[Mouse]

The Dragon Charmer by Jan Siegel

I’ll keep this one short. This follows on from her earlier novel “Prospero’s Children” and once again involves the story of Fernanda as she tries to come to terms with her Atlantean heritage as one of the “Gifted”. Once again it follows her struggles to make sense of her powers and the conflict with those who would exploit her and do her harm.

What I like about Jan Siegel’s style is that she successfully manages to maintain a balance between characterisation and action. I also enjoy her prose style and the way that she weaves various mythologies into a coherent pattern. She is also capable of sustaining interest by introducing vivid imagery where necessary. In this novel, the tree upon which the heads of dead sinners grow as a sort of hideous fruit is particularly striking.

A word of warning though. To get the most out of this book, I would advise having read Prospero’s Children first. A lot of the detail and nuances of will be lost without knowledge of what occurred in the first book.