From a Canadian Author Arises a Canadian Historical Fiction about the Mysteries of Upper Canada’s Backwoods
250 pages
Published by Lulu Publishing
Trade Paperback
e-book
In a sea of American literature comes the truly Canadian voice of Lorina Stephens, author of Shadow Song, the fourth publication and first novel of this Ontario born and raised author. Written in the tradition of Guy Gavriel Kay and Charles de Lint, Shadow Song is set amid the economic ruin that occurred to so many émigrés and British pensioned officers of the 1830s. It is full of psychological and cultural contrasts of two cultures at odds with one another, and an intimate familiarity with the geography of the novel, from the immigrants’ miserable landing stage at Grosse Isle into the dark reaches of Superior’s North Shore.
Danielle Michele Fleming, 10 year old daughter of a French aristocratic mother, and the second son of English gentry, finds herself caught in the economic ruin that surrounds the failure of the Bourbon Monarchy. She finds herself aboard ship, destined for the Queen’s Bush of Upper Canada and a life with the catalyst of her doom, her uncle, Edgar Fleming.
Burdened by guilt of her visions and the mortal sin they represent, life on the edge of the pioneer village of Hornings Mills creates for her a world of fear, pain and eventually flight into the very soul of what she has been taught is evil – that of the pagan society of Upper Canada’s native people and the shaman known as Shadow Song. Relentless in his hunt for her, her uncle has her tracked not only by bounty hunters, but in the end through another shaman of evil intent and a blood-debt to settle with Shadow Song.
Reviews
Lorina Stephens has proven herself an engaging author.
The (Hanover) Post
The book, Shadow Song is as diverse as the woman who wrote it.
Susan Doolan
The Barrie Examiner
It is often the case with contemporary Canadian authors that they have a tendency to punctuate their novels with long, psychological dissertations on mundane subjects. It's as if they feel that each everyday occurrence is fraught with deep sociological undertones.
Shadow Song, fortunately, is free of such meanderings. It has a good economy of words and each paragraph contains vital information.
Dan Pelton
Orangeville Citizen
