Title: Wolves of the Witchwood & The Beast of Blackmoor
Author: Kate Forsyth
Genre: Children’s/YA Fantasy
My Thoughts: THE WOLVES OF THE WITCHWOOD and THE BEAST OF BLACKMOOR BOG are books 2 & 3 in The Impossible Quest series by Kate Forsyth; a fabulous adventure set in the faraway fantasy land of Wolfhaven. Four young teens band together to save their world. Tom, the son of the Wolfhaven Castle cook; Lady Elanor, the daughter of the Lord of Wolfhaven; Sebastian, a young squire who dreams of being a knight and thinks he is superior to Tom; and Quinn, who is an orphan, an apprenticed witch, and think she knows everything. Wolfhaven Castle is captured by Lord Mortlake who uses evil magic to achieve his goal, taking over the world. The 4 mismatched teens manage to escape with the help of the castle witch – who gives each of them a magical gift. With no time to tell them what their gift will do for them, part of the quest is also to unlock the mystery of their gifts. Now they need to try and awaken some legendary sleeping warriors from the past and overthrow Lord Mortlake and his evil plans for taking over the world.
Before they can bring the warriors to life the group need to stop squabbling and work together to find a Unicorn, a Griffin, a Dragon and a Sea Serpent. By the end of these two books they have found 3 of their mythical animals with one more to go. In Witchwood they meet Tom’s mysterious father and a blind witch, Wilda. On Blackmoor the team splits up (always a mistake) and reach one of the castles they are seeking military assistance from. As you would expect when only half way through a series all is not as it seems and the story races along to a life or death climax in the middle of a spooky bog in the middle of the moor.
Overall the books are a fast read as the group lurches from one crisis to another and the plot twists and turns. However, there is real growth in each of the main characters as they get further along in the adventure; they are learning about themselves and their gift, and become a team rather than being just thrown together due to circumstances.
I love the land of Wolfhaven – as with many fantasy novels the setting is medieval, with castles, bows and arrow, knights and a strict social hierarchy. Throw in magical creatures – both good and evil, witches, a talking pendant and tame wolves and you have a wonderful adventure. THE WOLVES OF THE WITCHWOOD really had just the one task to do with all the gang involved as they worked out their own social hierarchy, then THE BEAST OF BLACKMOOR BOG had a few story lines going with the group splitting up into different task threads and heading off in different directions to do what needed to be done. Kate Forsyth cleverly pulled the threads back into line by the end of the book and the teens moved off as one to start their quest for the final creature that they need.
I know I am not the age of the intended audience – but I am really enjoying the adventure. I like how each of the main characters are becoming aware of their weaknesses and finding their strengths. How they are losing sight of their differences and becoming unified in their similarities. The 4th book in the series – THE DROWNED KINGDOM – has now been released, with one more to go, BATTLE OF THE HEROES, being released in a couple of months.
For more about the author – Click Here
B – Great – I really enjoyed reading them both and recommend them to all my friends who like this genre.
Leave a Reply