Chains of Gold

A doomed king and his wife-to-be attempt to flee their fate in this novel by "the finest fantasy writer of this or any decade" (Marion Zimmer Bradley). Cerilla, the sheltered, castle-bound protagonist of this inventive and moving fantasy novel, is determined to escape her bloody fate: marriage to a king who is to be sacrificed after she bears his child. But Cerilla makes the monumental mistake of falling in love with her god-like husband to be--Arlen of the Sacred Isle--and he with her. Arlen's devoted comrade Lonn takes Arlen's place so the lovers can flee. But their escape is just the beginning of an odyssey marked by struggle and hardship as they cope with hyperboreal storms, near starvation, and attack by a band of armed horsemen. As they journey across harsh and fantastic lands, finally making a home beyond the Mountains of the Mysteries, Cerilla discovers how much she is willing to give up in the name of love. Featuring a mythical world where horses gallop across water and serpents live beneath the earth, Chains of Gold is about finding your path in life, staying true to who you are, and the ultimate meaning of sacrifice. From a winner of the Tiptree Award and other honors, an author who "writes like a dream," it's an unforgettable reading experience (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

About the Author :
Nancy Springer has passed the fifty-book milestone with novels for adults, young adults, and children, in genres including mythic fantasy, contemporary fiction, magic realism, horror, and mystery--although she did not realize she wrote mystery until she won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America two years in succession. Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Springer moved with her family to Gettysburg, of Civil War fame, when she was thirteen. She spent the next forty-six years in Pennsylvania, raising two children (Jonathan and Nora), writing, horseback riding, fishing, and bird-watching. In 2007 she surprised her friends and herself by moving with her second husband to an isolated area of the Florida Panhandle where the bird-watching is spectacular, and where, when fishing, she occasionally catches an alligator.

Review :
"[Springer's] fantastic images are telling, sharp and impressive; her poetic imagination unparalleled." --Marion Zimmer Bradley "Nancy Springer is a writer possessed of a uniquely individual vision. The story in Chains of Gold is borrowed from no one. It has a small, neat scope rare in a book of this genre, and it is a little jewel." --Mansfield News Journal "Springer writes with depth and subtlety, her characters have failings and strengths, and the topography is as vivid as are the lands of dreams and nightmares. Cerilla is a worthy heroine, her story richly mythic." --Publishers Weekly Praise for Nancy Springer "Ms. Springer's work is outstanding in the field." --Andre Norton "Nancy Springer's kind of writing is the kind that makes you want to run out, grab people on the street, and tell them to go find her books immediately and read them, all of them." --Arkansas News "[Nancy Springer is] someone special in the fantasy field." --Anne McCaffrey