Master of the Ghost Dreaming

Lost is the way to the skyland. Our souls wander forlornly in the land of ghosts. Our spirits become their play things; our bodies their food, to be ripped apart, and our gnawed bones are scattered. We are in despair; we are sickening unto death; we call to be healed. Anxiously we wait for our mapan, the Master of the Ghost Dreaming to deliver us. In the first years of the 19th century a small Aboriginal tribe reels under the threat of white invasion of their ancestral lands. Fada, a missionary from London, is attempting to impose a Christian God over their ancient beliefs. Fada and his wife Mada bring with them disease and despair, along with a message of hope - the result of their own Cockney dreaming. This novel by Mudrooroo, author of the acclaimed Wild Cat Falling, is a story of survival - physical, metaphysical and magical. It is also the story of Jangamuttuk, the custodian of the Ghost Dreaming, and his shamanistic efforts to will his tribe back to its own promised land. This is the first of the completed quartet known as his Vampyre Novels...

A daring and thrilling journey into a fantastical world of shamans, vampires and werebears where aboriginal Dreaming and Gothic horror are woven together to create a powerful and seamless narrative. I, the stranger with strange habits which make me avoid the full light of day, enter into the warm circle of your fire and will exchange my yarn for your company... The stranger, George, tells a story of wonder and horror. Jangamuttuk, his father and Master of the Ghost Dreaming, is a shaman with ceremonies to send the white ghosts back to their own world. But the ghosts keep coming, settling on the land and destroying the local people. Initiated into the Dreaming, George learns the secret of transforming into his animal companion, Dingo, and discovers the thrill of the hunt. But he is not alone in his lust for blood. Amelia, the white woman, shares his appetite, feeding on humans and animals alike to maintain her terrible power. Moving into the white settlement, she creates a psychic barrier around it to protect herself and her slaves. The aboriginal people must draw on every resource, both physical and psychic, to overcome this threat to their existence.

By the firelight, a mysterious storyteller weaves a captivating tale of sea journeys, vampire women, and Aboriginal Dreaming. Around the campfire the gold diggers listen and journey with George as he plunges underground to rescue his ship's captain from the horrific and mesmerizing vampire woman. Jangamuttuk, the Master of the Ghost Dreaming, sends his son, George, to rescue Wadawaka from the 'ghost' vampire woman who has taken him as her 'Dark Lord' and imprisoned him in her underground kingdom. Will George, in either his human form or as his Dreaming animal-self Dingo, be able to withstand Amelia's powers; will he survive the underground caverns; can he tear Wadawaka and himself from the violent but seductive power of the vampire woman? And who is the strange but familiar ghost woman accompanying the new colonial governor? Underground is the 3rd in the Master of The Ghost Dreaming quartet, beautifully and insistently portrays the enduring reality of Aboriginal Dreaming in a fascinating story of initiation, maternal longing, and colonial violence.