by Terrance Mc Arthur

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of The End of Magic. We also have a link to order it from Amazon, and from an indie bookstore where a portion goes to help support KRL.

Have you ever turned on the TV and found a movie you always wanted to see, but it’s more than halfway through, and you don’t have the “View From Beginning” option? Who are these people? Why are they doing these things? That’s what it’s like to read the last book of a trilogy when you haven’t read the first two.

The End of Magic is the final part of the Echo Park Coven series by Amber Benson (also known for the Calliope Reaper-Jones books, and as Tara on three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). All the threads of the previous books come crashing together, and it helps to know the players and what’s happening.

Lyse MacAllister is head of the Echo Park coven of witches because her great-aunt Eleanor died. Lyse knew nothing about the Craft, and the learning curve has been rough. The coven had to dream the fading magic into a more-powerful form. That power also strengthened The Flood, a group trying to bring about an apocalyptic end of the world that would put them on top of the wreckage. The bad guys, including relatives of the witches, are turning the world against them, sparking internment (arresting and imprisoning) and interment (draining, killing, and burying).

The action goes from mountain laboratory complexes to LA, to dreamworlds overrun by a menacing darkness out to overcome more worlds. There are witches, paramilitary witches in choppers and transports, dead witches, and beings who are really handsome but are refugees from a darkened world. There is magical transportation thought into existence, time travel, and the most satisfying use of the time travel paradox I have ever encountered.

Some reader comments hate the ending, and don’t understand it, and aren’t sure if there will be other books, but I think it’s a satisfying finale that makes the trilogy a trilogy. One of the things I like most about The End of Magic is that Lyse’s leadership is doubted by others, and by herself, but she keeps going…which is a sign of leadership.

The End of Magic may be the end of a series, but it should send you scurrying after the first books (The Witches of Echo Park, The Last Dream Keeper) to see what you missed.

To enter to win a copy of The End of Magic, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “magic,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen July 15, 2017. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

Click on this link to purchase this book & a portion goes to help support KRL & an indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

The End of Magic

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Terrance V. Mc Arthur is a Librarian for the Fresno County Public Library.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.