Oh look, another book!: Book Review: Quillan Creek and the Little War: Time Stones Book I by Ian Hunter

Quillan Creek and the Little War:
Time Stones Book I
By Ian Hunter

Jessie Mason lives with her nose in the pages of history. But she is about to discover that the past is a dangerous place where she doesn't belong, and knowledge alone is not going to save her.

In Jessie’s troubled life her aunt is the only constant and comfort she has. But when she inexplicably disappears, and Jessie uncovers her mother's Time Stone, that unhappy life turns unreal and terrifying.

She is summoned to a world in crisis, 250 years in her past, to three unlikely companions, and the aged Onondaga shaman, Nishkamich, who promises an education in the powers of the stones which they each possess.

Over one glorious summer, Jessie reluctantly settles to village life and the developing bond with her prickly friends, until they are forced to accept that their stones are being hunted through history.

But in the depths of winter, their friendship, their wits, and the very limits of their endurance, will be tested by an unforgiving Nature as war finally erupts around them.

Oh brilliant, a quiet read before bed, I thought. Next thing I know people are falling through time, soldiers are charging about, and I’m emotionally attached to four teenagers clutching suspiciously powerful stones while history itself starts wobbling. This book does not ease you in gently; it grabs you by the collar and drops you straight into the wilderness with a firm “good luck”.

Jessie barely has time to process where she is before everything goes wrong again. One minute modern life, the next she’s staring at a world that looks familiar but feels completely wild and alive. And just as you start to catch your breath, in tumble the others from entirely different times, equally confused and absolutely not prepared for any of this. I spent a good portion of the opening chapters mentally yelling, “Just stay together and don’t touch anything else magical!”

The group dynamic is gloriously messy at first. Nobody fully trusts anyone, everyone’s frightened, and cultural misunderstandings pop up left and right. But slowly, through danger and necessity, they begin to click. Not in a grand heroic speech sort of way, but in the small moments: shared watches in the dark, hesitant questions, split-second decisions to protect one another. Before you know it, you’re fiercely protective of all of them.

Hovering over it all is the weary, wise shaman who clearly knows far more than he has time to explain. Every time he appears you get that sinking feeling of “this is important, pay attention”, because the threat hunting those stones is not messing about. There’s a constant sense that something nasty is drawing closer, and that these kids are very much underqualified for the job fate has handed them.

It’s tense, heartfelt, occasionally brutal, and surprisingly funny in places thanks to the sheer absurdity of their situation. You get sweeping forests, sudden violence, ancient magic, and teenagers trying very hard not to make everything worse. I laughed, I worried, and I absolutely muttered “oh no, don’t do that” more than once.

In short, this is time travel with teeth, adventure with heart, and a band of unlikely allies you can’t help rooting for. If you enjoy stories where history collides with magic and ordinary people are forced to become brave very quickly, you’ll be grinning, gasping, and turning pages far too late into the night.

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You can grab your copy of this book over on Amazon. And get this, if you have #KindleUnlimited you can read for free - can't say fairer than that!

Oh, and incase you are not convinced to buy this book from my review, then check out what other people have said about it:

"...the kind of book that one would forgo sleep to finish."

The Coffee Pot Book Club

"...fantastical and riveting."

booklife

"...an exciting adventure for readers with unforgettable companions."

The Book Commentary

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Ian Hunter

Books have been an important part of my life as long as I can remember, and at 54 years old, that’s a lot of books. My earliest memories of reading are CS Lewis’, “The Horse and His Boy” – by far the best of the Narnia books, the Adventures series by Willard Price, and “Goalkeepers are Different” by sports journalist Brian Glanville. An eclectic mix. My first English teacher was surprised to hear that I was reading, Le Carré, Ken Follett, Nevil Shute and “All the Presidents’ Men” by Woodward and Bernstein at the age of 12. I was simply picking up the books my father had finished.

School syllabus threw up the usual suspects – Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dickens, Hardy, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – which I have reread often, and others I don’t immediately recall. By “A” level study, my then English teachers were pulling their hair out at my “perverse waste of talent” – I still have the report card! But I did manage a pass.

During a 35 year career, briefly in Banking and then in IT, I managed to find time, with unfailing family support, to study another lifelong passion, graduating with an Open University Bachelors’ degree in History in 2002. This fascination with all things historical inspired me to begin the Time Stones series. There is so much to our human past, and so many differing views on what is the greatest, and often the saddest, most tragic story. I decided I wanted to write about it; to shine a small light on those, sometimes pivotal stories, which are less frequently mentioned.

In 1995, my wife, Michelle, and I moved from England to southern Germany, where we still live, with our two children, one cat, and, when she pays us a visit, one chocolate labrador. I have been fortunate that I could satisfy another wish, to travel as widely as possible and see as much of our world as I can. Destinations usually include places of historic and archaeological interest, mixed with a large helping of sun, sea and sand for my wife’s peace of mind.

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