The Old Power Returns by Morven Westfield

Reviewed by Mike Gleason

Harvest Shadows ISBN 0-9741740-7-5
309 pages Paperback $15.95 (U.S.) $21.95 (Canada)

This sequel to Darksome Thirst has been a long time coming. (Darksome Thirst came out in 2003), and I have been looking forward to reading it all that time. It isn't often that you find an author who can make a juxtaposition of vampires, a witch's coven, and the computer world of the 1980s seem believable. Morven does that.

Although I came into the Craft in the mid-'70s, and thus a few years before the setting of this story, I can easily relate to the attitudes and experiences of Morven's characters - from meeting real witches to whether to let fellow employees at my job know about my involvement with the Craft.

To add to that, I know these people. Oh, not the names, but the personalities and circumstances. In fact, in many ways, I wonder if Morven and I may have briefly crossed paths long ago. I'm fairly sure we didn't, but perhaps we knew the same people at different times. Or, more likely, the characters are drawn from the same sub-culture which was so prevalent at that time - college students, young professionals, and the occasional social misfit.

There is no doubt the characters are thoroughly believable (okay, maybe not the vampires [totally]). You could walk down the street in any New England (or Midwestern or West Coast) city and see their kin, even today. These are not stereotypes, these are people.

The witches aren't perfect. They over- ( and under-) react to some things. They find themselves victims of their own beliefs and doubts. The non-witches are just like the average person on the street (okay, once again, not the vampires). The settings are thoroughly believable, if not necessarily familiar. Although this is a work of fiction, it isn't escapist fiction. With the exception of the existence of physical vampires this book, and its predecessor, require no great stretch of the imagination.

Morven has said that she plans more books in this series and I, for one, look forward with eager anticipation for each subsequent volume. While there are lots of occult-themed novels being produced nowadays, there are far too few being written by writers who know their subjects as well as Morven does.

Although I would not go so far as to say that this book will hold up as well as Dracula has, I can say that it is as well-written and as suspenseful as that work.

I freely admit to being susceptible to a good story about witches, as well as about vampires, and combining the two into one well-told story is a good way to feed my addiction.

My one complaint about Morven as a writer is that she suffers from a severe case of procrastination. It took her almost 2 years to write this volume and, while I understand about life getting in the way of writing, I hope it doesn't take as long for the next volume.

On the other hand, I had no need to re-read Darksome Thirst to refresh my memory of the characters. They were, and are, memorable enough to be brought back to the forefront of memory with only a few lines of the author's talented pen (or more likely her computer keyboard).

Obviously, there are threads left dangling at the end of this story - how else could the series continue? There are a few, unexpected twists near the end. There are also some unresolved conflicts and relationships among the characters.

I will end this review with a heart-felt recommendation that you get a copy of this book at your local bookstore, Amazon.com, or www.harvestshadows.com; and with a heart-felt plea to Morven - please don't keep us waiting so long for the next installment in this wonderful series.