The Empty Hand

The Snow-Walker #2

by Catherine Fisher

Huw is meant to be the lucky one — he survived. But he can’t shake off the past. Strange dreams and weird visions fill his waking moments until real life becomes a nightmare. He has no choice but to face the mysterious myth of Belin’s Hill, and bury its legacy for good.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens

176 pages, Paperback

First published July 18, 1995

About the author

Catherine Fisher was born in Newport, Wales. She graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in English and a fascination for myth and history. She has worked in education and archaeology and as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. She is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy.

Catherine is an acclaimed poet and novelist, regularly lecturing and giving readings to groups of all ages. She leads sessions for teachers and librarians and is an experienced broadcaster and adjudicator. She lives in Newport, Gwent.

Catherine has won many awards and much critical acclaim for her work. Her poetry has appeared in leading periodicals and anthologies and her volume Immrama won the WAC Young Writers' Prize. She won the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 1990.

Her first novel, The Conjuror's Game, was shortlisted for the Smarties Books prize and The Snow-Walker's Son for the W.H.Smith Award. Equally acclaimed is her quartet The Book of the Crow, a classic of fantasy fiction.

The Oracle, the first volume in the Oracle trilogy, blends Egyptian and Greek elements of magic and adventure and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Books prize. The trilogy was an international bestseller and has appeared in over twenty languages. The Candleman won the Welsh Books Council's Tir Na n'Og Prize and Catherine was also shortlisted for the remarkable Corbenic, a modern re-inventing of the Grail legend.

Her futuristic novel Incarceron was published to widespread praise in 2007, winning the Mythopoeic Society of America's Children's Fiction Award and selected by The Times as its Children's Book of the Year. The sequel, Sapphique, was published in September 2008.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book is still a bit of a choux pastry book. Not very satisfying. It's longer than the first book, and builds on it, so it's not quite as light, and I began to really feel for Kari -- he's the one who feels most real to me, though I found the whole plot far too easily resolved. I want to know more about Brochael, Jessa, Wulfgar, Hakon... All of them, really. I don't know yet if Catherine Fisher will deliver, but I'm on the side of thinking not.

Still, it's an easy and a fun read. Sometimes simplicity is welcome. And I'm glad to read something set in a medieval Iceland-ish setting that isn't constantly pushing women into a corner they don't belong in -- Jessa's independence and so on seems a little excessive, from what I know in the sagas, but they weren't devoid of strong, capable, even bloodthirsty women. Just think of Bergþora and Hallgerðr, from Brennu-Njals saga. Or Gunnhildr, even, though she's actually closer to Gudrun...

Anyway, I'm not regretting buying these books, but they are far lighter than I might've hoped.

[Sandra Visser · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tense and atmospheric follow-up to the excellent Snow-Walker's Son. The intermittent chapters describing the rune beast coming closer ramps up the suspense and Jessa is a feisty heroine. It's just a shame that you can see the inevitable mistrust of Kari coming a mile away and sometimes Fisher repeats her descriptions too much, like Skapti always rubbing his nose with his long hand between dialogue and Jessa repeatedly clutching her knives or jabbing them into her belt.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Further development of great characters. I loved that she didn't use the whole journey motif again. Also excellent that the good guys didn't have to use violence to solve the problem, although I suspect that the third will hold some necessary violence. Again the novel felt too short, but can't wait to read the third in the series.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darkness drowns everything
and under its shadow-cover shapes ... glide
dark beneath the clouds

Adventure with threats of mass violence but cleverly written so full scale gore is nor required.

The blurb in the goodreads box does not relate to this book at all.

[Ghofran Mostafa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little bit old to read such a book, but really enjoyed it
144 pages of excitement :)