The Face in the Frost is a fantasy classic, defying categorization with
its richly imaginative story of two separate kingdoms of wizards,
stymied by a power that is beyond their control. A tall, skinny misfit
of a wizard named Prospero lives in the Southern Kingdom – a patchwork of
feuding duchies and small manors, all loosely loyal to one figurehead
king. Both he and an improbable adventurer named Roger Bacon look in
mirrors to see different times and places, which greatly affects their
personalities and mannerisms and leads them into a myriad of situations
that are sometimes frightening and often hilarious.
Hailed by critics
as an extraordinary work, combining the thrills of a horror novel with
the inventiveness of fantasy, The Face in the Frost is the debut novel
that launched John Bellairs' reputation as one of the most individual
voices in young adult fiction.