
Firebrand by Gillian Philip
When Firebrand opens, Seth, a 16-year-old Sithe, has a crossbow trained on his brother, Conal. Conal is thin, his face half-blacked and bloody, his hair shaved from his head. Conal is about to be burned as a witch at the tail-end of the sixteenth century at the urging of a minister who smiles at the thought of the horrible deaths his victims are about to endure. Seth will kill his brother to spare him the agony of burning at the stake.
It’s a prologue that grabs the reader’s attention firmly. Turn the page and Seth is only eight years old. He’s been sent by his mother, an adviser to the queen, to live with his father, who is bound to another Sithe woman. Seth’s mother was but a dalliance, a bit of unfaithfulness not unusual or immoral among the Sithe, though Seth’s stepmother is not exactly enamoured of him nonetheless. Seth is eager for his father’s love, but the man never seems to notice... Read More