Ilkka Auer 2012
The Land of snow and ice started as a short story, which I wrote as a present. The receiver liked it so much that she wanted to read more and more and so it evolved into a novel and later a quadrology.
Even in the beginning I planned to make this a quadrology, and the rest of the novels situated in Wyrmia will be independent novels: Skafloc, Iron Prophet and The King of the Dead. It is yet unclear when these novels will be ready.
The series takes place mainly in Noridium - the northernmost inhabited realm of Wyrmia, which was long ago ruled by the Black Dragons.
Yyou can soon read more about Wyrmia in these pages, but to make a long story short - it is a world I created for my Role-Playing game, and it took about 20 years to do it.
Otava 2004. 431 pages
Hardcover art by Riikka Jäntti
Softcover art by Ilkka Auer
Finnish Tolkien Society’s “Kuvastaja” award for the best domestic fantasy book of the year 2004.
”For centuries in the frosty realm of Caldia has been told a story of the Ice Witch - the cruel and immortal descendant of ancient dragons. To Nonna, an eleven years old girl and her pet polar bear the stories are to become real.”
“Auer writes dense, event-rich fantasy. The lands, their folk, myths and ways of life seem convincing and full of life, which is often characteristic of quality fantasy. The book’s map and place names, which sound Nordic, are also original and interesting, deserve a special mention. This is a promising and encouraging beginning to Auer’s career as an author.” - Virikkeitä (Impulses) 3/2006. Finnish Chilren’s and Youth Books X, IBBY Finland.
"Auer’s strength lies in an excepetionally well built fantasy world” - Helsingin Sanomat
“The world in Auer’s novel is awesome in it’s arctic atmosphere. Clan of the Dragon is a respectable achievement and a superb reading experience” - Kaleva.
TO BE PUBLISHED IN BRAZIL
Otava 2006. 457 pages.
Hardcover art by Riikka Jäntti
Softcover art by Ilkka Auer
A full-blooded fantasy novel. The second adventure in a prize-winning and much acclaimed series.
Rumours are circulating in Noridium and the other northern realms about a witch-child who has been taken under the wing of the Ice-Witch Astrid. The girl wanders in the land of the dead, breaks ancient spells and curses, and is related to the shadowy dragon-people.
When the Ice-Witch feels obliged to intervene in the struggle for power in Noridium, the magical gifts of the young witch-girl Nonna are also required. Nonna sets off with her pet polar bear Fenris to find the captive Princess Freya - and she becomes embroiled in a dangerous adventure in the midst of the land of snow and ice, a domain seething with rumours, fear, and hope for the future.
Ilkka Auer got the spur to begin writing from role-playing games. His meticulously constructed northern dominion of snow and ice sucks in and holds the reader with its depth and realism. The books carry within them the heritage of Scandinavian mythology and represent the highest quality of modern fantasy literature, where the eternal struggle of good and evil is given a more complex and multi-layered treatment.
The Traveller in the Shadows is a fully self-contained sequel to The Clan of the Dragon, a novel that had readers enthralled and begging for more, and which was chosen by the Finnish Tolkien Society as the best domestic fantasy book of the year in 2004.
TO BE PUBLISHED IN BRAZIL
Otava 2007, 475 pages
Hardcover art by Riikka Jäntti
Softcover art by Ilkka Auer
The welcome third instalment of an acclaimed series
– full-blooded fantasy from a gifted storyteller
These are threatening times in Noridium, the land of snow and ice: the fate of all the northern realms hangs by a thread. The witch-child Nonna is now 15, and she has become a Myrkrida, a witch who wanders the marchlands between light and darkness.
The ancient Dragon-deities have a plan for her: she is being groomed to be a feared Ice-Witch.
But not all approve of the prophecy. A dangerous journey to the Icy Tomb, into the snowy wastelands of the Frost-God, will determine Nonna’s destiny.
“The chill Arctic world conjured up by Ilkka Auer in all its breadth and
mystery once again succeeds in convincing the reader. Fantasy and
Scandinavian mythology merge and melt into each other in fascinating
fashion in this impressive follow-up. More, please!”
Salon Seudun Sanomat
TO BE PUBLISHED IN BRAZIL
Otava 2008, 432 pages
Hardcover art by Riikka Jäntti
Softcover art by Ilkka Auer
The acclaimed Finnish fantasy series featuring the adventures of the witch-child Nonna and her pet polar bear reaches an impressive conclusion
Nonna is now an Ice-Witch, and under the protection of the dragondeities and the goddess of the ice-dragons. She has at her fingertips the massive forces of frost and darkness, and she yearns to restore the power of the dragon-people. The Nawyri, enemies of Noridium,
fear the prophecy that the ice-witch will lay waste their land.War breaks out between the two realms, and Nonna is forced to embark on a path that is strewn with coincidence, hate, and ruthless ambition - but there is also respect and love to be found. What will become of Noridium and Nawry, when Nonna and the dragon-deities unleash their terrifying power?
The previous volumes in Ilkka Auer’s Land of Snow and Ice tetralogy, The Clan of the Dragon (2004), The Traveller in the Shadows (2006), and The Icy Tomb (2007) have been exceptionally well received by critics and public alike.
“Nonna had been gathering her strength for weeks, and now it weighed against the stones that surrounded her. It trembled everywhere, in the stones and boulders and far-off subterranean currents. Although Stonetongue
served as an intercessor between Nonna and the power trapped in the earth, she couldn’t have withstood it without strength of her own. Just one false thought, or a moment’s weakness, and the boundless power
would have been unleashed within her and she would have died in the blink of an eye. Vanished. Ceased to exist. There was no room for error.
A crowd of protective spirits trembled around her. Spirits of darkness, raised from Manala, the land of the dead. The ecstatic magic of fire, earth, and ice swarmed over every inch of her being. She needed help from all
of them. Nonna opened a current from the subterranean vein at the bedrock’s core. A flowing power like fire passed through Stonetongue and into her hands, her body, and her soul. It spread through her like an itch.
She extended the spirit of her will. In her mind she tasted salt water, darkness, the unceasing motion of waves. Then she commanded the sea
to calm.”
TO BE PUBLISHED IN BRAZIL