Winterking

Finnbranch #3

by Paul Hazel

Wyck, heir to a mysterious, ancient legacy, embarks on a perilous, epic quest to fulfill his destiny, unleashing an unpredictable, potentially deadly chain of events

Genres: Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

Published November 1, 1987

About the author

In his long career in Ridgefield Paul Hazel has been an educator, a novelist, and a matchmaker. A native of the Nichols section of Trumbull, the Yale graduate came here in 1972 as head of the English Department at Ridgefield High School. A year later Superintendent David E. Weingast (q.v.) put him in charge of professional personnel and he’s worn that hat for 27 years, searching for and hiring teachers and other professional staff. “It’s about matching,” Mr. Hazel said of his job of hiring staff. “It’s not only who I find capable, but who will fit in with the teachers that are there, who will be a good part of the school community and who the principal thinks is interesting," he told The Press. "It’s not a match unless a lot of other people buy into it.” As the century ended, Mr. Hazel had served more years as a central office administrator than anyone else on the staff. But through those years, he’s had a second career: a writer of sophisticated and well-reviewed fantasy novels, mostly with Celtic themes: Yearwood (1980), Undersea (1982), Winterking (1985), and The Wealdwife’s Tale (1993). When not hunting for teachers or perfecting plots, Mr. Hazel enjoys building finely designed rock walls in his garden. He also enjoys long distance bicycling, both here and in Europe, with his wife, Reggie, who is the first selectman's administrative assistant and a former school board chairman. Source: Notable Ridgefielders-Jack Sanders

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scandinavian/Celtic myth-influenced tale.
The trilogy reminded me rather a lot of A.A. Attanasio's Arthurian fiction - a comparison I haven't seen elsewhere, but that I nonetheless feel is rather apt.
They take an unusual view of myth, playing with time and reality...
The first book, Yearwood, with its giants, heroes and witches could almost be straight from the Mabinogion. The second, Undersea, is more experimental, playing with multitudes of identities and the concepts related to how mythological figures and gods can be conflated over time.
The third, Winterking, is strikingly different - but, I thought, more entertaining - moving the characters and concepts into an alternate American of indeterminate (but more modern) time. An immortal man conspires to keep him immortality secret, while pursued by the keepers of his fortune, the women who may love him, and the god of death himself....