The Sorceress

I completed The Sorceress last weekend and immediately dove in to The Necromancer.  Unfortunately I haven't read much of it because The Omen Machine, by Terry Goodkind, came out on Tuesday so now I'm reading that.

I'm not going in to super detail with this review of the The Sorceress like I did with the previous two reviews.  In fact, I barely can recall what exactly happened in that book because the books are starting to blur together now. It seems like it's just one big long book.  Basically, Josh is now Awakened, but has no learned elements.  Nicholas wants to take them to see Gilgamesh, the crazy immortal king of Babylon, who knows all 4 elements but cannot use them because his Awakening, by Abraham the Mage (writer of the Codex), was botched.

Long story short, we meet Palamedes of Arthurian legened, the Saracen Knight. He is an immortal that helps out Nicholas and the twins at the behest of Saint-Germain after they get in to London.  London is Dee's city so there are few if any people that will be able to help Nicholas.  Perenelle is still trapped on Alcatraz.

We also meet William Shakespeare, who is also an immortal, doesn't bath, used to be apprentice to Dee, but later turned when Dee sent him to steal the codex from Nicholas.

With this group together, they manage to find Gilgamesh (eventually after battling the Archon Cernunnous) and he teaches Sophie and Josh the Magic of Water.  Quite awesome.

More battling occurs throughout the book, much involving magic that the twins manage to whip out of their butts based on what they've learned so far.  They teleport out of Stonehenge in Salisbury by using a very powerful leygate and plop just north of San Francisco.

Joan and Scathatch attempt to leave Paris via the leygate at Point Zero in front of Notre Dame, but Dee had this trapped and it sent them back in time about a bagillion years so they're stuck in some ancient period of time, just north of San Francisco.

Perenelle manages to escape Alcatraz quite interestingly.  It's worth going in to detail.  Her and Aerop-Enap captured the Crow Goddess and under captivity by using the ancient words of power that Dee used to house Aerop-Enap, the Crow Goddess dies.

Sort of.

The Morrigan was one of three sisters, the others being the Badb and the Macha.  When the Morrigan dies, the Badb and the Macha both come to life within the Crow Goddesses body and speak to Perenelle who was present in the chamber when the Morrigan passed.  Badb and Macha explain simultaneously that The Crow Goddess was never three individuals, but always one physical body with 3 different souls.  That's why they were never seen together.  They also explain that the Morrigan eventually got greedy, gained control of their souls, and took over the Crow Goddess' body for herself for the last several hundred years.  Now that she was weak, the Badb and the Macha were able to take control of the physical form again.

They ask Perenelle to release her and they will forever be in her debt.

Perenelle does as they asks, but NOT before the Morrigan resurfaces temporarily for a second and screams not to do this, they're trying to trick her.

She does it anyway as the Morrigan recedes back in under the control of the Badb and the Macha.

Shortly after this, Perenelle learns that Billy the Kid (an American immortal) and Machiavelli are on their way out to kill her.  Billy was all the person that sent all the bugs to try to kill Perenelle earlier, but Aerop-Enap was able to fend them off, but not before she was mortally injured.  She ended up having to go hide in a cocoon and doesn't return for the rest of the book.

Perenelle is up in the water tower when Machiavelli and Billy the Kid arrive.  The Ghost of De Ayala warns her not to move as the Crow Goddess greats them, and Machiavelli knows her.  She leads them down in to the tunnels where she was previously held, the two immortals following under the assumption that they're taking them to Perenelle.

Prior to this, we learn Perenelle's level of power is monstrous.  She's far more dangerous than Nicholas.  And even some Elders fear her.  Who the fuck is this woman?  This book, named after her, doesn't really give much insite.

Once Machiavelli and Billy are well into the tunnels, Perenelle makes her escape attempt simply by stealing their boat.  As she tears away, Machiavelli and Billy come back out of the tunnel but they are too late.  As Perenelle careens away, the Old Man of the Sea, Nereus pops up.  Perenelle had previously escaped his clutches earlier in the book, but now she seems to have her right where he wants her.

Unfortunately for Nereus, Perenelle is still carrying around a spear with one of the ancient symbols/words of power on it, stabs him with it as he grabs her.  The attack lasted all of ten seconds, and at the end, Perenelle escapes again and tears away.

Shortly after Nicholas and the twins use the Leygate to travel to northern San Fran, Perenelle shows up walking towards them from the southwest.  She happened to be traveling in that direction.  For whatever reason, this reunion between herself and Nicholas was A.) A little lacking, a bit of a let down and B.) Far-fetched.

It was okay nonetheless and I managed to get passed it.

Dee did try attacking Nicholas, the twins, Palamedes and William while in Salisbury but fails to capture them because Josh heaves Clarent, the sword, at him just as he's about to kill Nicholas.  Completely knocked out, Dee is laying in the grass when Nicholas and the twins escape.

However, Josh was unable to recover Clarent, and leaves it behind.  Dee awakes and now has both Excalibur and Clarent.  Josh attempted holding both at once before and was completely unable to.  Dee however has no problem doing this, and, in fact, joins them together as one solid sword.

The two that are one, the one that is all.


The prophecy of the twins has taken on a whole new meaning.

And then the book ends.

GREAT.  So immediately began reading The Necromancer but had to stop because The Omen Machine came out and I'm reading it now.  As soon as I'm done, I'll do a quick review of it, and then pick up The Necromancer again.