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Midwinterblood
Midwinterblood
Midwinterblood
Ebook263 pages3 hours

Midwinterblood

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

Seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries but mysteriously intertwined—this is a tale of horror and beauty, tenderness and sacrifice.

An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside? And what might be powerful enough to break the cycle of midwinterblood? From award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick comes a book about passion and preservation and ultimately an exploration of the bounds of love.

This title has Common Core connections.

A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013
A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 5, 2013
ISBN9781596438026
Midwinterblood
Author

Marcus Sedgwick

Marcus Sedgwick was one of this generation’s most lauded and highly regarded writers for children and young people, having published over forty books including acclaimed Midwinterblood and The Monsters We Deserve. He won multiple prestigious awards, most notably the Michael L. Printz Award, the Branford Boase Award, the BookTrust Teenage Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award.

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Reviews for Midwinterblood

Rating: 3.721115498007968 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Part mystery, part thriller, part historical fiction, this book tracks two souls from a time in the near future to a prehistoric era through interconnected short stories. The reader is left to put some of the pieces together. This held my attention to the very end and actually does track with the latest archaeological information on prehistoric Celtic sacrifice (grisly as it might seem to us).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Midwinterblood is a related collection of short stories that starts in the future and progresses backward through time. Each tale is set on the island Blessed in the North Sea. As you reach each story, set in a different moon, you understand more and more of the preceeding stories. Witchcraft, magic, and Norse mythology are woven throughout. Each story begins with a lovely black and while illustration.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This year's Printz winner. Definitely compels you to keep reading to find out how the pars fit together. Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman. Would have to appeal to the right teen, not for everyone but definitely would promote analysis and discussion.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Eric Seven is a journalist. He is traveling to Blessed Island. He has heard stories about the island and the people there that do not age. Eric meets Merle. He feels an instant connection with her. Eric has a feeling that he has met her before. Eric realizes that he has met Merle before in a past life. Not just a past life but six other lives. I have never read anything by this author. To be honest this is not the type of book that I would typically purchase for myself but always willing to try new authors. While, this book did sound good I still had my reservations about it going into the book. Well those were quickly put aside once I started reading this book. I was spellbound. I could not read this book fast enough. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it was that great and bad because this book already was a fast read with short chapters. The seven stories just flowed from one to the next. Each one added to the whole tale as a whole piece of the pie. I am not usually a fan of time travel but loved it for this book. The refreshing thing I loved about this book was that the stories were told from future to past or the beginning. So I knew how the story ended but it was cool to get to go backwards and see how it all started. I want to go back and comment and say that this book was in a sense time travel but more reincarnation. This book will have both young and adult readers enjoying it. Midwinter Blood is like finding a piece of valuable treasure!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Seven short stories with different characters, each story set further back in time. The common thread between them is that they all take place on Blessed Island in Scandinavia, where a certain dragon orchid plant is grown and harvested: drinking tea made from this orchid appears to have unusual healing qualities but bizarre side effects as well. As the reader approaches the end you can see how all these tie together. This, the 2014 Printz winner, is engrossing, chilling, and haunting all at the same time: definitely not for the faint of heart.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Seven short stories share a setting, Blessed Island, and plots and characters intertwine leading up to a revealing ending. This tightly-plotted, well-written mystery will intrigue a variety of readers and is deserving of its Printz medal for 2014. I usually avoid short story compilations but found this book to be different since these stories worked together to tell one complete tale.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Free lance journalist Eric Seven arrives on Blessed Island in 2073. Blessed Island is north of the Arctic Circle, in the land of the midnight sun, and very isolated. He’s come in the hope of a story about a place where people, it’s rumored, “have started to live forever.” He finds the people there friendly, if a bit strange. He falls in love with a young woman named Merle. Blessed Island is very restful; he sleeps an unusually long time each day, but then he starts to discover that he’s having a very difficult time remembering why he came.Inspired by the controversial 1915 painting Midvinterblot by Swedish artist Carl Larsson, Sedgwick writes his creepy tale of reoccurring sacrifice in seven parts starting in the future and going back to prehistory. Recurrent motifs in all the stories are a girl or woman named Merle and a boy or man named Eric who dies or has been severely damaged physically, a hare or hares, the and powerful orchids, Orchidae dracula beati, “little blessed dragon,” grown on the western side of the island from which a soporific, psychoactive tea is brewed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book seemingly defies categories. It's mythical, it's romantic, it's historical, it's fantasy, etc. It has a little bit of everything! Boys will like it, so will girls. It's intended for teens but it will appeal to adults as well. It gives you chills and goosebumps and compels you to keep turning pages! The seven stories all take place on a mysterious island. Starting in the future and then going in reverse the tales become more and more interconnected. Characters seem to be repeat themselves, as do the themes. It seems like it would be a really gorgeous episode (or season) of the Twilight Zone. It's written beautifully and the symbols and themes connect to each other and blossom into deeper meanings until it climaxes at the end. A quick, delicious read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Do NOT listen to people, don't read the flyleaf, step into this tale utterly unschooled and open-minded.

    You will not be able to put it down.

    Thank you, BR, for the referral!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is a series of short stories set throughout history on the island of Blessed, a mysterious island where Eric a journalist sets out to explore. The stories are entwined to follow the time defying love of Eric and Merle.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island inhabited--throughout various time periods--by Vikings, vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So good. Well-written. Compelling story. I don't know that it would appeal to reluctant readers, but avid teen readers of fantasy will love this story.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Midwinderblood won the 2014 Michael Printz Award for Young Fiction. Based on that recommendation I bought this book. I have had lots of good luck reading other winners of the Printz Award.The book has seven stories with the same names cropping up in each story. There are some connections from one story to the next and some stories are more interesting than the others. As you move from one tale to the next you travel back in time so that you are getting the backstory, or you are learning information that will be explained later.A reoccurring theme is a flower known as the dragon flower. Apparently different parts of this plant have different medicinal/narcotic properties that turn up to varying degrees within each story. I haven't a clue what the flowers might symbolize.Generally I liked the idea of seven stories that were linked, but the first story was the weakest, or most unusual, and while I was interested in the others, I am not sure I would give this a thumbs up.On the Tex the Cat scale, I give this two paws up.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This isn’t my usual reading fair – there’s more romance than I normally go for – but the premise is interesting. Seven interwoven stories, seven different time periods, three names that turn up again and again. Eric, Merle, and Tor appear over and over in these stories: Eric is a journalist in the near future, writing an investigative article on a mysterious island in the far north where residents seem to live forever. Tor and Merle are married a couple who rescue a wartime aviator who crashes on their property. Merle and Eric are brother and sister, living among the Vikings, and Tor is their uncle. The relationships change, the situations change, but these characters inhabit every story. As we move back in time, back to the beginning of their story, they are constantly reaching out to each other, circling around each other.This reminded me a bit of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, one of my all-time favorite novels. It’s not in that class, but they cover some of the same territory: the idea that we are surrounded by people we know and love, throughout many lives and incarnations. In the ebb and flow of time and reincarnation, these people always come to the same place. They are always connected to one another.I think what I enjoyed about this is the way that the stories differ. It is not as though these characters lead the same lives, fall in love in the same way, or even relate to each other the same way, time after time. Merle and Eric might be lovers, or they might be mother and son. It made the stories more interesting, as you watched the various connections unfold. I also liked watching for the small details that tied the stories together — the bit of wood in the grave, the painting, the hare. They give the reader something to discover, something to watch for in each story, and you get to wonder and speculate on how the details in each story will manifest as you move through the centuries.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This story starts in the near future and proceeds back in time to early man where two souls, Erik and Merle are drawn together and cruelly parted time and time again - seven times to be exact. It takes place on a mysterious island called Bless off Ireland. One part has people and trees and the other side, joined by a spit of land, is bare of trees and population but covered with a dark purple orchid with magical properties.The reader perceives a pattern emerging with each story as the two young people come together and then are separated. Tied to them is the health of the population and the land. Each time they have the feeling that they have a connection, that they have met before.This is a wonderful love story with a touch of dark fantasy.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The individual stories were gorgeous and the language felt beautiful, but I was very frustrated by trying to figure out how things linked together. So I felt like in the end I spent much too much time trying to figure out how the stories were connected and didn't enjoy myself as much as I should have. My fault, not the authors. Wish I could do this again and let myself enjoy it more.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm not even sure how to review this. This book is a fantastic story told across time in 20-30 page vignettes. It's also a story told backwards, both in that it starts with the end, and each vignette jumps back in history.

    Sedgwick has a wonderful prose style and the story fills in naturally. I found myself pleasantly surprised to find such high quality gothic horror in a YA novel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Marcus Sedgwick takes a Norse legend plus a piece of 20th century artwork [google Midvinterblot by Carl Larsson when you've read the book!] as his starting point for this creative, timeless, love story and I loved it. It starts with a journalist arriving at a remote island on the hunt for a story about people living forever and then takes you back on a journey back through time. The island does have a slightly unnerving 'Wickerman' quality with characters that give you a feeling of foreboding despite their outward appearance of friendliness. The way Sedgwick answers your questions as the story tumbles back through time is subtly done and I feel this is definitely a book that has crossover appeal for adults. The writing is powerful and poetic with some beautiful touches and uses of imagery; we have unsettling ghost stories, vampires, ritual sacrifice and magic but the central relationships are the backbone of the story that draw you on. It is difficult to say much more about the plot without spoiling the ending but suffice to say I will certainly be recommending this is a fascinating read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    So when I finished this book, I thought, “Wow.” And then: “What was that?” I’m inclined to say that I loved the book, but when I think about it as a whole, it just didn’t come together. I loved the atmospheric, mythic tone and setting. It’s obviously meticulously constructed, and there’s a part of me that lauds it for that alone—the symbolism, recurring motifs, foreshadowing, and other literary devices. The first section shocked and intrigued me. Individually, I enjoyed almost every section. But the stories and devices—I don’t’ know that they came together to create anything meaningful. There’s virtually no character development. The stories never reach any depth. It goes backwards, so you spend the much of your time reading it confused, trying to figure out what’s going on, and in the end, one part is mostly explained, but a lot of questions remain unanswered. If such pains were taken to include ____ in every section, what did it mean? Why was it there? Who is this person? Why is he only in two sections? How did society on the island go from this to that? What is the mythology here? Etc etc etc. I found the world, the people, the societies Sedgwick created fascinating, but I still know almost nothing about them! So I liked this book a lot, but I think it’s not as good as it seems. It’s impressively literary, especially at first glance, but on closer inspection at the work as a whole, it doesn’t hold up.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Vampires, reincarnation, ritual sacrifice, and a tiny island. I am not even sure what to say about this one. I appreciate the attempted scope of the story, but it annoyed me somehow. I might have liked it better if I could have one person's story per day/night instead of having to read it so quickly. I like this book less and less the longer I think about it. Some aspects of it reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Years of Rice and Salt, but more fatalistic. Really not sure why this is a teen book and not adult.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A dark book for children or teenagers. Readable and interesting plot. But I too was disappointed by the penultimate chapter - the great love affair which began it all is barely described. It was a love that lasted centuries and we missed the beginning. Very effective final chapter though.The picture is on the Google Art Project if a reader wants to look at it closely.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I had been delaying writing this review because I was trying to figure out my own reaction to the book. There is a lot good in the book - the linked stories have just enough subtlety in the connections between them to make them well done and just enough independence to make them work on their own, the reversed timeline is pulled off masterfully. But it also has its weak points - the epilogue does not feel like it belongs to the book and I am still not sure why this is classified as YA - it looks like a cop out to allow shallowly built characters and more coincidences than one would accept in an adult book. And I would not be so unhappy of the latter if the book was not actually pretty good - it could have worked as an adult book with very little change. But let's go back to the story - somewhere out there, there is an island where a special flower is grown - a flower that can extend people's life but it also makes them forget things. The 7 stories in the novel go back in time in the lives of two lovers - they died in their first life but always find themselves - sometimes as lovers, sometimes as friends. There is a ghost story and an archeological dig, a picture and a magically hidden part of the island, vampires and vikings. One story leads into another and the connections are built with a mastery that makes me wonder why it was not extended to building the characters as well. We follow an archeologist finding a bomb and a grave, in the next stories we learn how they ended up there; we will see a picture and then we will see it painted and then we will see how the actual scene happened. It starts with a sacrifice and it ends with one - despite the centuries between the two, it is one and the same. Time makes a full circle and one wonders if it will be just one. The start of the novel is mundane - a journalist is sent to an island that seems to be weird and special; an island where he will meet a woman that seems to be his destiny. He needs to forget and he needs to remember. The end of the novel, without the epilogue is lyrical and fitting. The epilogue is useless and although it seems to be built to tie the stories together, it manages to sound condescending and totally out of style. The prose weaves between simple (even simplistic) and lyrical. I can see why it won awards for YA novels but I also wonder what could have been if Sedgwick had written it as a proper novel - it could have stood as one. And I am not sure how fair it is to have this kind of a mish-mash called YA - it has the same issues as most of the YA books but it also has elements that put it on top of them. At the end, it is a readable novel - somewhere between YA and adult literature. A lost opportunity in so many ways despite the awards it had won - it's not YA except by name but it does not get to the level of a good adult fiction either.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Romantic. Mysterious. Chilling. The book is about love, and the sacrifices made for love. Can't go into plot without revealing spoilers. The book is written as seven short stories. Each story takes place on the island of Blessed, and features the characters of Eric and Merle representing the idea of love and sacrifice. In one story, they are husband/wife, in another mother/son - and so on. Each story works as a stand alone, but also come together to tell a grander story, the real story, of Eric and Merle. Told backwards in time, starting in the year 2073 and going back to the 10th century, secrets about Eric and Merle are slowly revealed until the final, chilling page. This book is a one-sit read that will have you reading it again. Bloody brilliant!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A series of separate, yet related, stories follows a couple through seven reincarnations on a remote island.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Seven stories take place on an island in the Arctic Circle over the centuries, starting in 2073 and going backwards to prehistory. Each story features the same two characters, Eric and Merle, and there is a sacrifice in each story. In each story you learn a bit more, till the last story, when the original reason for the sacrifice occurred.The author drew his inspiration from a painting by Carl Larsson, a famous Swedish painter, called Midvinterblot. The painting itself was quite controversial for many years, as it departed from the Norman Rockwell-type paintings of Swedish family life that the artist was known for.The cover design of the first edition of this book, with the photograph of a young woman, is lame, but the newest edition, with the Printz award, has one that is more expressive of the book's contents. Sometimes I wonder if the designers read the books they design covers for, or if anyone at the editorial level approves the design. A better cover might have "sold" this book to students in my library, but it has languished on the shelves.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Since I will be attending the Printz reception at ALA in a couple weeks, I thought it would be good to read this year's winner, so as not to be lost when Sedgwick speaks.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mesmerizing story that follows Eric and Merle though seven intertwined lives in northern Europe. Each previous life reveals a little more of their joined history, though in some lives they are husband and wife, others brother and sister or even young and old or strangers. But the connection between them is deep and their history in their small island is brutal and violent.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    After reading a plot synopsis of this book on Amazon.com, I wasn’t sure if it was right for me but I decided to risk it. The fantasy elements were appealing, but even when they have Vikings, I often find folk tales to be predictable. What finally decided it for me was the vampire. I love a good vampire story. As it turns out, the vampire vignette wasn’t even my favorite! I found, while reading this novel, that I forgot it was YA literature. The characters weren’t necessarily teens or children and the stories were dark and twisty, interwoven cleverly with complex recurring themes. The author, Marcus Sedgwick makes a commentary on his blog about the blurry line between literature for youth and literature for adults when he writes,
    "Of course, even back in those dim distant days of teenagehood, there were strange books that threatened to make things more confusing; Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies are the ones that are most often touted as hovering somewhere in a liminal space between the worlds of the teenager and the adult, but there were always other books that appealed to the young adult as much as the more mature version of the human being: Camus’ Outsider, the science-fiction of Heinlein, the horror of Poe, the epics of Tolkein." (Sedgwick 2014)
    Sedgwick’s blog is a great peak into the author’s mind and motivations. Frankly, whether you call it a book for teens or adults, teenagers are going to read what they want to in the end. Lord of the Flies, for instance is very dark story classified as YA lit and I loved it, and at age 17 I read Nabokov’s Lolita, decidedly not YA Lit, and enjoyed that, too.
    Midwinterblood reminded me a bit of The Stepford Wives (oddly enough), with the tightly controlled community where everyone seems content, and the M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Village. The tale of love that transcends death in a dangerous place, “I will live seven times and I will look for you in each one,” (Sedgwick 2014) should appeal to a legion of teenagers in the way that the Twilight series did. A fun romp in science fiction, as opposed to fantasy, with a love story through time is Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein. Alternatively, if you like old dark folktales, read the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not at all what I expected, Midwinterblood is a series of beautiful interconnected stories about Blessed Island. The stories weave through time, sometimes unsettling, sometimes sweet, but coming together into a powerful conclusion. I can't quite figure out why this was marketed as a YA novel, not because teens wouldn't enjoy it — I'm sure they would — but because the themes are rather adult themes. Instead of dealing with teenage concerns normally presented in YA (such as growing up, figuring out who you are, dealing with friendship and first love and the feeling of being an outcast and so on), the book mainly presents adults with adult concerns, such as regret, life not having gone as expected, the love of work, death and mourning. There's a emotional maturity here that I just didn't expect and it makes for a wonderful and beautiful read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Diese und weitere Rezensionen findet ihr auf meinem Blog Anima Libri - Buchseele

    Dieses Buch ist… verwirrend! Eigentlich habe ich „Sieben Monde“ von Marcus Sedgwick schon vor einer ganzen Weile gelesen, aber irgendwie vergessen eine Rezension dazu zu schreiben. Vielleicht, weil mich dieser Roman so unerwartet irritiert hat. Dabei ist er gar nicht unbedingt schlecht, vor allem ist er nicht so absurd kitschig, wie der Satz „Ich werde sieben Leben leben. In jedem werde ich nach dir suchen und dich lieben.“ mich hatte vermuten lassen. Dafür ist Marcus Sedgwicks Roman irgendwie… komisch. Absurd. Seltsam. Verwirrend eben.

    Er beginnt im Jahr 2073 und geht dann, Stück für Stück, in der Zeit zurück: 2011, 1944, 1902, 1848, bis ins zehnte Jahrhundert und davor. Immer geht es dabei um Erik und Merle, die beiden, die sich in jedem ihrer sieben Leben irgendwie wiederfinden. Immer in den unterschiedlichsten Konstellationen, mal sind sie verwandt, Mutter und Sohn oder Geschwister, mal trennen sie zwei Generationen, und dann sind da noch die Zeiten, in denen sie ein Paar sind.

    Eigentlich ist der einzige bleibende Eindruck, den dieser Roman bei mir hinterlassen hat, der, dass er irgendwie ‚strange‘ ist. Ungewöhnlich und teils anstrengend zu folgen, trotzdem aber so faszinierend, dass ich ihn in einem einzigen Rutsch durchgelesen habe. Insgesamt fällt es mir schwer zu sagen, was genau mich an diesem Buch fasziniert hat – oder worum genau es denn nun eigentlich gegangen ist.

    Alles in allem weiß ich einfach nicht so recht, was ich von Marcus Sedgwicks „Sieben Monde“ halten soll. Schlecht ist der Roman sicherlich nicht, aber ob ich ihn wirklich gut gefunden habe? Ich glaube nicht. Dazu war er mir irgendwie zu undurchschaubar. Daher kann ich auch nicht sagen, ob ich ihn empfehlen würde, wer aber mit doch eher abstrusen Geschichten nichts anfangen kann, der sollte wohl die Finger von diesem Roman lassen.

Book preview

Midwinterblood - Marcus Sedgwick

One

The sun does not go down.

This is the first thing that Eric Seven notices about Blessed Island. There will be many other strange things that he will notice, before the forgetting takes hold of him, but that will come later.

For now, he checks his watch as he stands at the top of the island’s solitary hill, gazing to where the sun should set. It is midnight, but the sun still shines, barely dipping its heavy rim into the sea on the far horizon.

The island is so far north.

He shakes his head.

He’s thinking about Merle. How something seems to wait in her eyes. How he felt calm, just standing next to her.

Well, so it is, he says, smiling with wonder.

He’s tired. His journey has been a long one.

*   *   *

The strangeness began on the plane.

The flight to Skarpness was not full, maybe half the seats were empty, but there were nevertheless a good number of people. Mining company folk mostly, heading to the northern interior, Eric guessed.

He took his seat by the window and did what everyone does before the instruction to switch off communications; he selected OneDegree on his device, and bumped.

And then … nothing.

He rebooted the app, and bumped again.

Nothing.

He shook his head, unable to understand it.

The OneDegree app is based on the principle of six degrees of separation. Eric knows all about it. As a journalist, it is his job to know about communication in its many forms. Since its invention, when some clever soul realized that it often takes not six, but merely one step to connect you to most other people in the world, the app, or its current version, sits in the palm of everyone’s hand. When going on a journey, or arriving in a new place, the easiest way to make friends quickly is to bump the air around you with OneDegree. Maybe no one you know is on the same plane, but someone who knows someone you know is likely to be. Or someone who went to school with a friend of yours. Or who works where you worked ten years ago. And so on and so on. Then you have someone to pass the journey with, at the least, and maybe a new friend for life. And although that’s never happened to Eric, in all his years of using OneDegree on so many solitary journeys around the world, he has never failed to find some kind of link among a group of a hundred or more who would otherwise have remained total strangers.

So that is why he stared a moment longer at his device, wondering if the new version had a bug.

As if something sinister had happened, he leaned out of his seat and a little furtively studied his fellow passengers.

They were a tough lot.

Miners, he thought. Tough.

Work and worry were drawn on their faces, in skin aged by the cold. They were silent, merely nodding at the smiling attendants who floated down the aisle, proffering drinks.

You’ll have to switch that off now, Mr. Seven, said a voice, and he turned to see one of them looking down at him. She checked her device, making sure she’d gotten his name right.

He scratched the back of his head, pushed a badly behaved strand of dark brown hair out of his eyes.

Yes. Sorry, right. Only…

He looked at his device.

Yes, Mr. Seven?

He shook his head. How could he have managed not to bump anyone on the flight? Not even at the weakest level of connection.

Nothing.

The attendant smiled.

Very good. Have a nice flight, Mr. Seven.

*   *   *

He did have a nice flight.

The plane arrowed due north, clinging to the coast almost the whole way. It was spectacularly beautiful.

The coastline was a broken fractal, the sea was deep blue, the rocks of the shore gentle mottled grays and browns. Inland, the ground climbed steadily into forests, which eventually gave way to treeless mountaintops.

About noon the plane landed at Skarpness, and as Eric predicted, most of the passengers picked up transport heading for the big mine.

For the hundredth time, he pulled out the instructions the desk editor’s assistant had given him, and then made his way on foot to the ferry terminal, where he boarded the steamboat for the short trip to Blessed Island.

He knows little about the place.

Just the rumors. But then, that’s all anyone knows, and that, after all, is the whole point of his trip, to find out something about the island.

There is nothing much about it on the Net. Nothing beyond the times of the steamboat, the hours of sun-fall and moon-up, a brief history of the old fishing trade, now gone.

As for the rumors …

No firsthand accounts, no original source material. The pages that do mention them are simply rehashes of each other, leaving very few original hits to glean anything from.

So little to be read on the Net; that’s another strange thing about the place.

All he’s heard are the rumors, stories, the speculation, and the swiftly lost words of whispered secrets, about the island where people have started to live forever.

Two

Eric Seven does not believe in love at first sight.

He corrects himself.

Even in that moment, the moment that it happens, he feels his journalist’s brain make a correction, rubbing out a long-held belief, writing a new one in its place.

He did not believe in love at first sight. He thinks he might do so now.

I’m Merle, she says. Her light hair falls across one eye as she shakes his hand; she flicks it aside. And smiles.

Of course you are, he says. Inside, he makes a note to punish himself later for such a lame reply, and yet, he had not said it with arrogance, or even an attempt at being funny. He said it as if someone else was saying it for him.

He was standing on the quayside, his single large backpack by his feet. Behind him, the steamboat pulled away, heading back to the mainland. The few other passengers have already disappeared, vanishing into the narrow lanes of the island.

Everything is quiet.

The young woman called Merle half turns and gestures, and now Eric notices a small group of people with her.

They smile at him, too.

One of them, an old man, steps forward.

I’m Tor, he says, and holds out his hand.

Eric shakes it, feeling a little uneasy again.

How did you know I was coming? he asks.

Well, we didn’t, Tor says. But we don’t get many visitors. Word of your arrival reached us, and we have come to meet you, Mr.… Seven?

Yes. Yes, that’s right. Eric Seven.

Tor raises a whiskery eyebrow. His face is long and so weather-beaten it is hard to guess how old he is, and Eric notices that there is something wrong with one of his eyes. It’s milky, and doesn’t seem to focus. Maybe he’s even blind in that eye. Eric tries not to stare.

Well, so it is, he says under his breath.

Seven? asks Tor. One of the True Modern Church?

Eric shakes his head.

"My parents were. They were first generation converts, back in the twenty-twenties.

I… He stops, wonders what to say. I disappointed them. It means nothing to me.

So why keep the name? Tor smiles. If I may ask.

Eric pauses.

Many reasons, I suppose. Respect, perhaps. And even though I’m not religious, I do like the idea that the renaming represents.

Merle, who’s been watching this exchange, tilts her head just a fraction more. Her hair falls across her eyes again. Eric notices it, and feels himself fall even faster for her. He feels ridiculous. He’s wondering what to say, what to do, but she’s asking him something.

What’s that? she asks. The idea behind it?

The founders of the True Modern Church had many strongly held principles and beliefs, but much of their teaching is more practical, to do with how people relate to one another, to society, and so on. They believed that names were shackles, and badges, and that they were full of meaning, and history, and were therefore weapons of prejudice and of snobbery. Anyone who joins the Church is invited to select a new name, one without meaning, without history, without prejudice. Numbers are common in the Church; they seemed neutral. Devoid of meaning.

Merle tilts her head some more. Eric wants to shout with joy, and pictures himself throwing his arms around her. He does neither, but wonders what it would feel like to touch her.

But Mr. Seven, Tor says, all words have meaning. Especially names. Even new ones. And as for numbers…

Eric shrugs again.

What was your parents’ name before they joined the Church?

Eric is thrown, as he realizes that he doesn’t want to talk about his parents. He changes the subject. He looks at Tor and Merle, and the two women and another man who are with them. They are all smiling at him.

So, are you always this friendly to visitors?

We don’t get many visitors, Tor repeats.

Eric notices that his question has not been answered directly, but lets it drop.

And why have you come to Blessed Island? Tor continues.

He smiles, and just as Eric is about to tell him, something makes him stop short. But it’s best not to lie, and in these circumstances he usually falls back on the simple method of giving just enough of the truth.

I’m a journalist, he explains. My editor wants a feature about your island. She’s heard it’s a beautiful place. A special place.

Eric can already see that this much is true.

Behind the welcoming party, a little lane splits into two, one path running off around the shoreline, the other up over a gentle rise. He can see modest, beautifully designed wooden houses, most painted in rich colors: deep reds, light blues, earthy yellows. They have small rose bushes and tall birches. Bees hum in the air.

Behind him the blue sea slaps at the stones of the quay and gulls cry overhead.

And will you be staying long? asks Tor, looking at Eric’s single bag.

I don’t know yet, Eric says.

He looks at Merle. She smiles.

Three

Eric Seven sat in the Cross House with Tor and the others who had met him at the ferry. Except Merle.

Where were you thinking of staying, Mr. Seven? Tor had asked, as they walked down the island, south from the quay.

Please. Call me Eric.

Where were you thinking of staying, Eric?

I don’t know.

Tor smiled.

We don’t have a hotel. As I said, we—

—don’t get many visitors, Eric finished for him. But there must be some kind of guest house, perhaps?

No, Tor had said. There is nothing of that sort. But don’t worry. We will make some arrangements for you. In the meantime, you are welcome at my house. We can take tea while the arrangements are made.

They’d walked along the narrow lane, called Homeway, gently curving from time to time, but always heading south down the island, with pretty gardens and sweet houses on either side, some right on the track, some set back on little rocky cliffs among the trees. Now and again, side roads head off; even smaller, twistier paths. The paths have tiny white-on-blue signs: The Bend, The Backbend, The Green, The Crook.

All very, very beautiful.

As they’d walked, Eric saw people sitting out at tables in their gardens, enjoying the evening sunshine, taking a glass of wine, or even supper. Everyone had waved and called to Tor, who’d nodded back, smiling.

After ten minutes they’d arrived at a crossroads, where Homeway crossed another track of the same size, called Crossway.

My home, Tor had said, indicating the largest house on the island that Eric had so far seen. Set back on a low hill of its own, Eric saw a big black wooden house dominating the crossroads. It was a slightly different style from the others, less pretty, more … Eric searched for the word. More serious.

This is the center of the island, Eric. Welcome.

*   *   *

Eric sat in Tor’s house, his hands around a pottery mug of black tea.

The two women were introduced as Maya and Jane.

Younger than Tor, older than Merle. Both were quiet, but seemed friendly enough as they’d made the tea in Tor’s large kitchen. The other man is called Henrik, again younger than Tor, though it’s hard to be sure. Eric guessed they get a lot of weather living on an island like Blessed.

Maybe the rumors are true, he thought. Maybe these people are living forever, maybe Tor is a hundred and twenty, the others spring chickens of ninety-eight.

If there’s any way we can help you with your article, anything you require, said Henrik, you only need ask. We are the Wards of Blessed, and…

Tor coughed, so quietly it was hard to believe that it was a signal, but Henrik stopped and corrected himself.

"Tor is the Ward of Blessed. We—he nodded at Maya and Jane, and pointed to himself—are the other wards of the island. So you only need to speak to one of us and it will be arranged."

Thank you, Eric said. You are all very kind.

He wondered where Merle had gone.

It’s not even as if she is beautiful, not in the way people usually mean. She’s more than pretty, that’s what he can say, but it’s not that that has caught him. It is simply her face, her eyes. The moment he saw them something clicked. He suddenly realized what it was. He recognized her face. As if seeing an old friend, long forgotten, and that triggered something else inside him. A thought that bothered

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