The Forbidden Land
core novel 2000 The Witches of Eileanan
Record
| First published | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.20 (3,334 ratings, collected 2026-10-11) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780451458285 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
After her adventures with the League of the Healing Hand, Finn the Cat, the former street thief who is now a banprionnsa, finds her life at Castle Rurach boring. Snowbound for the winter and faced with being moulded into the Lady Fionnghal by her mother, she pines to be on the battlefront with her father against the sea demons, the Fairgean. But Finn's talents are needed elsewhere: Lachlan the Winged, the Rìgh, has particular need of someone with her peculiar abilities, and summons her to join a caravan on a perilous journey into the Forbidden Land, the hostile realm of the Bright Soldiers across the mountains. Imprisoned in its Black Tower is a rebellious prophet whose beliefs have made him an enemy among his own people, and Finn must help rescue the one whose words can free a land enshrouded in darkness. The fourth book narrows the series' focus to a single adventure.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Witches of Eileanan
- Series: The Witches of Eileanan core; position 4 of 6 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Kate Forsyth
Notes
- From the series record (The Witches of Eileanan): Kate Forsyth's six-book Celtic epic fantasy (Pan Macmillan Australia, 1997-2002; Roc in the United States, where the first volume is titled The Witches of Eileanan): a land where witchcraft has been outlawed since the Day of Reckoning, the apprentice witch Isabeau and her ancient mentor Meghan of the Beasts, and the struggle to restore the Coven and the lost Lodestar.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Witches of Eileanan: position 4 of 6: previous The Cursed Towers (1999) · next The Skull of the World (2001)
- Internal chronology, within The Witches of Eileanan: position 7 of 9: previous The Heart of Stars (2006) · next The Skull of the World (2001)
Sources
← The Witches of Eileanan dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.