The Lost Ones

Reviewed: May 13, 2009
By: Christopher Golden
Publisher: Bantam Spectra
427 pages, $15.00

The Lost Ones is named for all those humans who have been trapped - some for centuries, some more recently - on the far side of the mystic Veil. Alone amongst all of the humans in the far realm, Oliver and Collette have the ability to bring this separation to an end, to allow a blending of the two worlds.

Two months have passed since the disastrous climactic events of volume two. Armies are gathering to fight a war fomented by Atlantian wizards to further their own schemes. Oliver, his sister, his fiancée and Jack Frost are in prison and need to escape. For this to happen, the Bascombes have to discover what manner of power they have inherited from their mother, who was, it turns out, a myth who chose to live as a human.

This concluding volume of The Veil, which is really one big book and not exactly a trilogy, is much more about confrontations and battle than the other two books. As such, we meet a number of interesting new characters. Some cherished companions die and others are forever altered by the events of this conflict.

Perhaps the strangest fate of all is reserved for Ted Halliwell, who seemed to have been dead at one point, but who must struggle to control the great power he now finds himself a part of.

Part urban fantasy and part high fantasy, the Veil saga was an interesting read from start to finish, and managed to put a slightly different spin on some very old plot notions.

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