THE CITY OF FROZEN FIRE

by Vaughan Wilkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A new departure for this novelist of the Regency scene, in a picaresque adventure of the search for a lost civilization and a living treasure. The scene opens in Bristol, early 19th century, and the story is told by fourteen year old Christopher Standish. To Bristol comes a tattered stranger, speaking a dead language, bearing a crumpled communication from one scholar to another, and evidence to bear witness to his being ruler of a lost people in a lost city. In his incredible journey back to civilization, his secret has been found out -- his treasure tapped- his person attacked, but he has gone ahead to his goal. There he finds credence -- and backing for a strange adventure, part revenge, part rescue. The story carries the participants to New Orleans- then to the fabled lost land, approached through hidden passages, streams and geyeers of boiling waters and sealed caves. Success is in their hands; the enemy routed- and the children (young Christopher who fancies himself a man, and the girl Olwen, who wanted to be part of the action, too) stumble on a greater menace. Their survival, in the hands of ruthless villains, seems incredible, and the dime thriller, yellow backed novels of a past age seem to pale before the adventures of the final act. But of course, it all turns out as it should; a lost civilization is found and saved; its saviors return with due reward; and the villains are scotched. Adult (supposedly) ""comics"" in the currently accepted blood and thunder manner- this is pretty synthetic stuff from a novelist who has done better.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1950

Categories: FICTION