Part of Series
Against her better judgment, Callie is persuaded to re-enter her father's virtual reality program in order to save the life of Howell's friend. But instead of reversing recent events, Callie, her sister El and their friends Stephen and Howell find themselves back in Camelot. Just as they meet up with their old friend Lev, Sir Bors' squire is thrown from a horse and dies. Accident - or the result of two Howells confronting each other across the centuries? With Howell now blaming himself for two deaths, the teenagers become caught up in all the danger and intrigue marking the last days of Camelot. Callie's courage is tested to the limit as Morgan le Fay uses her terrifying dark arts to keep her from her true love, Lancelot, while Guinevere resorts to cunning and deceit in her determination to win Lancelot and conceive with him an heir for Camelot. Desperate to keep the ancient faith alive at court, Guinevere invokes the help of the Mother Goddess - and pays the penalty when the Christian Arthur sentences her to burn, along with the 'pagans', El and Stephen. It's up to the teenagers to find a way to save themselves (and Guinevere) from death as they realise that Camelot is doomed, and that Callie will lose Lancelot for ever. As in 'Shalott', once again Australian teenagers interact with characters and events detailed in Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur', giving new insight into an old legend while also exploring issues of concern to teenagers today.
Author
I grew up (a long time ago!) in a small bush town in Africa. No TV, iPods, computer games and surfing the internet – you could say I had a very deprived childhood! Not so. Instead, for entertainment I learned to read. Books became my windows to the world: they told me about dragons and fairies and magic. They told me about other countries and other cultures. They told me about myself. And I have never stopped reading, because I love stories. I guess I always did things back to front – the hard way! In Africa, when I ran out of books to read, I wrote my own. I love writing stories, but I never thought about it as a grownup occupation. As a grownup, I had to go back to school to find out that I really was a writer. After doing the HSC at the age of 40, I went on to do a BA (Communications) degree at UTS. My major was creative writing, and suddenly I found myself experimenting with all sorts of genres and, in particular, writing the sorts of stories that I love to read – crime and timeslip fantasy back into the past.
