The Time Of The Ghosts

Enchanted Australia #1

by Gillian Polack

Ghosts trail after us. They are our fears and the shape of our hates. We bring them into our lives and into our homes. Poltergeists and the spirits of drowned girls; malicious presences and portents; cat vampires and roaming bushrangers. These ghosts haunt Canberra - these ghosts can kill. Lil is elegant and troubled. Ann has just retired and is about to she sees vistas of nothingness in her future. Mabel is wedded to her garden. Kat is fifteen and has tried hard to drop out of life. It takes these four women, one cup of tea at a time, to face the ghosts and other supernatural beings in Canberra. But can they face down the darkness and keep Canberra's streets clear of danger? This is the large print edition of The Time Of The Ghosts, with a larger font / typeface for easier reading.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Ebooks, Paranormal, Ghosts, Amazon

462 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2015

About the author

Gillian is a writer and historian, currently living in Canberra, Australia. She intends to count the books in her library soon, when they stop falling on her and otherwise intimidating her.

She was given the 2020 A Bertram Chandler Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction.

Reviews

[Kyla Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's a matter of cultural transfer. We bring our ghosts and fears with us into new lands. We carry them deep within us… Some of those deep constructs lend themselves particularly well to mapping."

This book is about mapping Canberra. Its tools are history, folk tales, bloodlines, hauntings: all the real markers of place and an individual's position within in. If this individual happens to be a five hundred year old fairy (variety, Melusine; type, snark), it provides a very useful key to the unfolding terrain of ghosts, werewolves, abbey lubbers, dark whispers, a cat vampire, a barghast and the three kindly, kind-of witches attempting to restore the order that all this cultural transfer has upset.

But, like Kat, the fifteen-year-old runaway drawn into this milieu, you will need to be patient. You will have to be willing to do some of the lifting and your own thinking, and trust that this story will work out in its own time. Even though this is the real world, "…where real people run away rather than kicking ass. What if Melusine was scared?"

Dr Gillian Polack does not compose simple books, although the various historical vignettes, present-day supernatural encounters and dinner parties are all cast in lovely, clear prose (and those scattered pieces dated some ten years later – watch out for those). It's the way they are fitted together...

To read the complete review, go to http://tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/Tim...

[Pamela Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gillian Polack's writing just keeps getting better and better. I loved this book with its unusual cast of characters, all of them haunted, one way or another, all of them intent on saving Canberra from an intrusion of magical beings, and all of them worth knowing. Now, if only I could make it to one of their dinner parties.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this story could have been so much more than it was. It was hard to follow and seemed to drag until about 60% of the way through.


I will say Melusine's tales were my favorite part though and I looked forward to those.

[Virginia Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never imagined being fascinated with books about Australia with a fantastical, magical bent, but Gillian Polack's Enchanted Australia series is entrancing.

The Time of the Ghosts introduced me to characters and ideas that were completely new to me. I've read folklore from around the world my entire life, but Polack transported me to a place I'd never come close to imagining. The relationships of the characters are relatable. The spooky aspects of this story gave me the shivers. I was constantly surprised and found myself gasping aloud more than once as I read. The lore utilized by Polack was so new to me that I was absorbed in it and making notes about things to look up later.

Due to my health, I'll never get to Australia. Gillian Polack has taken me there with this and the other two books in the Enchanted Australia trilogy. Polack is one of my all-time favorite storytellers and her creativity constantly amazes me. I highly recommend this book and this author if you're an adventurous reader looking for something new and different that will expand your mind and imagination.

[Brian Lobodzinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was attracted to this novel by the concept of the 'new' continent of Australia having ghosts but found myself caught up in the storyline. I felt as if I were on the shoulder of the young rebellious woman discovering that various types of nasty entities did exist and could be a threat. The whole cast was enjoyable as they reflected on the past and prepared the young lady for the future.

I don't want to give the storyline away but its worth a read.

[LotusBlade · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book you look for when you need to be reminded that misery and magic and laughter happen to ordinary people too. Ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Ordinary people who turn out to be more intriguing than their extraordinary foes. A way to feel extraordinary in ordinary circumstances. Sort of...
A new love to add to the collection.

[Mir]

I hadn't heard of this author and am not entirely sure from the Amazon blurb if it's fiction or lore (creative non-fiction?). It just happened to be free when I was looking up something else, and I like ghosts, so I clicked. We'll see! The reviews all mention needing patience, so I probably won't be reading this right away.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lil says that the things I see all came with us Europeans. It’s a palimpsest laying over Canberra and we scrape it off so Canberrans can live in the real city. [p.23]

Kat is a teenaged runaway who finds herself under the protection of three old ladies: Lil, Ann and Mabel. She refers to them as her grannies, and she runs errands and does housework in exchange for food and board. Not explicitly mentioned in the deal: ghost-hunting, werewolves, dead bushrangers, the thing in Mabel's wood pile, and dark children. For Kat's grannies are not entirely what they seem, and one of them (at least one of them) is much older than anyone would suspect.

This is a novel focussed on female characters and on the small kindnesses and accommodations that they perform for one another. Kat, it should be noted, often exhibits more consideration than the older women. There are a lot of meals (the ladies cook for one another once a month, and now Kat is present to help prepare and serve the food) and quite a few excursions to Canberra's suburbs. Though I don't know the city at all, it began to feel comfortable and familiar.

Some of the supernatural elements, such as Mabel's garden of protection and her wood pile guardian, seem comfortable, too: others, like the drowning girl who cries, and the large cat that lurks outside the Japanese embassy, are much more threatening. And there are mundane horrors, too. Lil is becoming frail; Ann's husband is divorcing her; Kat is trying to summon the courage to phone home, to the family who seemed to have replaced her with a younger half-sister.

There are three narrative threads here: the account of Kat's education with the grannies, Kat's later (or mostly later) blogposts with their benefit of hindsight, and the 'tales of Melusine', which initially seem to be versions of fairy tales written down by Lil. Melusine, in those tales, is a fairy and also Jewish, and her stories span centuries, from medieval France to the horrors of Nazi Germany.

I'd been meaning to read something by Polack for a while, and The Time of the Ghosts -- with its themes of found family, friendship and kindness -- tempts me to read more.

[Julanna Hennessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really touched me. A great story full of wonderful people full of personality.

[Lisa Reeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story

I really enjoyed reading the story. The writing was smoother, the characters were well thought out, and the story was smooth.

[henry smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kept starting over not very good reading. At least for me.