Fabulous Fiction Firsts #589 "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” ~ Roald Dahl

Sat, 03/26/2016 - 8:03pm by muffy

First in a projected series, The Last Days of Magic is the debut novel by published poet and the founder of The Aspen Writers’ Network Mark Tompkins; which Geraldine Brooks called "a fantasy adventure with the shifting perspectives of dreamscape. A novel rich and strange."

A frantic warning from her grandmother alerts Sara Hill to secrets hidden in the books of mythology given to her as a child.The undamaged versions of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the binding point to evidence of Nephilim, whose existence the Vatican wishes to suppress. When Sara's body washes up on a beach, the scene shifts to late 14th-century Ireland where a centuries-old status quo is in jeopardy.

Medieval Ireland is protected by a powerful goddess known as the Morrígna, a female trinity with one aspect in the spirit realm and two human aspects, born again and again as the twins Anya, the sage, and Aisling, the warrior, who stands between warring clans of Celts, Vikings, and darkly magical otherworldly beings. With Anya’s death, forces are massing to attack the weakened island - the most dangerous being the Vatican which is hell bent on exterminating magical creatures and converting new lands.

At the helm is Jordan, a Vatican commander and clandestine student of forbidden magic who is secretly torn between duty and desire when he meets Najia, an enchantress and his slave. Loyalties are tested and betrayals sown, yet the coming battle is not to be the last.

In this epic novel of magic and mysticism, Celts and faeries, mad kings and Druids, stalwart warriors and the goddess, Tompkins combines deft characterization with treachery, battle, magic, and hints of Dan Brown.

Read-alikes: Danielle Trussoni's Angelology; Lev Grossman's The Magicians; and Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches. Will also appeal to fans of Diana Gabaldon; Jasper Fforde; and Patrick Rothfuss.