Customer Reviews

Witchs Honour

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Buyer beware; The Witch Queen and Witch's Honor are the 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!

Don't let the previous reviewer dissuade you from reading this wonderful trilogy. That reviewer did offer a good tip: if you're trying to locate the final book in the series, The Witch Queen, this is it - but I urge you to read the series in order, beginning with Prospero's Children, and then the second book, The Dragon Charmer, before reading this one. I disagree that the ending was a "let down"; this series is unconventional and if you appreciate unique plotting and suspense, you'll enjoy it.

This series has reminded me of all that I've always loved about fantasy: timeless themes, life-and death struggles between good and evil, and heroic characters with unique Gifts. The author has a wonderful talent for description and for transporting you to other worlds. The characters are likeable and interesting without being sentimental. And the high-stakes suspense is as good or better than the mysteries I've read.

This is the first time I've bothered to write one of these reviews, but I I thought that this little-known trilogy deserved a boost and should be defended after the misleading review it's received. Give the series a try!

I read Prospero's children and got bound by the magic woven by the author. When I read the reviews that said that the third book was a let down, I felt compelled to add my two cents. In short, there was no other way the book could have ended and also kept the magic intact. It is different and is definitely not a comfortable-mass-paper-back-ending. It leaves a taste - as a wine connoisseur might attempt to describe - of intrigue, the fullness of a life time, of light from the setting sun casting a cloak of warmth on the vines, giving it a taste to remember. I would highly recommend it!

I was extremely disappointed by this book, which was a great surprise. I really enjoyed the first two in the trilogy - they are intelligently and elegantly written, the plots are quite creative, and the central characters believable and sympathetic. Ryan's fluency in myth and ancient religion satisfyingly informs all three books, and I enjoyed the development and maturation of contemporary (and reluctant) witch Fern Capel.

The ending of this book is so disappointing, so poorly thought out, so logically inconsistent, that it ruined all three books for me - which I wouldn't have believed possible. I'm so annoyed by it that I can't get it out of my head; I keep realizing yet more ways in which it just doesn't hold together. I've rarely been so unexpectedly disappointed.

Jan Siegel (pseudonym for Amanda Hemingway) is also the author of "Prospero's Children" (1999) and "The Dragon Charmer" (2000), the two novels that precede "Witch's Honour (USA title: "The Witch Queen "(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.

"Witch's Honour" pits Fern (also known as the witch, Morcadis) against the ghastly witch-queen, 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.