Gods and Warriors: The Outsiders (Book One) - Softcover

Michelle Paver was born in Malawi in 1960 and moved to England when she was three. After gaining a degree in biochemistry from Oxford, she became a partner in a City law firm, but gave that up to write full-time. To research her stories about animals and the distant past, she has travelled in the Arctic, the Mediterranean and Egypt, swum with dolphins and killer whales, and encountered bears, boars and wolves. She is the author of the internationally bestselling Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, the final book of which won the 2010 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

Gr 6 Up-Paver brings her intense research skills to Bronze Age Greece to tell the story of Hylas, a young man who is an Outsider and is not allowed in the clan village. He suddenly finds himself being hunted by fierce warriors he knows only as the Crows, who seem bent on destroying him and all the remaining Outsiders. Hylas takes refuge in a tomb where he discovers a dying man who gifts him with a bronze dagger and some cryptic words about the answer being found in the sea. With help from his friend, Telamon, who is the village chief's son, Hylas makes his way to the sea. There he is befriended by a dolphin named Spirit that leads him to an island where he finds Pirra, the daughter of the High Priestess, who has escaped to avoid a forced marriage to Telamon. While initially antagonistic toward each other, Hylas and Pirra must work together not only to stay alive, but also to discover the truth behind the dagger and why Hylas is being pursued. The added element of Hylas's friendship with the dolphin adds a surreal quality to this story already filled with adventure and danger. Paver brings this mysterious period of history to vibrant life in a compelling realistic narrative with some fantasy flourishes. Who knew the Bronze Age could be so fascinating?-Tim Wadham, Puyallup Public Library, WAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.