The Quickening

In Angeles's uneven debut, Kathryn, an upper-class wife, escapes her mundane life when she and her goth friend Merrin join up with The Travelers, a magical and musical community of Sidhe, otherwise known as Fair Folk or Tuatha De Danann. The Sidhe must confront the murderous Brotherhood of the Eclipse, an ultra-religious hate group that has launched a paramilitary pogrom against New Agers, Voodoo practitioners, gays, prostitutes, Catholics, Jews and all pagans plus their associates. New Rathmore-a large, fictional city in an unnamed country that resembles Australia-becomes a battleground where the Sidhe and their human sidekicks employ all of their otherworldly talents and cunning. Angeles, an Australian practicing witch (Witchcraft: Theory and Practice) offers an interesting perspective, but her novel is marred by stilted writing. The story's magical elements are far more compelling than the evildoers and their hateful deeds, and its second half is more skillfully executed than the first. A multitude of interesting characters and a plot ripe for continued development hint at the possibility of follow-up volumes.