The Sorcerer's Daughter [Paperback]

I read it with pleasure, because Fay is such a good writer. She has the gift of making you live through every scene. You feel the imposingness of the Sorcerer father, you see all the architecture of the White Mountain, and then you find yourself gritty with sand in the desert sections. It is as if you are there. I don't know how Fay does it, but I hope she goes on doing it for a very long time to come. --Diana Wynne Jones, children's author & Guardian Children's Book Award Winner

Sarba, daughter of Lord Cozuman, the High Sorcerer of the Yadu, hates and fears the Xerappan people whose land the Yadu have taken. Sarba's mother is an invalid following a Xerappan terrorist attack on her life. Sarba is sent on a mission into the Xerappan colonies to investigate a possible threat to the Yadu's domination. But as Sarba and Tekran, a young sorcerer, travel and meet Yadu people who are sympathetic to the Xerappans, she is led to question the present situation and, eventually, to change her allegiances. Striking out into the desert with Tekran and another Yadu man to try to reach and help a Yadu girl and Xerappan boy who have run away together, Sarba's group is secretly followed by a rmerciless enemy, bent on destroying the Xerappans and anyone who befriends them.

Fay Sampson is a widely published author with a particular interest in fantasy and Celtic history. She has been shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize on three occasions and is a winner of the Barco de Vapor award.