My thoughts on Quillan Creek and the Little War: Time Stones Book I by Ian Hunter

Quillan Creek and the Little War: 
Time Stones Book I 
By Ian Hunter

Publication Date: 3rd August 2018

Publisher: MVB Marketing-und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels

Print Length: 281 Page

Genre: Historical Fantasy 

Jessie Mason lives with her nose in the pages of history. But she is about to discover that the past is a dangerous place where she doesn't belong, and knowledge alone is not going to save her.

In Jessie’s troubled life her aunt is the only constant and comfort she has. But when she inexplicably disappears, and Jessie uncovers her mother's Time Stone, that unhappy life turns unreal and terrifying.

She is summoned to a world in crisis, 250 years in her past, to three unlikely companions, and the aged Onondaga shaman, Nishkamich, who promises an education in the powers of the stones which they each possess.

Over one glorious summer, Jessie reluctantly settles to village life and the developing bond with her prickly friends, until they are forced to accept that their stones are being hunted through history.

But in the depths of winter, their friendship, their wits, and the very limits of their endurance, will be tested by an unforgiving Nature as war finally erupts around them.

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cover Art: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Some stories throw you straight into the roar of battle. This one carries you into the whispering wilds of the frontier, where the wind through the trees sounds almost like voices and the earth itself is not as solid as it seems. From the opening pages, the tale settles around you like campfire smoke, warm with friendship and wonder, yet edged with danger that keeps you turning the pages.

Lives change in an instant. A girl fleeing her daily chores runs for her life through an unfamiliar forest. A lonely modern teenager falls through the ground and into another century. A young man’s ordinary day ends in the company of soldiers and gunfire. Each of them arrives with nothing but the clothes they wear and a strangely beautiful stone that hums with hidden power.

These stones are gifts, but they are also burdens. There are no instructions, no gentle awakening of magic, only confusion, fear, and the growing sense that something dark is hunting them. The past they land in is breathtakingly alive: clear waters teeming with fish, forests untouched by industry, and a people deeply bound to the land. Yet beneath that beauty lies the shadow of invasion, conflict, and change that cannot be undone.

At the heart of the story is the meeting of strangers who slowly become something more. Trust is not given easily, but earned in shared danger and quiet acts of courage. Guidance comes from an aging shaman who understands that his time is short and his knowledge must live on in these unexpected heirs. Through him, the magic feels ancient and spiritual rather than flashy, rooted in responsibility instead of power for its own sake.

What lingers most is the feeling of found family. These young heroes come from different times and worlds, yet discover that belonging is not about where you start but who stands beside you when everything else is lost. Their growing bond brings warmth to a harsh and uncertain world, a reminder that loyalty and compassion can take root anywhere.

This is an adventure filled with peril, mystery, and wonder, but it also has a gentle, reflective heart. It invites you to walk beneath towering pines, listen to old stories carried on the wind, and believe that even across centuries, people can find one another and change the course of history together.

Books have been an important part of my life as long as I can remember, and at 54 years old, that’s a lot of books. My earliest memories of reading are CS Lewis’, “The Horse and His Boy” – by far the best of the Narnia books, the Adventures series by Willard Price, and “Goalkeepers are Different” by sports journalist Brian Glanville. An eclectic mix. My first English teacher was surprised to hear that I was reading, Le Carré, Ken Follett, Nevil Shute and “All the Presidents’ Men” by Woodward and Bernstein at the age of 12. I was simply picking up the books my father had finished.

School syllabus threw up the usual suspects – Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dickens, Hardy, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – which I have reread often, and others I don’t immediately recall. By “A” level study, my then English teachers were pulling their hair out at my “perverse waste of talent” – I still have the report card! But I did manage a pass.

During a 35 year career, briefly in Banking and then in IT, I managed to find time, with unfailing family support, to study another lifelong passion, graduating with an Open University Bachelors’ degree in History in 2002. This fascination with all things historical inspired me to begin the Time Stones series. There is so much to our human past, and so many differing views on what is the greatest, and often the saddest, most tragic story. I decided I wanted to write about it; to shine a small light on those, sometimes pivotal stories, which are less frequently mentioned.

In 1995, my wife, Michelle, and I moved from England to southern Germany, where we still live, with our two children, one cat, and, when she pays us a visit, one chocolate labrador. I have been fortunate that I could satisfy another wish, to travel as widely as possible and see as much of our world as I can. Destinations usually include places of historic and archaeological interest, mixed with a large helping of sun, sea and sand for my wife’s peace of mind.

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