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Spinner
' "We are not in we are in the Morland, on the Edge of the World. Things are different here.... We all have the power to define our own external reality -- its nature and its limits." '
'SPINNER' is Harry Potter for grown-ups meets the Da Vinci Code for people who think -- and then something else.
‘ "Move!” I seized Chris by the hand and ran like hell through the French windows into the garden. Taliesin "Stop them, François! He understands nothing!” "I do,” Raymond called back to him, "and so do pure Jung and cycles, from the only sources he knows. We must take him to Austria!” And he came after me across the patio with his stick.’
AT THE HEART of 'Spinner' is a vision from long ago and from far away, and a pattern of events which is very much of today. Between them, the vision and the pattern will change the way a young man sees his World.
' "I was in Poland in March when the Universities went on strike against censorship, before they were suppressed, and I was in Prague in April around the time the Central Committee adopted the Action Programme which became the Prague Spring. I was in Paris in May when barricades came out on the streets, and soon the whole country seemed to be in a state of paralysis. But I was also in Los Angeles in June when Robert Kennedy was assassinated; just as I had been in Memphis in April when Martin Luther King was murdered." '
RATTY, working on a holiday job in London in 1968, Year of Revolution, meets for the first time his young cousin Chris -- and at once the two are forced to flee from an obsessive and relentless pursuer, towards the safety of Chris's remote island home in the North.
'Black columns like giant organ pipes soared into grey mist above deep caves, and breakers leapt at us from jagged rocks. The helicopter's clamorous echo flung back at us from the cliff face. The helicopter bounced in the updraft as Campbell pulled it round to fly along the base of the cliffs. A wave leapt at us and there was a distinct we faltered, then picked up and staggered on. The back of Campbell's neck ran with sweat. He looked all ways at down through sea-spray to dark churning breakers, left at black columns and caves, and in front of him at the dials. He tapped one of them. Ahead, a buttress of red-gold rock stood out of the dark waves. Campbell pulled the helicopter round and red rock swung into the sky; the sea turned on its side and streamed beside us. The engine coughed, hesitated, picked up again'
IN A MEDIAEVAL FORTRESS filled with unique historical artworks, ancient symbols of power, and some startling modern technology, Ratty encounters more members of his charismatic and talented extended family, and finds himself having to reconcile their increasingly eccentric world-views with his own -- or choose between them. And all the while, the enemy is at the gate of a castle under siege in which tension is building up towards an astonishing outcome.
'After the seventh explosive thunderclap both songs leapt, the quick and the deep, in a single command, a massive pulse of sound and light ... of such penetrating power that I felt my flesh and bones shiver to the core and momentarily, terrifyingly, my sense of self beginning to disintegrate within what I first on the Western, then on the Eastern Sentinel dark widening lines creeping swiftly across the high snows.... Light and land and sea and sound gathered themselves into one vast a rising surge in the Rock Chasm, a thunder of snow and rock into the Morloch Channel, and lastly the great Atlantic sweeping up the Sea Gate in a monstrous dark wave into which poured all the snow of the Eastern Sentinel.... Water mounted on all sides, a roaring flood over the north-eastern and southern sections of the Curtain Wall and into the Court, meeting in the middle with a violent clap of waves to rise, shining and swirling, around the Keep itself.'
'SPINNER' is Harry Potter for grown-ups meets the Da Vinci Code for people who think -- and then something else.
‘ "Move!” I seized Chris by the hand and ran like hell through the French windows into the garden. Taliesin "Stop them, François! He understands nothing!” "I do,” Raymond called back to him, "and so do pure Jung and cycles, from the only sources he knows. We must take him to Austria!” And he came after me across the patio with his stick.’
AT THE HEART of 'Spinner' is a vision from long ago and from far away, and a pattern of events which is very much of today. Between them, the vision and the pattern will change the way a young man sees his World.
' "I was in Poland in March when the Universities went on strike against censorship, before they were suppressed, and I was in Prague in April around the time the Central Committee adopted the Action Programme which became the Prague Spring. I was in Paris in May when barricades came out on the streets, and soon the whole country seemed to be in a state of paralysis. But I was also in Los Angeles in June when Robert Kennedy was assassinated; just as I had been in Memphis in April when Martin Luther King was murdered." '
RATTY, working on a holiday job in London in 1968, Year of Revolution, meets for the first time his young cousin Chris -- and at once the two are forced to flee from an obsessive and relentless pursuer, towards the safety of Chris's remote island home in the North.
'Black columns like giant organ pipes soared into grey mist above deep caves, and breakers leapt at us from jagged rocks. The helicopter's clamorous echo flung back at us from the cliff face. The helicopter bounced in the updraft as Campbell pulled it round to fly along the base of the cliffs. A wave leapt at us and there was a distinct we faltered, then picked up and staggered on. The back of Campbell's neck ran with sweat. He looked all ways at down through sea-spray to dark churning breakers, left at black columns and caves, and in front of him at the dials. He tapped one of them. Ahead, a buttress of red-gold rock stood out of the dark waves. Campbell pulled the helicopter round and red rock swung into the sky; the sea turned on its side and streamed beside us. The engine coughed, hesitated, picked up again'
IN A MEDIAEVAL FORTRESS filled with unique historical artworks, ancient symbols of power, and some startling modern technology, Ratty encounters more members of his charismatic and talented extended family, and finds himself having to reconcile their increasingly eccentric world-views with his own -- or choose between them. And all the while, the enemy is at the gate of a castle under siege in which tension is building up towards an astonishing outcome.
'After the seventh explosive thunderclap both songs leapt, the quick and the deep, in a single command, a massive pulse of sound and light ... of such penetrating power that I felt my flesh and bones shiver to the core and momentarily, terrifyingly, my sense of self beginning to disintegrate within what I first on the Western, then on the Eastern Sentinel dark widening lines creeping swiftly across the high snows.... Light and land and sea and sound gathered themselves into one vast a rising surge in the Rock Chasm, a thunder of snow and rock into the Morloch Channel, and lastly the great Atlantic sweeping up the Sea Gate in a monstrous dark wave into which poured all the snow of the Eastern Sentinel.... Water mounted on all sides, a roaring flood over the north-eastern and southern sections of the Curtain Wall and into the Court, meeting in the middle with a violent clap of waves to rise, shining and swirling, around the Keep itself.'
447 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 16, 2011
About the author
Robert MacLeod
87 books3 followerspen name for Bill Knox,
William (Bill) Knox was a Scottish author, journalist and broadcaster, best known for his crime novels and for presenting the long-running STV series Crimedesk.
Born in Glasgow, Knox became the youngest journalist for a Glasgow newspaper at age 16. He went on to report on crime, on motoring, and to become a news editor.
He began writing crime novels in the 1950s. Knox often wrote under pseudonyms, frequently for the American market. These included Michael Kirk, Robert MacLeod and Noah Webster. He published over 50 crime novels and westerns, including several series, notably the "Thane and Moss" books.
William (Bill) Knox was a Scottish author, journalist and broadcaster, best known for his crime novels and for presenting the long-running STV series Crimedesk.
Born in Glasgow, Knox became the youngest journalist for a Glasgow newspaper at age 16. He went on to report on crime, on motoring, and to become a news editor.
He began writing crime novels in the 1950s. Knox often wrote under pseudonyms, frequently for the American market. These included Michael Kirk, Robert MacLeod and Noah Webster. He published over 50 crime novels and westerns, including several series, notably the "Thane and Moss" books.
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