"One of today's best fantasy writers" - Nicholas Tucker, The Independent

The Snow-Walker Trilogy

This sequence is now being reissued as a single volume from Red Fox. It's a gripping story, chilling in more ways than one and with a terrific sense of its icy place. "An outstanding piece of fiction" - The New Statesman

Darkwater Hall

Sarah has made a dangerous bargain, which she is determined to keep. But just what has she sold, and to whom? This is a story of good and evil, but they are not as clear-cut, or as easy to tell apart, as you might think.

Published by Hodder Children's Books, Hodder Headline, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH

The Lammas Field

Mick finds a short cut to becoming a great musician. But some short cuts are more trouble than going the long way round...

Published by Hodder Children's Books

The omnibus edition of The Conjuror's Game, Fintan's Tower and The Candle Man is out in August, titled The Glass Tower (Three Doors to the Other World).

Published by Random House Children's Books, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA, tel 020-78408400, fax 020-72338791 or email

The Book of the Crow: reviews

The Relic Master:

The telling is spare and taut, the theme as elemental as a Border ballad. The excitement is relentless...
The Times

The Interrex:

This intense, dark story of otherworldly sword and sorcery is cutting edge fantasy/SF
The Daily Telegraph

Flain's Coronet:

Fans will be waiting impatiently for the next helping
The Times Literary Supplement

The fourth book in the series, The Margrave, was published on May 1st, 2001. It has been reviewed in the Daily Telegraph, which called it

"a terrific read. It knocks down all the skittles at once - a believable, fascinating world, great characters, skilful plotting, universal themes. A must"

Corbenic:
A modern treatment of the Grail legend

Catherine Fisher weaves the story of Percival and the Holy Grail into the guilt-ridden mind of Cal, a bitter teenager who has walked out on his mentally ill mother

         The Times

... but his journey soon becomes a quest for self-knowledge and redemption. This terrific coming-of-age tale is a reworking of the Fisher King, the oldest plot of them all
         Tony Bradman, The Daily Telegraph

A well written and pacy tale. Highly recommended
      Arthur New, Achuka

The Oracle:

Catherine Fisher's fantasy presents an imagined antiquity, freely adapted from ancient Greece and Egypt, where people worship their oracular god in often savage rituals. Teenage Mirany, an outwardly timid servitor of the god, feels growing doubt about his reality. As she looks for answers amid a welter of treachery and murder, she finds that the god is real and is speaking to her, putting her in even greater peril. Readers will be gripped by the deeper truths of the story and the compelling, vivid intensity of the writing.
         Douglas Hill, Armadillo

Fisher's uncompromising style plunges us into a hot, arid, Mediterranean landscape; impressions of heat, light, weight, colour are very strong. The ultimately strong female lead is complemented by a range of other characters - complicated, flawed, unpredictable - and the tension endures until the last page. My four testers were gripped and thoroughly engaged by the story.
         Books for Keeps

The Oracle has much more to offer than the traditional madcap adventure. While the book does have its share of underground passages, sealed tombs, secret burial rituals and hidden jewels, it is not physical treasure that the protagonists are after but the new Archon, the ten-year-old boy chosen by the god to be the new ruler. A skilfully crafted work which gets you right from the first page, Fisher's newest novel is an exhilarating read.
         Lyndsay Myers, INIS

Succeeds triumphantly. The background draws on both ancient Egypt and Greece and comes over as vivid and convincing. I was especially impressed by the depiction of religion and the worship of the god, which is satisfyingly complex. A very satisfying read for young people who want some depth to their fiction.
         Cherith Baldry, VECTOR

A powerful and very exciting adventure... gods and magic vie with corrupt military power for the hearts and minds of the people. There is real horror... Mirany's fear is palpable. The ending leaves a menacing opening for the next title in the series and certainly left me wanting more.
         School Library Journal

A land dying of drought where everybody looks to the Archon, the symbol of god-on-earth, to bring rain. One of Catherine Fisher's many strengths is an ability to engage the reader's empathy with her characters almost immediately. She did this with Corbenic and does so again here. I'm looking forward to the second part!
          Achuka

The writing in The Oracle is spare but electrifying, the reader shares every heart stopping moment that the terrified Mirany experiences. This is no didactic view of Greek and Egyptian rituals but an inspirational retelling that makes turning the page utterly compelling.
          The Book Trust web site

A crisp, quick-moving narrative and fully fleshed out characters will keep readers hooked to the remaining installments in this trilogy.
          Publisher's Weekly

. Deceptively simple language shapes this numinous fantasy to work on many levels, from a thrilling adventure of intrigue and magic to a subtle probing of questions of faith, choice, and destiny. Fisher draws her players with skillful economy-her heroes are likable but realistically flawed, her villains despicable and menacing without being stupid-and their actions flow naturally from their characters and circumstances. Abrupt changes in voice and setting serve to intensify the liminal atmosphere and rising tension to a climactic triumphant release, with a brief, genuinely chilling denouement. A tale that will linger long in readers' memories; fortunately, the sequel is already on its way.
          Kirkus Reviews
These last two reviews can be found in full at Barnes & Noble's web site

The Archon

An intelligent children's book that never patronises its readers. Hodder have a winner here.
          Amber Leigh on sci-fi-online

The toughness and realism underlying all Fisher's fantasies is what makes them believable as well as wholly absorbing and aesthetically pleasing.
          Amanda Craig, The Times, February 2004
This review can be found in full at Amanda Craig's web site

The Scarab

Catherine Fisher's remarkable Oracle trilogy, whose first book, The Oracle, was short-listed for the Whitbread, comes to its conclusion in The Scarab (Hodder & Stoughton, £5.99; offer £4.49). Set in a desert land where rain comes through intercession with the Rain Queen goddess, and a small, mad boy is the god Archon incarnate, it uses Greek and Egyptian myth with forceful intelligence.
       Here the dictator Argelin is tearing down ancient statues and trying to kill the female priesthood. Only the criminal underworld defies him, and Mirany, the heroine, must go through death to save them all. Especially appealing to girls of 11-plus.
          Amanda Craig, The Sunday Times, July 2004

Darkhenge

Catherine Fisher's Darkhenge (The Bodley Head, £10.99) follows Robert, an artistic teenager, into a peaty world of ancients and archaeology as he attempts to drag his sister, Chloe, from her coma in the "unworld". Fisher captures the atmosphere crackling above the strange circles of Avebury, and the emotional terrain of a boy pulled between commitment to his family and longing for adventure.
          Helen Brown, The Daily Telegraph

Incarceron

Incarceron marks a particularly fruitful development for an author who was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Prize in 2003. Fisher has been writing fantasy since 1990, and ever since her Snow-Walker’s Son trilogy (1994-96) has been one to watch both for her remarkable imagination and a pared-down prose style reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin and Alan Garner.
          Amanda Craig, The Times