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Obernewtyn Chronicles

novel series by Isobelle Carmody

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ7074781 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Obernewtyn Chronicles is a series of science fiction and fantasy novels by Australian author Isobelle Carmody. The series has a post apocalyptic setting and depicts a world long after its destruction by a global nuclear holocaust.

The series' protagonist, Elspeth Gordie, is a young girl with mental powers condemned by the series' main antagonists, the governing body, known as the council, and the religious authority, the Herder Faction. The novels deal with themes of responsibility, duty, prejudice, discrimination, tolerance, and human and animal rights.

Books of the series

The series consists of seven novels published by Penguin Books.

Obernewtyn (1987)

The Farseekers (1990)

Ashling (1995)

The Keeping Place (1999)

Wavesong (2008)

The Stone Key (2008)

The Sending (2011)

The Red Queen (2015)

In the United States and Canada, the books are published by Random House. Random House split The Stone Key into two books: The Stone Key and Wavesong. The United States and Canada have also split The Sending into two books: The Sending and The Waking Dragon.

Though initially intended to be the final installment, The Sending was the penultimate book. The final book, The Red Queen, was released in November 2015.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Obernewtyn Chronicles” is novel series by Isobelle Carmody. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Obernewtyn, Chronicles and novel, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1987, 1990, 1995, 1999—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Obernewtyn, Chronicles and novel is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “novel series by Isobelle Carmody” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7074781. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1987, 1990, 1995 and 1999.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Obernewtyn Chronicles”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Obernewtyn Chronicles primary sources, Obernewtyn Chronicles archive and Obernewtyn research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Obernewtyn Chronicles”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Obernewtyn Chronicles” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.