Conjuror's Game

Catherine Fisher

Dec 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

Alick is fascinated by Luke Ferris - the Conjuror! Where does he get his strange powers of healing? Why has he got six fingers? What is his connection with the sinister goings-on at the Mere in Halcombe Great Wood?

Then Alick follows the Conjuror to the secret chamber under the hillside. There he discovers the ancient game of Fidchell and accidentally removes a key piece in the game - unleashing dark and terrifying forces on to the world.

Ratings and reviews

After declaring Immrama to be an all-time favorite five star book, I was truly looking forward to this story. But I come away wondering why Fisher wrote it in the first place, and why the publisher accepted it for publication. It must have been a slow year. Some award shortlisted this book? It w a s indeed a slow year! Alick is not a hero in any way shape or form. Disobedient to his parent, with no redeeming virtues of any sort. What sort of protagonist is this? So he gets the tree back in place at the end of the book. So what? I wouldn't trust the boy with anything. This is no Harry Potter, nor any other boy fantasy protagonist you can name. Fidchell as a game is no more understood at the end of the book than at the beginning, not by adults let alone by the juveniles who are the target audience of the volume. And the threat of the opposing sides, who have supposedly teamed up to attack Alick, is at its greatest threat in the pub scene. The chess scene in the Potter series is a better threat. And what is this thing that Alick swallows? Alice has better explained "trips" on the other side of the looking glass in wonderland. Our editor simply needed to send the story back for several more re-writes and demanded more of our author. The potential is there. Fisher has the capability. But the people with the responsibility of seeing that she delivered simply did not follow through sufficiently. Too bad. You know, it is still not too late to do the re-write that should have been done in the first place. How about it Catherine? How about taking a year to do a thorough re-write and making Conjuror's Game the story that it should have been in the first place. I know you can do it!

Loved it 😍

About the author

Born in Newport, Catherine Fisher gained a B-ed at the University of Wales and became a primary school teacher. She has written poetry and a number of novels for young people. Both her poems and novels have won awards, including the Welsh Arts Council Young Writers' Prize 1989, the Cardiff International Poetry Competition 1989 and the Tir na n'Og Prize 1995, and she was shortlisted for the Smarties Book Prize in 1990. Darkhenge has been long listed for the Carnegie Medal.