"Exciting Fern Capel tale"
She once dreamed of ruling Logrez through her son, a
product of having sex with her brother the great king
Arthur but failed in her deadly scheme. Morgus hates
mankind and intends to rule modern day England but she is
not wise in the ways of the present. She plans to use the
spirit of a modern day witch, separated from her body by
Morgus, to learn how to get around in the twentieth century. Fern Capel, unwilling to be an apprentice to such a
malevolent being, fights her and eventually thinks she
kills her dangerous "guest". Unfortunately, Morgus is a
survivor and after a time of recuperation is back intending
to destroy Fern once and for all. When it comes to Fern's
attention that she will have to fight her enemy once again,
she gathers her allies for the coming battle, never
dreaming what she will have to sacrifice for the ultimate
victory. This is the third installment in the Fern Capel Saga and it
is by far the most creative and fascinating to date. The
antagonist is almost as interesting as the heroine as
Morgus is a malevolent being so consumed by hatred that it
is not at all easy to predict how she will attack only that
her assault is pending. The heroine is a being of pure
goodness so easy to predict but remains likable and engages
the empathy of the audience early on. The climax is truly
a shocker that solves the problems that plague Fern, but
not quite in the way the audience will anticipate. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted July 10, 2002
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It is a fearsome world of witches, dragons, and goblins,
where a gnarled tree bears fruit of human heads. Fern Capel
believes she has left it all behind. But now that world is
seeping into modern day England: The witch-queen Morgus,
who had imprisoned Fern in the ghostly Otherworld, has
returned from countless years of exile beneath the gruesome
Eternal Tree. Stalking the twenty-first century in her
Prada stilettos, Morgus has the mind-set of the Dark Ages
and vows to rule the ancient kingdom of Logrez, now modern
Britain.
Most of all, Morgus wants revenge on Fern Capel.
Rejuvenated through sorcery, neither charm nor weapon can
harm the witch-queen. She has planted a cutting from the
Eternal Tree in the real world and awaits with impatience
the ripening of its terrifying bounty. When Fern learns
that her enemy cannot be defeated through conventional
means, she turns for help to her best friend, Gaynor, her
brother Will, her old mentor, Ragginbone, and Maldo, the
goblin-queen. Together, they track Morgus through London's
high-society parties and seedy, sinister contacts, until
they finally draw a magic circle in a Soho basement. Fern
Capel knows that survival is not enough: This time she must
win. But she does not yet understand how high a price she
will have to pay.
In this thrilling final novel of her acclaimed trilogy, Jan
Siegel takes advantage of her greatest strengths as a
writer—weaving magic into a modern-day world and bringing
vivid life to a host of characters that readers will not
soon forget.
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