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The Witch Queen

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The third and final novel in the (recently titled) Capel Trilogy by writer Amanda Hemingway (under the penname Jan Siegel). _The Witch Queen_ is precceed by _The Dragon Charmer_ and the first novel in the trilogy _Prospero's Children_.

Where as _Prospero's Children_ was a well writen and wonderful novel, _The Dragon Charmer_ lacked exactly that; Charm and the same sparkle as the first novel. _The Witch Queen_ the final novel in this series seems to focus all the problems of the secondary novel and send them off to a rather unsatisfying conclusion.

In the first novel _Prospero's Children_; we were introduced to the herione, Fernanda Capel, who started out as a prickly and prude herione who at the end of the first novel; was revealed to be one of "the gifted" or rather a witch. Whose magic comes from the lost civilization of Atlantis, in the first novel Fern searches for a magical key that opens the gate of death itself. Trying to reach the key before the witch Alimon or Alison and her cohort and true puppet master, the ancient being called "the oldest spirit" get to it first. At the last half of the novel and true climax of the story; Fern goes back in time to find a once and a life time love and set in motion the events that lead to her adventures nearly one thousand years later.

_The Dragon Charmer_ took place nearly ten years later, with all the shine Fern had as a child and all the unique voice the secondary characters having gone and in placed a stalled out example of the common theme of this series. That is the loss of shining wonder of youth for the lackluster pain of adulthood. Siegel seems unable to find any positive examples and reasonings for adulthood and leaves Fern stuck as a perhaps older and slightly taller example of her old prudish and prickly motto's on life. The second novel has the secondary characters loosing their unique voices and introduces a truly uninspiring main character to partially narrate the novel for the reader. Fern's friend Gaynor. The second novel deals with the witch Morgus (Morgan le Fay of legend) trying in vain to find the head of the only person in existence to be gifted with the ability to charm dragons. Her reasoning for this is the complete and utter conquest of the kingdom of Britain (Logrez to her). The novel ends with Fern tricking Morgus and burning her alive while the witch crawls away to the river Styx (of Greek mythology) and emernging like Achilles; completely invulnerable from harm.

This novel begins with Morgus crawling from the river Styx, a remade and modern and beautiful version of herself determined to achieve her conquest and gain her revenge on her former pupil. Morgus takes a sappling from the World Tree (Ydragssil of Norse mythology) and plants it in the real world. Where it's bounty of heads that must serve a season on the tree for every evil deed is soon budding into a powerful and deadly thing that will eventually aid in her conquest of Logrez. Naturally only Fern can stop Morgus's evil plan and sadly this is the true depth of the plot of the final novel.

Meanwhile, Fern Capel is little changed from her experience in _The Dragon Charmer_ if a bit older and less foolish in the sense of rushing headlong into something that she doesn't have her full heart in (that is a loveless marriage, her goal in the second novel _The Dragon Charmer_). Fern, now adept in her magic uses it rarely and still is determined to return as before to her ordered and prudish lifestyle. The same lifestyle she had as a teenager. Where as the first novel ended with Fern's potential and hope for the future, the second novel shows that Fern has lost all of this and the third novel here, sets the final nail in the coffin for hope of Fern ever acheving that greatness she had at the end of _Prospero's Children_. This novel seems to encompass as another reviewer said, the epitome of the authors secondary theory that bascially; you'll never be as good as you were as a child. So run, run as far as you can from adulthood as it will bring you nothing but misery.

Fern continues to run from her gift, even in this novel. Not even taking that first milestone step into believing that perhaps accepteing her gift would give her a better overall happiness in life. As obviously she does not realize that her rejection and constant despair over it leaves her miserable whenever it is brought to her attention. This novel introduces no, real new characters aside from Luc. Whom we discover is possibly connected to the once and a life time love Fern found in ancient Atlantis. This novel also announces the return of the first novels looming antagonist, the oldest spirit. An ancient and powerful being bent on complete conquest over everything.

The novel is spent with Fern and Morgus, spying on each other as Fern tries in vain to help save the sister of Luc, her potential love interest from Morgus. Whose captured the spirit of the girl, much like she did Fern in _The Dragon Charmer_; leaving her in a coma. Luc seeks out Fern for help as she is perhaps the only person with experience in this kind of thing and the remainder of the novel is trying to free Luc's sister and once they achieve that the novel spins off into a kind of character analysis as we learn perhaps more then necessary about Morgus. We learn of Morgus's madness and her insatiable desire and obessession with Fern. Her desire to have Fern replace the missing void her twin sister left when she tried to find redemption in ancient Britain or Camelot.

This last novel leaves the reader decidedly unsatisfied at the end in terms of emotional impact though all loose plot ties are just that. Tied off and finished. The oldest spirit, Azmodel's return is nothing more then his usual lame attempts at gaining control over Fern. Haunting her in dream form while Fern in real time, finds rather passionless love with Luc. Who, as we see is hard to truly like and believe as his interesting Atlanteean counterpart.

Thankfully in this novel we see less of the uninspiring Gaynor and Will though the two's relationship has, as other characters in this series. Stalled completely, it's renewel in this novel is like an after thought or regret of the author and her attempts to amend it by throwing them together in a way that seems little different then the simple intial tie they had in the second novel. Basically put, Will and Gaynor seem put together simply to be together. Fern meanwhile struggles to cut off all ties she has with her gift and all the things associated with it. Fern rushes headlong into her past, never truly accepting what she could have become and as a result is a rather miserable adult. Merely going through the motions of life and adulthood. The novel comes to a rather unsatisfying end that does achieve finality in the sense of plot but an abrupt cut off of character development.

Jan Siegel's prose, tone and pacing are as brillant as ever. Truly Siegel *IS* a writer. But her characteres and underlying theme in the last two novels of the series leave the reader considerably down and this novel is reccomended to those who loved _The Dragon Charmer_, but not truly to those who loved _Prospero's Children_ and not the second novel in the series.

I'm afraid that this book was very disappointing to me. I absolutely loved Prospero's Children, and I enjoyed Dragon Charmer, but I thought the author kind of gave up on this one. I really enjoyed Fern's strong character in the other books, but she seemed weak in the Witch Queen. The author had a good idea, but didn't follow through. The ending especially was not only a letdown, but also violated my idea of fair play in books. It was almost as if the author just got bored and couldn't think of ANY other way to end it. Without giving away too much, I think that's all that I can safely say.

Just a warning, Witch Queen is not of the same calibre as Ms. Siegal's other books.

Witch's Honour

Jan Siegel (pseudonym for Amanda Hemingway) is also the author of "Prospero's Children" (1999), which was chosen by the San Francisco Chronicle and Library Journal as One of the Best Books of the Year, and "The Dragon Charmer" (2000), the two books that precede "The Witch Queen (also titled "Witch's Honour "- 2002) in this fantasy trilogy starring magically-gifted, Fern Capel.

These three books need to be read in order if any sense is to be made of Fern's increasingly complicated love life and her growing power as a sorceress. The first novel in the trilogy, "Prospero's Children" started out as a YA coming-of-age fantasy, choc-a-block with evil villains (a witch, an idol, and an art gallery owner) and eccentric good guys (the Watcher, a female werewolf, a house goblin). Unfortunately, the second half degenerated into a standard Swords and Sorcery fantasy about Atlantis. It's almost as if the publisher said, "Okay, Jan, this is a great novel but we need another 100 pages, and why don't you throw in a Lost Continent. Lost Continents are very big this year."

Nevertheless, read the Atlantis bit very carefully, because the following two novels constantly refer back to Fern's sojourn in this ancient, drowned world. If this author has a serious fault, it's her overuse of extended flashbacks. Her greatest strength is her darkly imaginative blend of worlds (excluding Atlantis): the World Tree (where Fern spends most of "The Dragon Charmer"), borrowed from Norse mythology and inhabited by nightmarish crones; a sinister London on the cusp of the new Millennium, reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's darker fantasies; and a goblin-haunted house on the moors.

"The Witch Queen" pits Fern (also known as the witch, Morcadis) against the ghastly crone, Morgus (World Tree sojourner from novel two), but this time most of their battle takes place in London. Another old enemy, Asmordis has transmogrified into the President and CEO of the Dark Tower, located (sort of) in the City's center. For the most part, he inhabits Fern's vivid nightmares, but shows up in person to provide a surprise ending to this trilogy.

Many readers will feel let-down by the ending, but I am assuming it will eventually lead to another book in this series that might have started out as a YA fantasy, but grew into something darker, filled with horror and ancient bile.

I recommend the entire Siegal trilogy with the caveat that the books must be read as a trilogy to fully appreciate the story line. In my opinion, Prospero's Children is the strongest of the books, in spite of the many reviewers who had problems with the content. It truly does read (at times) like a children's book, but aren't some of the best books you've ever read children's books? Some reviews have noted the dream-like quality of this series, which I believe only enhances the story as magic (by its very nature) is dream-like (as opposed to reality which is boring and disappointing). When I was done with the series, I initially was disappointed by the ending (which I won't disclose). However, after a little reflection on the beginning (Prospero's Children), I realized that the ending truly reflects the character of Fern Capel. If I was disappointed, it is because I have been conditioned to expect "happy endings" in my fantasy reading, endings in which all answers have been provided. To the degree that this series left questions unanswered, it was a better reflection of reality than the Oprah Winfrey Show. The ending here wasn't sad, but the characters weren't wholly triumphant. (Again, unlike Oprah).

I really liked the first two books of the trilogy, but Witch Queen was a dud. I think Jan Siegel should've ended with Dragon Charmer; no need to drag it out with a third book. Witch Queen felt like a half-hearted extension of Dragon Charmer--flogging the dead horse of the Morgus conflict. Nothing really new happened, and the ending was VERY disappointing.

Buyer beware; The Witch Queen and Witch's Honor are same book with different titles. In all the ending was such a let down for a trilogy with such potential that you most assuredly woouldn't want to read it twice, much less buy it twice!