Cecelia Holland – författare

The Styths, a powerful and aggressive mutant race from the Gas Planets, Uranus and Saturn, have been launching pirate raids on ships from Mars. Earth's Committee for the Revolution has been asked to mediate, to negotiate a truce between the Middle Planets and the Styth Empire. The task of conducting the talks falls to an intelligent, resourceful and unpredictable young woman, Paula Mendoza. Her initial meetings with the Styth warlord and his unruly band of bodyguards and advisers are not promising. But then Paula adopts a less conventional approach. The consequences for her are considerable and she finds herself on the Gas Planets, the only tenuous link between Earth and the Styth Empire ...

Where the Cape of Winds juts into the endless sea, there is Castle Ocean, which is either haunted or simply alive. There in dwells the royal family that has ruled from time immemorial. But there is an empire growing in the East, and its forces have reached the castle. King Reymarro is dead in battle and, by the new treaty, Queen Marioza must marry one of the Emperor's brothers. She loathes the idea, and has already killed the first brother. A second arrives, escorted by soldiers. While Marioza delays, her youngest son, Jeon, goes on a journey in search of his mute twin, Tirza, who must be present for the wedding. As Jeon and Tirza return, their ship is attacked by a powerful dragon. Thrown into the water, Tirza clings to the dragon, and finds herself alone with the creature in an inland sea pool. Surprisingly, she is able to talk to the beast, and understand it. So begins a saga of violence, destruction, and death, of love and monsters, human and otherwise.

Eleanor of Aquitaine seized hold of life in the 12th century in a way any modern woman would envy! 1151: As Duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor grew up knowing what it was to be regarded for herself and not for her husband''s title. Now, as wife to Louis VII and Queen of France, she has found herself unsatisfied with reflected glory-and feeling constantly under threat, even though she outranks every woman in Paris. Then, standing beside her much older husband in the course of a court ceremony, Eleanor locks eyes with a man-hardly more than a boy, really- across the throne room, and knows that her world has changed irrevocably... He is Henry D''Anjou, eldest son of the Duke of Anjou, and he is in line, somewhat tenuously, for the British throne. She meets him in secret. She has a gift for secrecy, for she is watched like a prisoner by spies even among her own women. She is determined that Louis must set her free. Employing deception and disguise, seduction and manipulation, Eleanor is determined to find her way to power-and make her mark on history.

Of the women in King Richard''s life, she is the least known-and the most powerful. During the Third Crusade, deaths from fever and starvation are common, but King Richard the Lion-Hearted has a secret ally against these impassable enemies-a mysterious healer by the name of Edythe. She was sent to him by his mother Eleanor, and Richard first assumes that Edythe is a spy. But when her medical knowledge saves his life, she becomes an indispensable member of his camp-even as his loyal soldiers, suspicious of her talent for warding off death, call her a witch.

In the far future, an Earth-born woman must negotiate with a fearsome mutant race: “On a par with Ursula LeGuin or Arthur C. Clarke” (Chicago Tribune). Two thousand years into the future, runaway pollution has made the earth uninhabitable except in giant biodomes. The society is an anarchy, with disputes mediated through the Machiavellian Committee for the Revolution. Mars, Venus, and the moon support flourishing colonies of various political stripes. On the fringes of the solar system, in the gas planets, a strange, new, violent kind of human has evolved. In this unstable system, the anarchist Paula Mendoza, an agent of the Committee, works to make peace and ultimately protect her people in a catastrophic clash of worlds that destroys the order she knows. 

Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed Nomine Tuo da gloriam. “Not to us, O Lord, but to Your Name give glory.” This motto highlights the vows of chastity and humility taken by the Knights Templar. But, it also speaks to their role as ferocious warriors, passionately and bloodily seeking out glory for their God.Set in the Holy Land in 1187 A.D., Cecelia Holland’s historical novel masterfully explores the conspiracies and political maneuvers leading up to the Third Crusade. Following a stunning victory at the Battle of Ramleh, Norman Templar Rannulf Fitzwilliam must negotiate a truce with the enemy and determine the order of succession to the throne of Baudouin, the young Christian king dying of leprosy. However, Rannulf’s instincts are for battle, not diplomacy. Temptation and betrayal await him around every corner. The question is not whether he can survive on the battlefield, but whether he can survive the politics and protocol of the royal court.“Holland's masterful layering of subplots, historical detail and multiple perspectives makes for a great read.” —Publisher’s Weekly“She brings as much suspense to political intrigue as to the sprawling battle scenes at which she excels.” —The New York Times Book Review 

A novel set during the reign of Genghis Khan and his Mongol Empire from the acclaimed author of Ghost on the Steppe, “a master storyteller” (Houston Chronicle).   Cecelia Holland’s historical fiction is well known for its immersion in exotic cultures, and Until the Sun Falls, one of her most successful books, takes the reader into the heart of the Mongol horde during the conquest of Russia and eastern Europe in the thirteenth century.   Genghis Khan had told his people they were destined to rule the world, and by his death they had made an impressive start. His four sons followed him to the leadership of the enormous new empire and continued the expansion. His eldest son, Batu, launched the conquest of the West—Russia and Europe. In a few years of devastating warfare, the Mongols reached as far as Vienna, mowing down every army that dared face them, like an irresistible force of nature.  Until the Sun Falls stars a Mongol general, Psin, whose battles against the enemies of the Kha Khan sometimes seem easier than his struggles with his wives and his son. Wise, brave, and bloody-minded, Psin embodies the passions and dreams of the greatest conquerors the world has ever seen, at the height of their power.

In The Death of Attila, the great Hun leader dominates the late Roman world; in his shadow, a Hun warrior and a German princeling form a fragile comradeship. When Attila dies, the world around them crumbles, and the two men face terrible choices.

In this twelfth-century epic adventure set in Iceland and England, a young man escapes his troubled home—but cannot escape his destiny. In Two Ravens, a novel heavily influenced by the Norse sagas, Bjarni Hoskuldsson, an Icelander of the old faith, flees his violent father and his far-too-attractive stepmother to travel around Britain for a while, but ultimately must return home to meet and deal with his fate.

An Irish mercenary knight joins William of Normandy for the invasion of England, and faces a stark choice at Hastings, in this “powerful” novel (The New York Times). In The Firedrake, an Irish mercenary knight in the eleventh century, in a constant personal battle with the rest of the world, joins William of Normandy for the invasion of England. There at Hastings he has to choose between power and wealth, and his personal demons of pride and honor. The New York Times called Cecelia Holland “a literary phenomenon” in its review of this book, recognizing a stellar creative achievement by a young writer in her first published work.

The remarkable story of the courageous young pioneer who endures the hardships of the wilderness to become the first American woman to enter California A hard life in the Missouri wilderness has made young Nancy Roberts Kelsey strong, fearless, and ready for anything. In the year 1841, the seventeen-year-old wife and mother joins her husband, Ben, and with an infant in her arms, sets off in pursuit of the dream called California. Halfway across the continent, with the worst of the journey still to come, most of their party opts for the safer passage to Oregon, but the Kelseys and their friends choose a more direct route to the western coast—a fateful decision that will lead them across the Great Basin and over the Sierra Nevadas, through confrontations with native tribes and merciless weather. But a different sort of peril awaits them at farthest edge of the frontier from the powerful Mexican dons who view all new arrivals as threats to their sovereignty—setting a seemingly ordinary woman on an extraordinary path that will ultimately change the course of American history.   Based in part on the actual letters and writings of Nancy Kelsey, An Ordinary Woman is a stunning tale of courage, determination, and grand adventure that celebrates the remarkable life and achievements of a little-known but essential character from the pages of history—yet another masterful blending of fiction and fact from Cecelia Holland, one of America’s premier historical novelists.

In an exotic ancient land, a foreign stranger’s sworn mission of vengeance leads him into the perilous circle of a ruthless Byzantine empress In the early years of the ninth century, the road home from Jerusalem winds through Constantinople for two Frankish noblemen-warriors. But when an encounter with a young woman running for her life results in the murder of Hagen the White’s brother, he vows to find the perpetrators, no matter how highborn or powerful, and take his revenge. His hunt will carry him into the royal circle of the Basileus Irene, a ruthless despot who blinded her own son to force him off the throne. The beautiful and calculating empress is fascinated by this supposed barbarian who has sworn allegiance to the great Charlemagne, and she welcomes him into the imperial court—and into the dangerous fires of countless royal conspiracies. Suddenly Hagen must tread carefully through a vipers’ nest of plots, lies, and bloodthirsty power plays, for if the stranger trusts the wrong serpent, he will certainly die.   One of the world’s premier purveyors of historical fiction, acclaimed novelist Cecelia Holland ushers the reader into a thrilling, exotic, and colorful world ruled by one of history’s most complex and fascinating women. The Belt of Gold is a stunning tale of power and vengeance set against a breathtaking backdrop of Byzantine opulence, from the conspiracies of the empress’s court and the intrigues of the bedchamber to the heart-racing clashes of champions in the public arenas where famed charioteers seek ultimate glory before the eyes of an adoring populace.

A self-serving political player in sixteenth-century Rome is caught up in the ruthless and powerful Borgia family’s deadly intrigues of murder and betrayal It is known as the City of God—but Rome at the dawn of the sixteenth century is an unholy place where opulence, poverty, and decadence cohabitate sinfully under the ruthless rule of Rodrigo Borgia, the debauched Pope Alexander VI. Englishman Nicholas Dawson is secretary to the ineffectual ambassador of Florence and, as such, finds himself linked to Borgias’ murderous machinations, specifically the brutal power plays of the warlord Cesare, the pope’s bastard son. A skilled liar, conspirator, spy, and manipulator—a man drawn to power and the pleasures of excess—Dawson coolly plays his part in Rome’s draconian political dramas with an eye to personal gain and no true allegiance to any side or player. But his attraction to a beautiful and very dangerous young man soon threatens to bring Dawson’s secret enterprises crashing down around him, dooming him to a brutal and ignoble fate.   The great Cecelia Holland is acclaimed as one of America’s premier creators of historical fiction. With City of God she brings a remarkable epoch and a legendary family of scoundrels and murderers to breathtaking life—the corrupt patriarch pope; the suspiciously widowed and incestuous daughter, Lucrezia; Cesare, the bloodthirsty conqueror; and the tragically imprisoned and damned Caterina Sforza. Holland has written a stunning tale of betrayal, deception, and blood.

A novel of primitive England and the birth of the breathtaking monoliths known as Stonehenge, from “a first-class storyteller” (People). In a time before recorded history, on an island that many centuries later would come to be known as Britain, Moloquin, the Unwanted One, dreams of a pathway to the heavens. Cast out as a child, he survives by his wits alone on the fringes of tribal society and grows into manhood driven by one powerful and unshakable ambition: to build a link between the earthly and the spiritual worlds through the raising of an impossible structure. But to accomplish such a momentous feat in this primitive age of stone will not only require superhuman strength, it will entail unraveling the very fabric of life. Still, Moloquin will not be deterred in his quest, and he will stand courageously against all enemies, court untold disaster, sacrifice what he must, and remake his entire world to see his great vision gloriously realized.   One of today’s foremost historical novelists, Cecelia Holland explores the strange and enduring mystery of Stonehenge, one of the true wonders of the ancient and modern world. A breathtaking speculation, Pillar of the Sky is an unforgettable tale brimming with action, colorful characters, vivid detail, intelligence, and wonder, while presenting a possible history of the man-made miracle on Salisbury Plain that confounds scientists, scholars, and archaeologists to this day.

An enthralling fictional account of Howard Carter’s famous search for the tomb of King Tut and the mystery behind the tragic death and disappearance of ancient Egypt’s child ruler In ancient times, a boy king occupied the throne in a troubled desert land. His name was Tutankhamun. Both his reign and his life were shockingly brief, and his burial place was unknown—mysteries that would intrigue the inquisitive for centuries to come.   An English archaeologist irresistibly drawn to Egypt and her secrets, Howard Carter arrives in the Middle East in the second decade of the twentieth century to uncover the hidden final resting place of the tragic child pharaoh. But from the outset his search is plagued by misfortune and obstruction—a corrupt and unbending Egyptian bureaucracy, a British lord and patron more interested in profit than in knowledge, and Carter’s own inability to connect with his fellow human beings. Still, he will not be deterred from his obsessive hunt for the answer to one of the most astonishing puzzles in the history of the world.   In her magnificent novel Valley of the Kings, Cecelia Holland has created two worlds, brilliantly re-creating Egypt in the 1920s and in the time of Tutankhamun. A stunning tale of determination and discovery, brimming with color, mystery, and life, it confirms her standing as one of the true masters of historical fiction.

With a young king facing death, a warrior of the Knights Templar struggles to maintain Christian control of the Holy Land in this “masterful . . . great read” (Publishers Weekly). Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed Nomine Tuo da gloriam. “Not to us, O Lord, but to Your Name give glory.” This motto highlights the vows of chastity and humility taken by the Knights Templar. But, it also speaks to their role as ferocious warriors, passionately and bloodily seeking out glory for their God. Set in the Holy Land in 1187 A.D., Cecelia Holland’s historical novel masterfully explores the conspiracies and political maneuvers leading up to the Third Crusade. Following a stunning victory at the Battle of Ramleh, Norman Templar Rannulf Fitzwilliam must negotiate a truce with the enemy and determine the order of succession to the throne of Baudouin, the young Christian king dying of leprosy. However, Rannulf’s instincts are for battle, not diplomacy. Temptation and betrayal await him around every corner. The question is not whether he can survive on the battlefield, but whether he can survive the politics and protocol of the royal court. “Holland's masterful layering of subplots, historical detail and multiple perspectives makes for a great read.” —Publisher’s Weekly “She brings as much suspense to political intrigue as to the sprawling battle scenes at which she excels.” —The New York Times Book Review 

A novel set during the reign of Genghis Khan and his Mongol Empire from the acclaimed author of Ghost on the Steppe, “a master storyteller” (Houston Chronicle).   Cecelia Holland’s historical fiction is well known for its immersion in exotic cultures, and Until the Sun Falls, one of her most successful books, takes the reader into the heart of the Mongol horde during the conquest of Russia and eastern Europe in the thirteenth century.   Genghis Khan had told his people they were destined to rule the world, and by his death they had made an impressive start. His four sons followed him to the leadership of the enormous new empire and continued the expansion. His eldest son, Batu, launched the conquest of the West—Russia and Europe. In a few years of devastating warfare, the Mongols reached as far as Vienna, mowing down every army that dared face them, like an irresistible force of nature.  Until the Sun Falls stars a Mongol general, Psin, whose battles against the enemies of the Kha Khan sometimes seem easier than his struggles with his wives and his son. Wise, brave, and bloody-minded, Psin embodies the passions and dreams of the greatest conquerors the world has ever seen, at the height of their power.

A sixteenth-century family joins with pirates and William of Orange to fight the Spanish Inquisition in this novel of the Dutch Revolt by “a first-class storyteller” (People). Consistently ranked among the top authors of historical fiction, along with Mary Renault, Mary Stewart, Phillipa Gregory, and Diana Gabaldon, the great Cecelia Holland now transports readers to the sixteenth-century Netherlands in an exciting tale of resistance and rebellion against cruel Spanish oppressors that combines unforgettable fictional characters with real historic personages.   No one was safe from religious persecution in the Dutch Low Countries when the “conqueror king,” Phillip II of Spain, dispatched the Catholic Church’s Inquisition to the Netherlands in the late 1500s. The van Cleef family has suffered mightily, with a father executed by a Spanish hangman and a mother driven into madness. Now their children, Jan and Hanneke, must survive on their own by any means necessary as fate carries them down separate but equally dangerous paths.   Jan’s destiny is on the high seas—and ultimately in the royal court of England’s Queen Elizabeth—as he and his uncle Pieter boldly retake the old man’s captive ship and join the infamous pirates known as the Sea Beggars in their quest to drive the enemy invaders from Dutch waters.   Remaining behind in Antwerp, Hanneke, meanwhile, is forced to endure a series of devastating trials that would crush a young woman of weaker spirit and sensibilities. Strong, courageous, and independent, she embarks on a harrowing journey to Germany in the company of refugee ruler William of Orange ahead of the impending terror of Spain’s sadistic Duke of Alva. But young Hanneke soon realizes there can be no escape or safe haven anywhere as long as her country is in chains, and she vows to dedicate her life to the perilous cause of freedom.   A sweeping and epic historical novel rich in color and stunning period detail, Holland’s The Sea Beggars is an enthralling, action-packed adventure that interweaves fact with brilliant invention. It is yet one more fictional excursion into the breathtaking world of the past by an author the New York Times praises as “a literary phenomenon.”

Three epic and acclaimed historical novels from “a first-rate storyteller” (People).   From Mongol conquests to the Knights Templar and the Crusades to a speculative saga of how the monoliths of Stonehenge rose in primitive Great Britain, this collection of novels reveals the breadth and depth of an author who “has the unique ability to make most any historical period her own” (Sarah Johnson, Solander, Historical Novel Society).  Until the Sun Falls: Set against the backdrop of the conquest of Russia and eastern Europe by the Mongol horde in the thirteenth century, Holland’s sweeping novel follows Mongol general Psin, whose battles against the enemies of the Kha-Khan sometimes seem easier than his struggles with his wives and his son. Wise, brave, and bloody-minded, Psin embodies the passions and dreams of the greatest conquerors the world has ever seen.   “Cecilia Holland belongs to that small band of writers who can still show us what distinction the historical novel can attain.” —The Times Literary Supplement  Jerusalem: Set in the Holy Land in 1187 A.D., this “vivid and deeply felt” novel of the Knights Templar masterfully explores the conspiracies and political maneuvers leading up to the Third Crusade (The New York Times Book Review). Following a stunning victory at the Battle of Ramleh, Norman Templar Rannulf Fitzwilliam must negotiate a truce with the enemy and determine the order of succession to the throne of Baudouin, the young Christian king dying of leprosy. However, Rannulf’s instincts are for battle, not diplomacy. Temptation and betrayal await him at every turn.   “[Holland] brings as much suspense to political intrigue as to the sprawling battle scenes at which she excels.” —The New York Times Book Review  Pillar of the Sky: In this “intelligently and lushly developed saga,” Holland imagines primitive England and the origin of the breathtaking and mysterious monoliths known as Stonehenge (Booklist). In a time before recorded history, Moloquin, the Unwanted One, dreams of a pathway to the heavens. Cast out as a child, he survives on the fringes of tribal society and grows into manhood driven by one powerful and unshakable ambition: to build a link between the earthly and spiritual worlds through the raising of an impossible structure.   “[An] engrossing narrative . . . Holland succeeds in stretching our imagination; she has breathed new life into those forty-ton monoliths that for all these centuries have been standing so mutely on the Salisbury Plain.” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner

From the acclaimed author of Pillar of the Sky: “A great study of a character in conflict and a recommended read for lovers of Irish history.” —Historical Novel Society Set in Ireland during the eleventh century, The Kings in Winter follows the life of a clan chief torn between opposing factions in his own land while war with the Danes looms on the horizon. The chief of the ó Cullinanes, Muirtagh is a man of short stature but great heart. Though his father was killed and his whole clan wiped out by the mac Mahon twenty years ago, he took an oath when he was anointed chief that he would not seek revenge. His younger brother, a renowned warrior known as the Danekiller, is barely in control of his own lust for vengeance and rails against Muirtagh’s decree. As the High King faces threats from his nemesis, who has allied himself with the Danes in his quest for power, Muirtagh is maligned for his neutrality. Although he refuses to resurrect the feud with the mac Mahon, Muirtagh will defend what is his against the Danes. But when the mac Mahon finally strikes, slaughtering someone close to him, Muirtagh chooses his fate as an outlaw and oath-breaker without a clan or a name—untamed by both king and country . . .Praise for Cecelia Holland “A first-class storyteller.” —People “Holland packs her pages with action and historical detail. She remains in the front ranks of the genre along with Mary Stewart, Dorothy Dunnett, and the late Mary Renault.” —Chicago Sun-Times “A literary phenomenon.” —The New York Times “A master storyteller.” —Houston Chronicle