“Plundering the treasure chest of human myths, from mysterious biblical giants to ferocious Celtic faeries, Tompkins has created a fantasy adventure with the shifting perspectives of dreamscape. Filled with papal machination and royal intrigue, magic and mayhem, faeries, Vikings, legates, kings and queens, angels and goddesses, this is one wild and breathless ride.” Tompkins’s amazing debut novel conjures an epic battle for the soul of Ireland. an honest, beautifully detailed book and an entertaining read.” This book took me longer to read than I’d like to admit.“Fantastic. Actually, I believe it took me longer to read this book than it has taken me to read any book… That fact should not cause you to think that its entertainment factor is lacking it isn’t, I just could not get into it at first. Tompkins created a story that makes magic believable. Magic is a very well-known and sought after possession in this time and age, and those in power will stop at nothing in order to be the one in charge of the last piece of land dripping with it, which is naturally Ireland.īy tying in biblical references, as well as utilizing the age-old assumption that ancient Ireland is a place of awe inspiring mystery, he successfully makes magic as ordinary as the wind and rain. At the center of Ireland’s ardor, a substance that acts almost like a conduit for magic, is the Morrigna, a goddess who takes human form in a set of twins, Aisling and Anya. The Morrigna’s duty and purpose is to protect all who call Ireland home.

This story takes the reader through what is supposed to be the traditional ceremony of recognizing the humans who embody the Morrigna and its aftermath, but this specific ceremony is anything but traditional. With a plot full of war and strategy, as well as the instability and perhaps predictability of human emotion, this story is sure to appeal to those whose minds tend to crave action and adventure. (I also think that this book has great potential to be adapted into film. Looking at you, Peter Jackson.)Īs always, thank you for reading into my thoughts.A scene from Hong Sangsoo’s film Introduction. The HFA presents the last seven films of Hong Sangsoo, the brilliant and prolific Korean director who has produced an average of one film per year for the past 26 years. “Hong’s films are always suggesting this possibility for a different world.

It sometimes flickers into being through the presence of chance or coincidence at other times, through the extraction of the unexpected from the ordinary.

The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins