Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #467232 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price is an extraordinarily detailed historical-modern science fiction novel in which members of a team of researchers from the 21st century travel through a time tube into the lives of the Sterkarm clan in 16th-century England. At first the narrative concerns itself with the creation of a realistic and believable portrayal of the living conditions and the relationships of a tough, violent group of people whose feelings for each other are not that dissimilar from those of human beings living 500 years later. As the novel progresses, the relations between the 21st-century individuals and the Sterkarms simultaneously deteriorate and deepen. Incidents pile one upon the other, the sense of conflict increases and the action becomes both increasingly violent and increasingly complicated. External action is balanced by the development of internal feelings and one of the modern team, a young girl named Andrea, falls deeply in love with a young Sterkarmer. This is a novel for sci-fi bookworms with a love of history, a touch of romance and masses of action. --Tamsin Palmer (Ages 10 and over)

Synopsis
The Sterkarms are a border clan who fight dirty and refuse to stop riding out on raids or indulging in bloodshed just because the Elf-folk tell them to. But when the son of the head of the clan is kidnapped and taken down the Time Tube to Elf-land, the Sterkarms have to ride after him.

Customer Reviews

Clever, convincing and original.
It's so unusual to find a book that depicts both the present day and the past so effectively. The way Ms. Price manages to do this is by getting inside the heads of her characters, creating an authenticity rarely equalled elswhere. I found myself completely convinced by the ethos of the time, and the thought processes employed by those living in an age so different to our own. Thank goodness there's a sequel!

A Reiver Writes
This is a wonderful story, particularly for anyone who knows the wild land of the Cheviots and the border country. I would recommend The Steel Bonnets for extra reading on the bloody history of the area. I'm not sure if the Norse dialect is right and I'm sorry that it's written in modern spelling, not phonetically - if you didn't already know you'd miss the way 'skyr' is pronounced 'shear', just as we say it now. That's just a detail though. The subtlety of the narrative is remarkable, the way your feelings ebb and flow against and then with the Sterkarms (Armstrongs?) as you learn more about them and their lives. Fascinating. Makes me glad to be descended from borderers!

exellent!
this book is the best thing i have read in quite a while. it tells the story of two extremely different cultures that are crossed using time travel. this book is more suited to oldder readers as there is a reasonable ammount of long words ... and some old english. i give it 5 stars as it is a gripping tale of how the 21C people have destroyed the earth and are looking for somewhere new to pollute. the Sterkarm people do not appreciate the destruction of what they call their land, but which actually the border between the England and Scotland. the villian of the story wants to turn the beautiful, unpolluted country side into a 21C holiday resort. this is a story of not knowing who to trust or where to turn to for one of the main characters, Andrea, as she has found a true love in the sterkarm tower. her orders, betray her friends in 16C england/scotland. her heart says don't!