Rite of Conquest - Softcover

Judith Tarr has written over 30 novels for eight different publishers. A graduate of Yale and Cambridge Universities, she holds degrees in ancient and medieval history, and breeds Lipizzan horses at her home, Dancing Horse Farm.

*Starred Review* How does Tarr do it? She writes scrupulously researched historical fiction that blends myth, mystery, historical fact, and page-turning-good action, producing one such critically acclaimed novel just about every year. As a reigning specialist in fiction of the ancient world, she has taken on settings ranging from dynastic Egypt to Camelot, and her work's fascination derives as much from the solidly grounded, multifaceted backdrop she weaves as from the magical elements, inspired by a masterful storyteller's imagination, that she injects into her scenarios. Rite of Conquest presents William the Conqueror as the bastard son of an earthly year-king and a druid goddess on an earth on which spirit-beings mix with mortals, and England as the scene of an earth-based paganism rebelliously stirring against centuries of Saxon-enforced Christianity. Sent by her nobleman father to the French court to perfect her magic and eventually become a Guardian, thereby fulfilling her destiny as ruler of worlds mortal and magical, Mathilda meets young Bastard William, who has fought in Normandy and resists his innate gifts. She sees him as the One Foretold, and with her powers he will risk synergizing seen and unseen forces to cross the Channel and rule England. Oh, this is irresistible! Whitney Scott
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