The Chatelaine, Kate Heartfield
The Chatelaine, Kate Heartfield
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
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The Chatelaine

Author: Kate Heartfield

Narrator: Beth Eyre

Unabridged: 10 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperVoyager

Published: 07/20/2023

Synopsis

Winner of the Aurora Award for Best Novel, 2019 Hell is empty and all the demons are here. The Chatelaine has come. The year is 1328 and Bruges is under siege by the Chatelaine of Hell and her army of chimeras – —creatures forged in the deep fires of the Hellbeast. At night, revenants crawl over the walls and bring plague and grief to this city of widows. Margriet de Vos learns she's a widow herself when her good-for-nothing husband comes home dead from the war. But he didn't come back for her. The revenant who was her husband pulls a secret treasure of coins and weapons from under his floorboards and goes back through the mouth of the beast called Hell. Margriet killed her first soldier when she was eleven. She's buried six of her seven children. She'll do anything for her daughter, even if it means raiding Hell itself to get her inheritance back. Margriet's daughter Beatrix is haunted by a dead husband of her own, and blessed, or cursed, with an enchanted distaff that allows her to control the revenants and see the future. Together with a transgender man-at-arms who has unfinished business with the Chatelaine, a traumatised widow with a giant water-powered forgehammer at her disposal, and a wealthy alderman's wife who escapes Bruges with her children, Margriet and Beatrix forge a raiding party the likes of which Hell has never seen…

About Kate Heartfield

Kate Heartfield is a former newspaper editor and columnist in Ottawa, Canada. Her novels include the historical fantasy, Armed in Her Fashion, and her interactive novel for Choice of Games, The Road to Canterbury, inspired by the Canterbury Tales. Her short fiction has appeared in several magazines and anthologies, including Strange Horizons, Escape Pod and Lackington’s. Her novella “The Course of True Love” was published by Abaddon Books in 2016, as part of the collection Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales from Shakespeare’s Fantasy World.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Robin

First, the caveats. This book was a gift from a long time friend. I do not believe that affects my review. I write books. And I read a lot of books and stories. So it is always a special pleasure to read a book when I absolutely cannot predict what is going to happen next. The tale begins in Bruges, i......more

Goodreads review by Bradley

I want to say this is a well-thought-out historical novel, and it definitely dovetails nicely with history, but let's face it: It's Hell on Earth. In a lot of great stylistic ways, I'm reminded favorably of Peter Newman's The Vagrant, only it's right here and the minions of hell all speak French. The......more

Goodreads review by verbava

а ви знали, що пекло — це величезний звір, у нутрощі якого душі потрапляють через пащу? от середньовічні європейці знали. і коли каштелянка пекла виїхала з ним на поверхню землі, щоби знайомитися з людьми і здобувати друзів, персонажі кейт гартфілд доволі скоро зрозуміли, що трапилося. а кому не вис......more

Quotes

‘The novel is written with arresting detail and challenges literary tropes about women. Its roster includes half a dozen complex female characters and one trans male character, all of them captivating, sympathetic, repulsive, flawed, dangerous, selfless, determined, and damaged. They and Heartfield's powerful battle scenes make this well worth the price of admission’ , starred review ‘ is Kate Heartfield’s debut novel, and what a strange, compelling, genre-bending debut it is. Part horror, part fantasy, part history, and part epic, it combines all of its elements into a commentary on gender, power, and patriarchy…enormously fun…’ Liz Bourke, ‘An absorbing novel … Heartfield sustains a fine balance between history and fantasy’ ‘Where fantasy and history meet … an entertaining and dark read’ ‘Reminded me in places of . I loved the depth of characterisation and the feel of the magic … beautifully written’Elizabeth Chadwick, bestselling and award-winning author of ‘Richly imagined and skilfully told, is an intricate and spellbinding tale’JJA Harwood, bestselling author of ‘ is superb from its opening scene to its heartbreaking end … Politics, magic, love, and sacrifice compete on equal terms in a sweeping, absolutely splendid epic novel about two sisters and familial love. If you like historical feminist fantasy, you will love ’Lisbeth Campbell, author of ‘Sacrifice, family, dreams, and deep, dark magic, is a triumph’Julie E. Czerneda, author of

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