Prospero Regained
Prospero's Daughter, No 3
L. Jagi Lamplighter

Tor Books
2011 / ISBN-13: 978-0765319319
Fantasy
Amazon

Reviewed by Carmen Ferreiro

The third book in the Prospero’s Daughter trilogy, Prospero Regained, starts where Prospero in Hell (http://www.myshelf.com/scifi_fantasy/11/prosperoinhell.htm) left off.
By accidentally blowing her magic flute, Miranda has stranded herself, her siblings and Mab (the airy spirit in the body of a Humphrey Bogart look-alike that is her trusted employee) in hell where her father, Prospero, is held captive. She has three days to reunite all her siblings and come up with a plan to rescue their father.

While the Prosperos journey through the nine circles of hell (an allusion to Dante’s Inferno), loyalties are tested and old hates reconsidered as they gain new insights into each others’ lives and the forces that shaped them.

In this trilogy, Ms. Lamplighter has created an ambitious story where Greek gods, Pagan myths, Shakespeare’s characters and Christian dogma coexist in richly imagined worlds, both ancient and contemporary; a story whose many threads she brings together in this last volume to deliver a satisfying conclusion.

I loved the story, but I loved the characters even more. Their flaws and quirks make them more human, but no less heroic.

If you read the first two books, you must read this one. And if you didn’t, I highly recommend you do it because this is a fantasy that screams of classic. But do it at a leisurely pace, for its many twists and the complexity of its themes so demand it.

Prospero Lost, No 1   [review]
Prospero in Hell, No 2   [review]