The Witch Queen (Hardcover)

by Jan Siegel (Author) "It was New Year's Eve 2000..." (more)
Key Phrases: dragon charmer, goblin cat, coven sister, Eternal Tree, Kaspar Walgrim, Dale House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
British author Siegel offers stylish, satisfying fantasy-horror fare in her third installment in the story of Fern Capel, a cute London PR whiz and fledgling witch. In the first two novels, Prospero's Children and The Dragon Charmer, Fern became aware of her magical powers and acquired a crew of mortal and supernatural allies. This time, an old, once-dead witch queen, Morgus, invades her home turf to seize control of the world and to take sadistic revenge against Fern, who now has to destroy an unkillable foe while protecting her friends. This may sound like Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a U.K. accent, but Siegel does some distinctive, startling things with an apparently trivial form. For one thing, she writes in a quiet but uncommonly witty style that can soar into eloquence or mute into dread as needed. For another, she uses myth and legend in daringly eclectic ways, combining offhand but authoritative-sounding references to, say, Atlantis and King Arthur in the same breath. The author is particularly good at seeing past the actions surface to grapple with what really matters. In this case, as Fern realizes, the goal is not simply to defeat her rival. Morgus has dedicated herself utterly to mastering magical lore, so that in gaining power, she has also wound up grandly alone and insane. So how can Fern beat her without imitating her? How, in other words, can she avoid becoming the new witch queen? The answer is not only disturbing but also tough-mindedly convincing, leaving readers anxious for the next Fern Capel novel.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Modern-day witch Fern Capel strives to piece her life back together after her imprisonment by the ancient sorceress Morgus only to find her dreams disturbed by intimations that her battle with her captor is not yet over. Following Prospero's Children and The Dragon Queen, the third installment of a series featuring a young, resourceful practitioner of magic in the modern world draws upon Arthurian legends and Atlantean myths to create a new twist on an old tale of passion rekindled and love betrayed. Siegel creates complex, believable characters caught in a web of treachery and intrigue. For most fantasy collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1st Edition edition (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345439031
• ISBN-13: 978-0345439031
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,411,610 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Feels Like a Retread to Me, August 31, 2002

By	Nat B. - See all my reviews

Jan Siegel is a wonderful, very poetic and visual author, and her technical skills in this book are at their usual level. However, I was very disappointed in the story.

In the first two books of this trilogy, Siegel showed the reader something new each time. I will agree that Prospero's Children is the best of these novels and The Dragon Charmer wasn't as good, but at least in The Dragon Charmer we got new, interesting characters such as Moonspittle and Kel, and fascinating pictures of different worlds--the Tree and Hades.

In the Witch Queen, however, the only major new character is Luc, and he is not very interesting--at least, he didn't seem that way to me. Compared to his Atlantean counterpart, he's downright dull, and I didn't feel any sexual tension between him and Fern. We also didn't get to see anything new in this book. Essentially, it was just Fern in London and Morgus in Kent, both trying to figure out what the other was up to. I kept thinking, Why don't you just get over there and find out and get this plot moving somewhere interesting?

The magic--the circle casting, the Tree, etc.--is basically what we've seen before. Even more vexing, the characters from previous books that I liked weren't around that much, and when they did make an appearance, they didn't seem to do anything; it was as if they were present merely for decoration.

Finally, I did not like the ending. It seemed more of a cop-out--on the part of the author AND Fern--than a closure.

Essentially, I feel this books lacks the level of creativity and thought that was found in such abundance in Prospero's Children, and less so in The Dragon Charmer. Even if you do love Jan Siegel, I would recommend that you wait until it comes out in paperback, or get it from the library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A weaker effort than previous novels, February 27, 2003

By	Mike Galer (Norwich, Norfolk United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

The Witch Queen (Witch's Honour, in the UK) is the last in Jan Siegel's trilogy began in Prospero's Children and continued in The Dragon-Charmer. Numerous characters, history and plot are carried over from the earlier novels, including the main "enemies" of our heroes Fern, Will and more stranger people such as Rattleskin. Once again Fern battles against Morgus and Azmordis. However, it is a complete story in itself, not absolutely requiring you to have read the earlier novels, but this is obviously going to help in order to understand the background of the novel's mythos.

Siegel's world is set within ours, in our own time, but it is a world of witches, wizards, goblins and earth-powers which coexist with ordinary and mundane people. The Gifted, or Prospero's children have witch powers derived from the fall of Atlantis. Robert Holdstock, Tim Powers and Charles de Lint handled this kind of thing more successfully, though Siegel's excellent descriptive talents ensure a chill or two as the story develops. The young Witch heroine battling evil obviously has echoes of Buffy the vampire slayer and House-Goblins are rather familiar following Harry Potter's House-Elves, but the material is handled quite well would appeal to the older teenage market, though there is a few minor and mild references to sex.

One irritation was the thoroughly middle-classness of major characters who all seem to have smart flats in London, work in PR or The City and who had well-off parents live in large houses in the country. At times it almost seems to be a fantasy version of Bridget Jones. This will attract or repel depending on taste. In all a weaker effort than previous novels, suffering from a little padding midway through, a fault experienced by middle volumes of trilogy's rather than the last; but the finale works quite well, but too tidy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Passion vs. Desire, September 19, 2002

By	wayne m ford (rockledge, fl United States) - See all my reviews

I read novels and trilogies as a hobbies. I found the first two books from this author to be sufferable, if that's a word. I thought they were very entertaining and not too risque. None of the main characters were killed. Put in peril maybe, but not banished. I found that refreshing. However this last book had most of the suspense removed about 3/4 of completion. It was as if the author was writing a paper and came up about 75 to 100 pages short. My opinion (and I probably mistaken), it appeared that the last quarter of the book was a fillibuster to complete the novel with little or no effort to build the continuing storyline.
The author has excellent skills and imagination. Somehow she was allow to end a story with what basically amounted to "THE END". I was disappointed with the ending and the book as a whole. The story left too many questions unanswered. Several points refer to substance with out conclusion. THE GOBLIN CAT. THE DIG SITE. THE TWIN. These are the ones that stick out most to me. I am not a really great fan of the 800-900 page novel. However, time has to be taken to create and develop a storyline properly before it ends. Maybe the author's next offering will be planned better.