathan Ward senses somethingelsewatching him, a shift of shadows in the surrounding Darkwood. Then pieces of his dreams begin to come to life. A man he saved from the ocean washes ashore on the television news. A greenish stone cup set with jewels that has haunted his visions sounds eerily like one lost by the Thorn family centuries ago--a cup that has recently made its way back into the hands of the village's last living ancestor. Yet when Nathan learns the chalice may have come from another world, a land with bloodstained moons and a toxic sun, he knows he is destined to play a part in something beyond his most vivid imagination. But why is the cup here, and what could it possibly want with a teenage boy and a sleepy town of villagers full of tall tales? With the help of his best friend, Hazel, Nathan must figure out why he's been chosen--and for what purpose. Even if it means traveling deeper each night into dreams, into lands, into legends that both terrify and mesmerize him. The Greenthorn Grailis the first novel of a thrilling new trilogy, tracing a boy's journey--a quest rife with magic, wonder, and forces as dark as midnight.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
British author Hemingway draws on classic mythology and her fertile imagination to create a refreshingly different Arthurian fantasy, the first in a trilogy about a contemporary grail quest involving many endearing, if occasionally trite and predictable, characters. Nathan Ward is just your typical 11-year-old of supernatural parentage, until he stumbles on a hidden altar that gives him visions of a green stone cup filled with blood. Soon he begins dreaming of Eos, a world that needs the grail for a spell to ward off a terrible plague. As the dreams become astral excursions, the grail surfaces in Nathan's world, but then is stolen and sent to Eos, at the wrong time and into the wrong hands. While Nathan goes to the rescue, his mother and the venerable grail guardian, Bartlemy Goodman, fend off the village witch, an antiques trader, police and a malevolent river spirit. Despite being almost self-consciously British, the book glows with a blend of ancient magic and wide-eyed wonder that should captivate audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, especially readers weary of more conventional Arthurian epics. Agent, Anthony Harwood. (Mar. 1) FYI: Under the pseudonym Jan Siegel, Hemingway is the author of Prospero's Children and other fantasies. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
First entry in the Sangreal Trilogy by UK fantasy writer Hemingway (The Poison Heart, 1990, etc.). In a prologue, young Nathan Ward enters the Darkwoods with his ageless mongrel Hoover and falls through a hole into an ancient chapel now buried under great roots. A small goblet gleaming with green gemstones in a green halo floats toward him: Christ's cup of blood, full to the brim! But Hoover pulls Nathan back, the cup fades, and after Nathan climbs out he can no longer find the hole. The story proper starts a decade earlier as a homeless young woman struggles along a country road with a suitcase and a baby. She becomes the very long-time guest of bachelor Bartlemy Goodman, who turns out to be a 1500-year-old albino. He senses destiny at work in forlorn Annie Ward and baby Nathan. Bartlemy opens a small secondhand bookshop for Annie to run. Meanwhile, he intuits that humanly fatherless Nathan was actually incepted beyond the Gate of Death and has a great deed ahead of him. Hmm, what could that be? Annie senses a nameless threat hanging over her. Can it turn on the fabled Thorn family, who built this village centuries ago before their fortunes faded? Were they in truth a satanic cult, and does the greenstone cup not hold the blood of Christ? Would Christ's homely Grail be encrusted with emeralds? Bartlemy? He's a culinary genius who discovered chocolate, worked for the Borgias and even taught Escoffier. The Cup? Stolen by the Nazis, it is now on auction at Sotheby's. Can the Thorns get it back? A promising start. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In Hemingway's beautifully written and intriguing variation on the quest for the Grail, a single mother whose son, Nathan, doesn't resemble his supposed father, an old recluse whose skills encompass more than the culinary domain, and a missing family artifact with a string of legends attached to it are the major ingredients. Melding them, Hemingway places all in an English setting in which traditional, modern, and imaginary elements are skillfully blended. In the manner of so many romances, there is even a very fine opening poem. One descries in the situation of Hemingway's young Nathan resemblances to elements of the situations of a boy named Harry, some of Neil Gaiman's characters, and even Lemony Snicket. There are also notable differences, notably Nathan's mother, Annie Ward, a stronger female character than any of the authors involved in the above-mentioned contexts have yet created. She and Hemingway's folkloric expertise make it sheer good news that this book launches at least a trilogy. --Frieda Murray Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
When Annie Ward brings her fatherless child to live with Bartlemy Goodman, a culinary master and wise man, she hopes to keep her son safe from harm. Goodman recognizes young Nathan Ward's special gifts and takes it upon himself to teach the boy enough about his talents to protect him from those who hunt him and who search for the object known as the Greenstone Grail. Hemingway's first novel provides a new look at the Grail legend, linking it to many times and places, not all of them in the known world. Intriguing characters and a mythic feel make this series opener a solid addition to most fantasy collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.