Set in mediaeval Scotland and China, this gripping novel is both
swashbuckling adventure story and moral fable. Against a backdrop
of tribal feuding, Lynne Reid Banks explores the themes of
friendship, forgiveness and revenge. Bruce McLennan is a rich laird
whose family have been slaughtered by rival Archibald McInnes.
Bereft, McLennan journeys to China to forget his grief. During his
adventures, McLennan buys a young girl, Peony, to be his slave.
Peony and McLennan eventually return to Scotland where he builds a
grand new castle and dungeon and sets about avenging his family's
deaths. His bitterness is set against the friendship which blooms
between Peony and Fin McLean, the stable lad. The central
characters are strong and well rounded. Banks is quick to show the
motives behind extreme behaviour: she fully accounts for McLennan's
cruelty and Peony's blind devotion. The relationships between
characters are beautifully observed, particularly McLennan's
begrudging love for Peony, and Peony's bewilderment at Fin's
affection. The plot is pacey and original. Banks establishes
McLennan's thirst for revenge from the start then takes us on a
whistle-stop tour of the mediaeval Silk Route. The second half of
the novel focuses on feudal in-fighting and McLennan's cruel
treatment of Peony. Banks balances the bloodshed and fighting with
moving emotional scenes in which the characters become more
reflective. Banks is skilled at showing the world afresh through
the eyes of an outsider: she gives life to worlds which might
otherwise seem distant to the modern young reader. McLennan's awe
in China is matched only by Peony's sense of wonderment in
Scotland. The reader is encouraged to discover these settings along
with the characters. This is an exciting and sensitive novel. Banks
invites her readers to engage fully with the characters and so
delivers her moral message unobtrusively. Ages 12+ (Kirkus UK)
The setting is medieval Scotland, a land dominated by skirmishes and battles on the borders, a land of fortresses and castles in Scotland, England and Wales. We meet Bruce McLennan, a Scottish laird, a man sorely-changed by a terrible family tragedy. He is a domineering master, an uncaring landlord, a cruel man, who has his heart set on building himself a castle and a Dungeon in which to punish his enemies in the future. But while the dungeon is being built, McLennan plans a trip to the far ends of the earth.
As we follow McLennan on his travels to China and beyond, we witness his buying of Peony, or Mudan, as her Chinese name is, a young girl who McLennan uses as a slave. He is uncaring, unsympathetic, as he drags her after him across the world. Gradually, knowing no other, Peony develops a kind of affection for her master.
In Scotland, Peony meets Fin, a stable lad and a loving friendship develops between them. McLennan, busy fighting off enemies, uses Peony in an horrific scene in one of his battles; he looses badly and subsequently blames her. He decides to punish her by throwing her in his dungeon? then unfolds a ghastly scene where Peony kills herself, at last in control of her own destiny. McLennan dies of guilt, shame and remorse. Fin lives on, and even Peony, perhaps, in his new baby sister.
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