"A leader of men and a soldier of Rome! Today, we honour him." - Rufinius

Editors Deniz and Pillar send down an anthology of seventeen stories, each tale centering on a certain figure of Celt mythology. The patron Saint of the Publisher, the Morrigan, is presented in all her various guises as the collected Authors give form to an enduring nightmare from the Misty Isles. The questions I had on opening this anthology were whether or not the combined Scribes contained within its cover could adequately cover a central figure from a mythos I'm unfortunately fairly ignorant of, and would we be getting a modern swerve on traditional fables of yore. Let's crack on and see if we can't part some mists Deniz and Pillar send our way.

While the stories contained in this collection can be viewed as high fantasy rather than anything trawling the depths of the dark genre, there are still some fun times to be had for dark dreamers on the blood soaked pages. Okay I might not be talking fun times at Ridgemont High here, but you won't be left disappointed. Central to the anthology is the Morrigan, who proves pretty elusive to pin down. Is She an agent for good, for evil, or simply exists as almost a revenant for the Celtic tribes who pay reverence to her? Your call there, hey mentioned my ignorance sans Celtic mythology already, but my take on things was She was as apt to extract her pound of flesh from her own followers as from any of the various invaders hitting the shores of Scotland, Wales, or Ireland. Cornish people, the other white meat of the Celtic nations, can feel justly aggrieved here. So just hit the book thinking in terms of a vengeful revenant and you'll be right, though forewarned is forearmed, we aren't talking Samara here.

What I liked about a number of the stories were that they presented the Morrigan in her various guises, most of which I didn't know about before tackling this Anthology and then hitting some research via Google. We have the young maiden, the old hag, the washer women (who cleans the clothes of the soon to be dead, how cool is that concept), and the Crows of war. We learn the ways of the Sidhe are not to be taken lightly, there's a real feeling of doing deals with the Devil here, who needs a crossroads demon when you can be fooled by the Morrigan. And we also learn I guess that the Morrigan follows a sort of code of practice though it took a number of stories to groove to the concept, though Ulick mac Fearchair, The White Heifer of Fearchair provides good testimony for us noobs.

While I really dug the stories in the collection, lack of Downunder scribes notwithstanding, I must admit to some slight disappointment in no one having a go at placing the Morrigan in a more modern setting. Each of the seventeen stories contained in the collection are period pieces steeped in the mists of Celtic folklore with nary a modern setting intruding. While I'm not adverse to reading fiction based in ye olde times, there did come a point where I was thinking that each story had a certain sameness about the framework. Once I got the hang of the Morrigan dance, well the band didn't really play anything new, or change tempo from the previous half dozen or so stories as each tale unfolded. Minor criticism and I'm sure the fantasy crowd will be gulping down this Anthology, but not quite what we are used to over in the dark aisle.

So basically you have a bunch of stories set in pre English Britain with the odd guest spot for the Roman legions, (Kiss of the Morrigan, The Trinket), and even some Euro trash making the scene. Unfortunately while some Writers have explored the more supernatural elements of the Morrigan no one got down and dirty with the pure horror content, Editors Deniz and Pillar being content with the fantasy representations (an altogether unfortunately view given the Celtic perchance for blood socked mythology). There's any number of Authors beyond the English borders delivering on dark genre musings rich in Celtic lore, pity one or more of these didn't get included.

While being somewhat disappointed with the overall concept I was still happily immersed in the Anthology throughout, there is no weak leak here, no Author is being voted off the Island, my Writing office rules. The stories are well constructed, the prose flows like blood on an ancient battlefield, and there's enough divergence in approach to the central requirement that The Phantom Queen Awakes retains interest from first to last page. For anyone who likes fantasy or historic fiction dial on in, this one is clearly for you. Not overly sure I would recommend this one to dark genre voyagers, there's not enough mist seeping onto the pages or things that go bump in the night to keep us happy. Your call on this one folks, if you don't mind a bit of fantasy then slot the book into your reading list somewhere, otherwise Morrigan Books do have a number of other Anthologies that may be more to your liking.

The Phantom Queen Awakes is available via Morrigan Books for the not unreasonable price of $10.95 + P&H for the paperback edition or $3.95 for the e-book option in various formats. Happy reading kids, catch you all next review.