The Face in the Frost
*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.

Written with an older audience in view, this book was inspired by Bellairs's reading of the *Lord of the Rings* series. An unfinished sequel titled *The Dolphin Cross* can be found in the anthology titled *Magic Mirrors*.
Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, American Science fiction, Children's fiction
John Bellairs
<b><a href="http://bellairsia.com">John Bellairs</a></b> (1938–1991) was an American novelist working primarily in the Gothic genre.  He is best-known for the children's classic <i>The House with a Clock in its Walls</i> 1973) and for the pathbreaking fantasy novel <i>The Face in the Frost</i> (1969). Bellairs held a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University and a master's in English from the University of Chicago.  He combined writing and teaching from 1963 to 1971, including a year at <a href="http://shimer.edu">Shimer College</a> that coincided with that school's storied <a href="http://www.bellairsia.com/the_life/il/gis.html">Grotesque Internecine Struggle</a>.  After 1971, he took up writing as his full-time work. (from <a href="http://shimercollege.wikia.com/John_Bellairs">Shimer College Wiki</a>)