PROSPERO REGAINED

In the final installment of a trilogy (Prospero in Hell, 2010, etc.), the centuries-old children of The Tempest magician Prospero undergo a literally harrowing voyage across Hell.

Lilith, the demonic Queen of Air and Darkness, plans to execute Prospero in a few days. Unfortunately, his rescuers—his daughter Miranda, her eight bickering siblings, her erstwhile childhood companion Caliban and Mab, a wind spirit incarnated in a human body—are scattered all over Hell. The questions that torture Miranda as she struggles to her father surpass the illusory torments she encounters. Can the Prospero family reunite and work together as of old, or will their habitual mistrust, untold secrets and hidden allegiances tear them apart? What accounts for Miranda’s utter obedience to the slightest of her father’s wishes? Is her beloved, the Elf Lord Astreus, irrevocably lost within his demonic alter ego, Seir of the Shadows? Who is Miranda’s mother? Possible answers come thick and fast as this richly imagined book hurtles through penultimate climax after penultimate climax, toward a somewhat predictable but entirely well-deserved happy ending. As Miranda, once cold-hearted and almost entirely oblivious to social cues, blossoms into a long-delayed emotional maturity, so too will the reader warm toward her and her peculiar, prickly relatives. It’s sad but satisfying to bid goodbye to the colorful Prospero family. What’s next, Lamplighter?