The Obernewtyn Chronicles - Book One For Elspeth Gordie freedom is-like so much else after the Great White-a memory. It was a time known as the Age of Chaos. In a final explosive flash everything was destroyed. The few who survived banded together and formed a Council for protection. But people like Elspeth-mysteriously born with powerful mental abilities-are feared by the Council and hunted down like animals...to be destroyed. Her only hope for survival to is keep her power hidden. But is secrecy enough against the terrible power of the Council? In the '80s, American music experienced an Australian invasion, and the '90s brought a literary Australian invasion, with prominent Down-Under SF/fantasy writers like Stephen Dedman, Greg Egan, Sean McMullen, Lucy Sussex, and the late George Turner receiving new or greatly increased American exposure. Award-winning author Isobelle Carmody, whose Obernewtyn (Book One of the Obernewtyn Chronicles) is finally available in the U.S, belongs in these ranks as well. Appropriate for adult and young-adult readers, Obernewtyn is a fine post-apocalyptic novel in the tradition of Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, Leigh Brackett's classic The Long Tomorrow , and the post-disaster novels of John Wyndham (especially Re-Birth ) and John Christopher. After the nuclear holocaust of the Great White, the surviving humans condemn all Misfits (mutants) to either death by fire or exile to Obernewtyn, a remote mountain institution where mysterious experiments are performed on some exiles. Elspeth Gordie is a Misfit, struggling to hide her mutant mental abilities and earn a Normalcy Certificate. But when her secret is betrayed, she is sent to Obernewtyn, from which no one has ever escaped. At Obernewtyn she finds not only dreadful experiments, but ambitious overlords who seek to use the Misfits' paranormal powers to recover the devastating secrets of nuclear war. --Cynthia Ward In a post-holocaust world of enforced pastoralism and strict adherence to a religion that bans technology, a young woman labeled a misfit or mutant finds herself condemned to a prison farm known as Obernewtyn. There, she encounters others with psychic powers like her own and discovers a dark secret concerning the mysterious triumvirate who control the destinies of the young people assigned to their care. An award-winning author of children's books in Australia, Carmody crafts a thought-provoking tale of courage and sacrifice that should appeal to adult and YA readers alike Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. First of a post-nuclear science-fiction series, and first US outing for this Australian children's writer. Years after the nuclear-holocaust Great White, the repressive, all-powerful Council rules with the help of priestly Herders. Dissenters are condemned and burned; mutant Misfits are sent to the eponymous forbidding mountain fastness. Orphan Elspeth Gordieher--whose parents were burned--can hear people's thoughts and communicate telepathically with animals. She manages to conceal her deeper abilities from Obernewtyn's visiting Madam Vega, though she's still ordered across the Blacklands to attend the suitably gothic edifice, where she makes friends with Matthew, another telepath, and blind Dameon the empath. In turn, Rushton, the green-eyed overseer whose status and motives are unclear, notices Elspeth. Beautiful Cameo has been treated, her mind filled with hypnotic blocks. Dr. Seraphim, Elspeth learns, thinks demons lurk in Misfit minds and uses hypnosis to combat them, while Vega and the vicious Alexi seek a telepath to help locate powerful machines hidden since the Beforetime. Terrified, Elspeth feigns feeblemindedness, so Vega and Alexi focus on Cameo--and destroy her mind. The Council, meanwhile, has sent men to apprehend Elspeth. Somehow she must escape, braving the Blacklands, winter snows, and Obernewtyn's insensate, bloodthirsty guardian wolves. For some reason, Rushton's willing to help. Pedestrian and one-dimensional: Carmody's not the first to stumble attempting the transition to an adult audience. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "A promising new series." -- Publishers Weekly "A major work of fantastic imagination. Through the breadth of her vision, the depth of her characters, and the strength of her language, Carmody has created a world completely realized in all its details and completely persuasive." --Lloyd Alexander "A brave, multi-talented girl, her interesting friends, and animal characters with minds of their own--this book is a dream date for me." --Tamora Pierce "A thought-provoking tale of courage and sacrifice." -- Library Journal "Through the breadth of her vision, the depth of her characters, and the strength of her language, Isobelle Carmody has created a world completely realized in all its details and completely persuasive. Multi-leveled, multi-dimensional, the Obernewtyn Chronicles promise to