Sterkarm Series by Susan Price

"Beware of shaking hands with a Sterkarm!" goes the folk saying. Why the warning? The members of this wild 16th-century Scottish clan are left-handed, and while they smile and offer the right hand, the left wields a dagger... more"Beware of shaking hands with a Sterkarm!" goes the folk saying. Why the warning? The members of this wild 16th-century Scottish clan are left-handed, and while they smile and offer the right hand, the left wields a dagger. When a 21st-century mega-corporation opens a Time Tube to the 16th century, the stiff-backed CEO finds his plans for exploiting the mineral and tourism possibilities of the ancient English-Scottish border frustrated by the Sterkarms--raiding parties of men he regards as primitive animals. On the other side of the Time Tube, anthropologist Andrea Mitchell has been sent to live with the Sterkarms to be the corporation's informant and translator. There she is surprised to find herself admired for her generous curves and accepted warmly by the volatile and affectionate--but intermittently murderous--clansmen. When her lover, Per, is grievously wounded on a raid, she persuades Old Toorkild, the chief, to allow his handsome and adored son to be transported to the 21st century for healing. But when Per awakes in a world four centuries ahead of his own, his terror and suspicions of treachery bring down a wild collision between heartless technology and a ferocious people skilled in passionate defense of their life and lands. Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize in England, Susan Price's The Sterkarm Handshake--a richly textured love story, a vivid and sometimes humorous portrayal of confrontation between cultures, and a thumping good page-turner--should find enthusiastic fans among teen-fantasy and time-travel buffs. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell less

The follow-up to the award-winning The Sterkarm Handshake: A woman’s return to Scotland’s barbaric past ensnares her in a web of intrigue, danger, and love. Andrea Mitchell once found acceptance and love among the Sterkarm clan in lawless 1500s Scotland when she gained access to Great Britain’s past via the FUP Corporation’s “Time Tube.” Since her return to the present, she has been unable to readjust to twenty-first century life... moreThe follow-up to the award-winning The Sterkarm Handshake: A woman’s return to Scotland’s barbaric past ensnares her in a web of intrigue, danger, and love. Andrea Mitchell once found acceptance and love among the Sterkarm clan in lawless 1500s Scotland when she gained access to Great Britain’s past via the FUP Corporation’s “Time Tube.” Since her return to the present, she has been unable to readjust to twenty-first century life. So when the company’s CEO, James Windsor, offers to send her back to the violent, colorful era—and her beloved Per Sterkarm—Andrea eagerly agrees.   The past she reenters, however, is not the one she remembers. To avoid potential catastrophic effects on the future, FUP has sent her to a different dimension and an alternate sixteenth century. Here, she is a stranger to her former friends, including her onetime lover Per, who is preparing to marry a daughter of the hated Grannams, the Sterkarms’ sworn enemies.   But the union is part of FUP’s insidious plan to plunder the past of its natural wealth. When the wedding goes brutally, tragically awry, Andrea finds herself caught in the middle, a pawn in a violent endgame devised by Windsor and his greedy cronies. And this time there may not be sanctuary for her among the proud, primitive folk she once admired—or even an escape forward to the future where she truly belongs.   Susan Price’s The Sterkarm Handshake was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. In A Sterkarm Kiss, the Carnegie Medal–winning author once again ingeniously blends historical and science fiction in a masterful time-travel adventure as thrilling and unforgettable as its acclaimed predecessor. less

The sixteenth-century Sterkarms are legendary warriors known for their cunning and strength—but what will happen when time travel sets them up to battle their counterparts in an epic final clash?James Windsor—leader of FUP, the twenty-first-century megacorporation that created a tunnel back to the past called the Time Tube—has no intention of giving up his plan to pillage resources from pristine sixteenth-century Scotland... moreThe sixteenth-century Sterkarms are legendary warriors known for their cunning and strength—but what will happen when time travel sets them up to battle their counterparts in an epic final clash?James Windsor—leader of FUP, the twenty-first-century megacorporation that created a tunnel back to the past called the Time Tube—has no intention of giving up his plan to pillage resources from pristine sixteenth-century Scotland. Unfortunately for Windsor, the Sterkarm clan, who will do anything to protect their lands from invaders, continues to stand in his way. But if Windsor's modern-day mercenaries, with their technology, rifles, and rocket launchers, can't beat the primitive Sterkarm warriors, who can? And who could possibly understand the wild Scottish moors and the clan's brutal ways better than the Sterkarms themselves?When FUP opens up a new portal, two universes of Sterkarms are pitted against each other, but anthropologist Andrea Mitchell—originally sent back in time by FUP to study the clan—will risk her life to save Per, the warrior she loves, and the community she has grown to call home. And when both sets of Sterkarms become wary of the twenty-first-century “Elves,” who shake on promises of friendship with one hand and commit murder with the other, they know there is only one way to protect their futures: join with the Grannams, and with each other, to destroy the tunnel, preventing the Elves from returning ever again. less