Book Review: The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan Le Fey by Alex Epstein

The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan Le Fey by Alex Epstein

Publisher: Tradewind Books

Publish Date: August 1, 2011

Paperback, 304 pages 
Fiction, Historical, Fantasy, Paranormal
 ISBN: 978-1896580630

My Review:
What an intriguing story.  I have never thought about how Morgan Le Fey's life came about or who she was before she was part of the Arthurian legend.  Mr. Epstein has remedied that with his version of the tale of a girl who starts of with the name of Anna on the Isle of Britain and has to go on the run or be killed at the early age of twelve and ends up in Ireland which is a entirely different world to her.

Witchcraft is something that drives her through the book, Anna, who becomes Morgan at sea on the way to Ireland feels the power of the land at a ceremony while the men are off at war before she leaves Britain.  She also feels the power from the land while she is in Ireland and it benefits her when she needs it.  I loved seeing her in different experiences throughout Ireland.  She definitely led an interesting life at an early age as did many girls in that era who married at early ages.

Another driving force in Morgan's life is revenge.  Revenge is what keeps her alive and keeps her motivated through the book.  The reader will see revenge as motivation for most of what she does.  And even though it's her primary motivation, you still find yourself really liking her character.  She's strong, but she knows when to stand back and stand behind her husband or her chieftan.  I really liked Morgan, she had compassion towards some people who were deserving of it and she did not like those who did not deserve it.

The Circle Cast was a fascinating look at what Morgan's life might have been like in the early years and I loved every minute of the book.  Mr. Epstein's writing was great, he dove right into the mind of an adolescent girl in early Britain and brought out this marvelous story of her life as she traveled in a foreign country and navigated their customs as she fought for her life and plotted and schemed toward her own revenge and getting back to Britain.

My Rating: 4.5/5.0


About the Book:

How did an exiled girl become the most powerful witch in legend?

Britain, 480 AD. Saxon barbarians are invading, pushing the civilized British out of their own island. Morgan is the daughter of the governor of Cornwall. But when her father is murdered and her mother taken as the King's new wife, she has to flee to Ireland to avoid being murdered herself.

But Ireland is no refuge. She's captured in a slave raid and sold to a village witch. As Morgan comes of age, she discovers her own immense magical powers. She falls in love with a young Irish chieftain, and makes him powerful.

But will her drive for revenge destroy her one chance for love and happiness?


About the Author: 
A native New Yorker, Alex Epstein studied Computer Science and English at Yale University. After a year in Paris, he studied filmmaking at the University of California, Los Angeles in the School of Theatre, Film and Television, finishing with an MFA.

Throughout the 1990s, Epstein worked in the motion picture industry as a development executive. His first book, Crafty Screenwriting, came out of his experiences developing movies.

Epstein moved to Montreal in 2000 and began his career as a professional screenwriter. He co-created the comedy series Naked Josh, which ran for three seasons, and co-wrote the hit buddy cop comedy Bon Cop / Bad Cop.

Epstein lives in Montreal's Old Port with his wife, Lisa Hunter (author of The Intrepid Art Collector) and his two children.

Website

Facebook
Blog

FTC Information: I received this book from the author through Teen Book Scene for an honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.