Launched by internationally acclaimed children's, young adult and fantasy author, Margaret Mahy

Fantasy
Large "C" Format (234mm x 153mm)
208pp

Anchored in a fearsome past of tyrant rulers and black magic, Gleam is a fiefdom gripped in the clutches of its ruler, the Markgrave, who has crushed freedom and hope.

An ancient prophecy promises a bright new beginning for Gleam, but to destroy any chance of its being fulfilled, the Markgrave seeks the help of the Brotherhood, a mysterious order of scholars and practitioners of the dark arts.

Into this menacing world comes a young woman, Johanna, and her brother, Tobias.

Tobias’s craving for power makes him an unwitting pawn in the Brotherhood’s evil. Johanna, meanwhile, is chosen to be the victim whose sacrifice will preserve the regime of the tyrant Markgrave.

But Johanna has two unlikely allies: a gentle musician and a runaway jester.

To thwart the forces gathered against them, these three will descend into a darkness deeper than any they have ever known and discover resources of courage and invention they could not have imagined they possessed.


James Norcliffe has previously published four highly original fantasy novels for young adults (Under the Rotunda, Penguin Bay, The Emerald Encyclopedia, which won an honour award in the AIM Children’s Book Awards, and The Carousel Experiment). These were all marked by fast-moving action, cleverly engineered plots, oddball humour, and situations in which his young characters are confronted by the mysterious and the bizarre.

Much more ambitious in its themes and scope, The Assassin of Gleam gives his readers, young and old, an altogether darker and deeper experience and signals an exciting new direction for one of New Zealand’s most imaginative writers of fiction. Conceived as the first of a series of novels in which the world of Gleam with its secrets and mysteries is examined, The Assassin of Gleam is to be followed by the equally compelling The Mistress of Yewfire and The Witch of Aboraxus.

James Norcliffe’s work has appeared world-wide and is frequently anthologised. He has also published several collections of poetry and a collection of short stories, The Chinese Interpreter. Among many literary distinctions, he has been The Robert Burns Fellow in 2000 and a writer in residence in Hobart through the Tasmanian Island of Residencies Awards in 2005.