Spellfall
Encyclopedia
Spellfall is a fantasy novel by Katherine Roberts
, published on 19 October 2000 by The Chicken House and aimed at pre-teens.
and perceived as crazy because she owns a spider named Itsy. This animal is kidnapped by Hawk and his followers in order to receive the opportunity to get disposal of Natalie, a plan that eventually fails. During the adventure, Natalie makes friends with the coeval Merlin and K'tanaqui, Lady Atanaqui's hound.
" in order to make fun of him). Merlin is linked with a mouse since he did not manage to get associated to a merlin
. He loves computers, a passion his father does not approve of. At the end of the story, Merlin makes his father disappear by transporting in a very successful way. Then Merlin stays in Earthaven to assist the Spell Lords with getting used to technology, since a bigger knowledge about computers would help them to understand Oq's system better.
with a hawk head as its knob.
Hawk caused the death of Merlin's mother by accidentally killing her pet, a sweet little canary
. She then took a train to the coast and wandered on a high cliff; her dead body was discovered a few days later on the rocks. Afterwards, Merlin was put by his father into the cellar so that Merlin could not elope.
Hawk eventually gets imprisoned between the worlds by his own son.
team. They became friends after somebody had stolen Natalie's glasses and been struck down by Jo a few moments later. Jo, the most athletic girl in the school, is extremely big, has brown hair dressed like a fringe and possesses, unlike Natalie, very good eyes. She has a little sister named Sarah, a freckled girl who loves to jabber and annoy Tim.
Jo convinces Natalie to learn inline skating
and along with Jo's very fat and drooling dog Bilbo she goes out very early in the morning. During the lesson Natalie loses track of Jo and Bilbo as they disappear inside the fog. A little time later, Natalie is ambushed by Hawk and his followers, who inject Natalie with a tranquiliser to make her fall asleep. Hawk drowns Bilbo in a nearby river. Jo, who cannot free her friend, alerts Natalie's and her own family.
During the residuary course of the story, Jo and Tim become friends, too. In the end, Jo and her sister are offered a new dog.
said the novel was "Involving and suspenseful," and the Voice of Young Advocates "highly recommended" it.
Other positive comments came from Jean Ure
who said Spellfall was, "A spellbinder! I raced enchanted through every twist and turn." , The Observer
who said "A welcome and well-written addition to the sorcery genre," and the Gary Dalkin, British Science Fiction Association
, who said, "...keeps the adventure, twists, turns and thrills coming at a breathless pace."
Negative points were brought up by Goodtoread.org who commented that, "You're never sure just how incompetent any of the magical characters really are, and you never really feel for any of them except Merlin. You're not sure just how seriously you're supposed to take the magical aspects of the story."
Katherine Roberts
Katherine Roberts is an English author, best known for her fantasy trilogy The Echorium Sequence. She was born in Torquay, England and spent most of her childhood in Devon and Cornwall, England...
, published on 19 October 2000 by The Chicken House and aimed at pre-teens.
Plot introduction
The story concerns a 12 year old girl named Natalie who is kidnapped by a wizard named Hawk who needs her to join his spellclave (group of bonded spellmages) to receive the Power of Thirteen and invade Earthaven (an enchanted realm) to get revenge on the Spell Lords that banished him for breaking a treaty.Natalie Marlins
Natalie "Nat" Marlins is the novel's main character. She has blonde hair and green eyes, wears glasses and is said to be pretty. Her mother, the Spell Lady Atanaqui, died when she was three years old. Natalie's father, a jobless salesman, later gets married to Natalie's stepmother Julie, who already has a son called Timothy. Natalie and her stepbrother dislike each other. Julie and Tim left London due to the marriage, so that the family live in an English small town whose name is Millennium Green. Natalie's only friend is Jo Carter, the strongest and tallest girl of their school, where Natalie is often teased due to her visual impairmentVisual impairment
Visual impairment is vision loss to such a degree as to qualify as an additional support need through a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from either disease, trauma, or congenital or degenerative conditions that cannot be corrected by conventional means, such as refractive...
and perceived as crazy because she owns a spider named Itsy. This animal is kidnapped by Hawk and his followers in order to receive the opportunity to get disposal of Natalie, a plan that eventually fails. During the adventure, Natalie makes friends with the coeval Merlin and K'tanaqui, Lady Atanaqui's hound.
Merlin
Merlin is Hawk's downtrodden son. His mother committed suicide when he still was a baby. Hawk regards Merlin as being completely incompetent as Merlin lacks many magical skills (Hawk chose the name "MerlinMerlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
" in order to make fun of him). Merlin is linked with a mouse since he did not manage to get associated to a merlin
Merlin (bird)
The Merlin is a small species of falcon from the Northern Hemisphere. A bird of prey once known colloquially as a pigeon hawk in North America, the Merlin breeds in the northern Holarctic; some migrate to subtropical and northern tropical regions in winter.-European and North American...
. He loves computers, a passion his father does not approve of. At the end of the story, Merlin makes his father disappear by transporting in a very successful way. Then Merlin stays in Earthaven to assist the Spell Lords with getting used to technology, since a bigger knowledge about computers would help them to understand Oq's system better.
Hawk
Hawk is the story's villain. The malicious would-be Spell Lord feverishly looks for a person with magical skills he could abduct and whose pet his goshawk could eat, so that the person would join his spellclave as a thirteenth member and make him become a Spell Lord. Hawk has long, black hair, yellow eyes, wears a hawk feather and always carries about with him a caneCane
Cane are either of two genera of tall, perennial grasses with flexible, woody stalks from the family Poaceae that grow throughout the world in wet soils. They are related to and may include species of bamboo. The genus Arundo is native from the Mediterranean region to the Far East. Arundinaria...
with a hawk head as its knob.
Hawk caused the death of Merlin's mother by accidentally killing her pet, a sweet little canary
Domestic Canary
The Domestic Canary, often simply known as the canary, is a domesticated form of the wild Canary, a small songbird in the finch family originating from the Macaronesian Islands ....
. She then took a train to the coast and wandered on a high cliff; her dead body was discovered a few days later on the rocks. Afterwards, Merlin was put by his father into the cellar so that Merlin could not elope.
Hawk eventually gets imprisoned between the worlds by his own son.
Jo Carter
Joanne "Jo" Carter is Natalie's best and only friend and a member of the school's netballNetball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
team. They became friends after somebody had stolen Natalie's glasses and been struck down by Jo a few moments later. Jo, the most athletic girl in the school, is extremely big, has brown hair dressed like a fringe and possesses, unlike Natalie, very good eyes. She has a little sister named Sarah, a freckled girl who loves to jabber and annoy Tim.
Jo convinces Natalie to learn inline skating
Inline skating
Inline skating is a recreational sport practiced widely internationally. Inline skates typically have 2 to 5 polyurethane wheels, arranged in a single line. The in-line design allows for greater speed than roller skates and better maneuverability...
and along with Jo's very fat and drooling dog Bilbo she goes out very early in the morning. During the lesson Natalie loses track of Jo and Bilbo as they disappear inside the fog. A little time later, Natalie is ambushed by Hawk and his followers, who inject Natalie with a tranquiliser to make her fall asleep. Hawk drowns Bilbo in a nearby river. Jo, who cannot free her friend, alerts Natalie's and her own family.
During the residuary course of the story, Jo and Tim become friends, too. In the end, Jo and her sister are offered a new dog.
Mr Marlins
Mr Marlins - first name unrevealed - is Natalie's father. He drinks oodles of beer, which leads to constant drunkenness. He used to work as a salesman until he lost his job, so that he always stays at home and mainly spends his time cleaning his prestigious car, which he had not been driving anymore since the death of Natalie's mother. There are quite few people whom Mr Marlins has a good relationship to, a fact which will have changed by the end of the tale.Julie Marlins
Julie Marlins is Natalie's stepmother, Mr Marlin's wife and Tim's mother. As she told her son before getting married to Mr Marlins, she regards Natalie as a confused little girl and her father as being an unhappy man. Because of this attitude, she mothers Natalie inordinately, by which she neglects her son. The latter fact led to the hostility that rose between Natalie and Tim, whereby Tim behaves more aggressively and teasingly.Tim
Timothy Lockley, "Tim" for short, is the stepbrother of Natalie and the son of Julie. He is angry with his mother's second marriage, which forced them to leave London and move to Millennium Green. Tim also detests Natalie and her father, making them responsible for his anger and terrorising his stepsister to get rid of his aggressiveness. He has made friends with a gang composed of some of his classmates; to enter that group he had to pierce his ear with an earring that looks like a skull. Tim is described to have blonde curls.Literary criticism
The majority of reviews were positive, for example the Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
said the novel was "Involving and suspenseful," and the Voice of Young Advocates "highly recommended" it.
Other positive comments came from Jean Ure
Jean Ure
-Background:Jean Ure was born and brought up in a suburb of London and attended school in Croydon. She wrote her first book when she was six years old and had her first book, Dance For Two published when she was sixteen. Having decided to make a career as a writer, she ran away from school and...
who said Spellfall was, "A spellbinder! I raced enchanted through every twist and turn." , The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
who said "A welcome and well-written addition to the sorcery genre," and the Gary Dalkin, British Science Fiction Association
British Science Fiction Association
The British Science Fiction Association was founded in 1958 by a group of British science fiction fans, authors, publishers and booksellers, in order to encourage science fiction in every form. It is an open membership organisation costing £26 per year for UK residents and £18 for the unwaged. The...
, who said, "...keeps the adventure, twists, turns and thrills coming at a breathless pace."
Negative points were brought up by Goodtoread.org who commented that, "You're never sure just how incompetent any of the magical characters really are, and you never really feel for any of them except Merlin. You're not sure just how seriously you're supposed to take the magical aspects of the story."
Release details
- 2001, UK, Chicken House Ltd, ISBN 1903434173, Pub date June 1, 2001, Paperback
- 2001, UK, Element Books Ltd, ISBN 0439296536, Pub date September, 2001, Hardback
- 2003, US, Chicken House Ltd, ISBN 0439472202, Pub date April 1, 2003, Paperback
- 2003, US, Turtleback Books Distributed, ISBN 0606281193, Pub Date April 2003, Hardback
- 2007, UK, Chicken House Ltd, ISBN 1905294220, Pub Date March 5, 2007, Paperback (recover)