Cirrus@Austlit

'In the freezing Antarctic waters south of Tasmania, a mountain was discovered in 1642 by the seafaring explorer Gerrit Jansz. Not just any mountain but one that Jansz estimated was an unbelievable height of twenty-five thousand meters.

'In 2016, at the foot of the unearthly mountain, a controversial and ambitious 'dream home', the Observatory, is painstakingly constructed by an eccentric billionaire - the only man to have ever reached the summit.

'Rita Gausse, estranged daughter of the architect who designed the Observatory is surprised, upon her father's death, to be invited to the isolated mansion to meet the famously reclusive owner, Walter Richman. But from the beginning, something doesn't feel right. Why is Richman so insistent that she come? What does he expect of her?

'When cataclysmic circumstances intervene to trap Rita and a handful of other guests in the Observatory, cut off from the outside world, she slowly being to learn the unsettling - and ultimately horrifying - answers.'

Source: Back cover.

'The cataclysmic final book in the Ship Kings series. In search of a new world, Dow and Nell must face the final frontier - the treacherous Doldrums. Their journey will be filled with wonders; the rewards could be great - but the cost might be everything, for there are good reasons why none who have sailed the Ocean of the Dead have returned to tell the tale.

'It is no easy thing, to take leave of the world.

'At very long last a captain of his own ship, Dow Amber is determined to venture beyond the final frontier - the still, stagnant waters of the Doldrums - in search of a New World. With Nell finally by his side, he is hopeful that they can start again, far from politics, betrayal and war.

'But none who have sailed the Ocean of the Dead have returned to tell the tale. Before long, an old enemy appears. And with the enemy new dangers. Does the fleet sail to certain death, or to glorious new life beyond the treacherous Doldrums?

'The Ocean of the Dead is the cataclysmic conclusion to Andrew McGahan's stunning Ship Kings series.'

''The ancient mapmaker had inscribed a warning within the great empty shadow on his chart, words that echoed down to Dow from half a thousand years before.

'Here be whales in great number.

'And here be monsters of the deep that riseth to feast upon them.'

'Nearly three years have passed since Dow Amber escaped the ruin of the Twelfth Kingdom. In that time, war has raged across the Four Isles, but Dow himself has been hidden away by his Twin Islands hosts, relegated to a backwater of the war in the company of the beguiling Cassandra.

'But when word reaches Dow that Ignella of the Cave has been imprisoned on the infamous Ship Kings dungeon-isle of Banishment, he can be patient no longer. He sets forth on an epic voyage that will take him halfway around the world – defying storm and monster, betrayal and despair – to the heart of the greatest battle of the age, and to the discovery at last of his true purpose upon the high seas.

'The War of the Four Isles is the third volume in Andrew McGahan's momentous Ship Kings series.' (Publication summary)

'"If you go to sea, you will come to the attention of the Ship Kings. And if they discover who you are, they will kill you." Young Dow Amber is no sailor. But driven by a strange sea-longing he ventures down to the great grim bay known as the Claw. He hopes to learn there of seafaring, but he finds only a fearful people who scarcely dare sail at all, for they have been cursed by a monstrous whirlpool that haunts the bay, stealing away their sons.

'Then the rulers of all the world - the proud and cruel Ship Kings - arrive in the Claw. Dow is fascinated by their fine tall vessels, and even more so by a mysterious girl who lives aboard their flagship.

'It is a perilous attraction to be sure, but could it be that his future somehow lies with the Ship Kings? Or will he be called upon to descend to his death, when the terrible whirlpool rises once more? The Coming of the Whirlpool is the first volume in a stunning series from Miles Franklin Award winner Andrew McGahan.' (From the publisher's website.)

'When eight-year-old William witnesses his father burn to death in a freak farming accident, William and his sickly mother are cast upon the charity of a mysterious uncle, John McIvor. Encamped alone in the ruins of the once great station homestead, Kuran House, the aging McIvor is desperate for an heir and sets his sights upon the boy.

'Set against the background of the Native Title debate, this sweeping saga switches between William's present and McIvor's troubled past. Before these storylines collide in a dramatic climax, we are introduced to devious housekeepers, family secrets and a mythical Australian landscape of ghosts and monsters.'

Source : www.laboite.com.au (Sighted 10/02/2009).

'His father dead by fire and his mother plagued by demons of her own, William is cast upon the charity of his unknown uncle - an embittered old man encamped in the ruins of a once great station homestead, Kuran House. It's a baffling and sinister new world for the boy, a place of decay and secret histories. His uncle is obsessed by a long life of decline and by a dark quest for revival, his mother is desperate for a wealth and security she has never known, and all their hopes it seems come to rest upon William's young shoulders. But as the past and present of Kuran Station unravel and merge together, the price of that inheritance may prove to be the downfall of them all. The White Earth is a haunting, disturbing and cautionary tale.' (publisher's website)