Season of the Witch

Prepare to be seduced by the mixture of sensuality, mystery and supernatural that this book offers. Gabriel Blackstone, a self proclaimed "information thief", also possesses ability to mentally pay visits to other people's minds (or to "slam a ride" as it is referred to in the book). Such "gifts" often come at a price and while he believes "remote viewing" days are behind him, an unexpected visit from an ex-girlfriend may change all that. She asks him to look into the disappearance of her stepson, and though reluctant to get involved at first, very soon Gabriel finds himself drawn into the mysterious, wildly sensual and potentially dangerous world of the enigmatic Monk sisters.

Mostert does a fantastic job not only of describing in great show more detail this magical world she created but also of putting her own original twist on all aspects of it. At first glance I expected this to be a light, easy read but this story not only entertains but also stimulates the reader on many different levels. Though on the surface none of the characters seemed easy to relate to, the way the story unfolded required a certain level of emotional and significant level of mental involvement on the part of the reader. The magnetic pull of the spider web Gabriel finds himself entangled in seemed to be impossible to resist.

This book is perfect for those mystery lovers who like their suspense wrapped in a layer of supernatural or occult, as well as those who truly appreciate discovering a book that does not fit all the predictable elements of its genre. show less

This was actually a pretty decent story. It started off slowly and I had very little interest, but I pushed through and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

The "magic" in this book is one I had not really encountered before and was done in such a way that anyone could grasp and understand it.

The characters were all wonderfully done. The sisters were the perfect amount of mysterious and haughty. Isidore was the classical messy super intelligent side kick.

Gabriel was the classical arrogant protagonist who learns a great lesson and learns the price of his actions through loss.

Gabriel Blackstone is a hacker. He mines companies for data and sells it to the highest bidder, often on commission. He's also a remote viewer, ignoring his psychic skills he isn't really prepared for the return of an old girlfriend looking for a favour.

She's married and her step-son is missing, last seen in the company of the rather strange Monk sisters. When Gabriel gets involved he has to embrace his abilities and discover something about the high magic the sisters are involved in.

It's a modern version of Dion Fortune and the like. Interesting with some well drawn characters.

4.5 stars

I have a confession to make. I downloaded Season of the Witch and two other Natasha Mostert books from NetGalley over a year ago, but because they were independently published, they were not high on my TBR list. I should know better; since joining Goodreads, I have discovered several excellent indie authors, so I have no idea where my prejudice against Mostert's books came from. Fortunately, Season of the Witch was selected as a May Book of the Month by Modern Good Reads, prompting me to figuratively dust off my copy, and I was quickly enthralled by Mostert's tale of remote viewers, memory palaces, alchemy, and witchcraft. I was familiar with all of these concepts already, but Mostert brought all of the disparate elements show more together in a new way, emphasizing the idea that science and magic might just be two sides of the same coin.

What prevented me from giving Season of the Witch a full 5-star rating was Mostert's tendency to raise potential plot threads, only to drop them without development or discussion. In a classic murder mystery, these might be brushed off as red herrings meant to misdirect the reader away from the killer's true identity, but in this case, there was no real mystery to be solved.

Minor quibbles aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Mostert's storytelling skill, which kept me fully engaged with Gabriel, Minnaloushe, and Morrighan even when the technicalities of the memory palace lost me. I highly recommend Season of the Witch to fantasy readers, and I'm moving Mostert's other books to the top of my TBR list.

I received a free copy of Season of the Witch through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

Much like Gabriel Blackstone, computer hacker and self-proclaimed “information thief,” who set out initially to prove that one or both of the Monk sisters were murderers, I found myself being slowly and effectively seduced by the pair as I grew to know them better. Frankly, when I picked up Season of the Witch for the first time I was prepared not to like it simply based on the subject matter. But as I learned more and more about Morrighan and Minnaloushe Monk, two of the most memorable fictional characters that I’ve encountered in a while, I found myself anxious to find out exactly what the sisters were capable of accomplishing – and why they wanted to do it.

Gabriel Blackstone makes a good living by hacking into the supposedly show more secure computer systems of the corporate world. But he is capable of much more. Blackstone is also an accomplished “remote viewer,” so adept at getting into the minds of others, be they dead or alive, that for a time he was part of a select group of British psychics known as Eyestorm. Unfortunately for all involved, Blackstone’s arrogance caused him to leave the project in disgrace and the experience became a part of his past that he kept to himself. When several years later, a former lover of his and a member of Eyestorm herself, Cecily Franck, asks him to help locate her missing stepson, Blackstone finds his past taking over his present.

Despite the fact that he knows just how dangerous the sisters are and that he suspects them of having killed at least once, Blackstone is drawn so deeply into their world that he almost forgets why he is there in the first place. He is seduced not only by their immense physical beauty and intelligence but by their whole lifestyle and the way that they make him so much a part of their world. Mostert provides numerous plot twists and surprises before the novel reaches its suspenseful conclusion, and along the way the reader finds that any and all of her characters are “fair game.” This is my first Natasha Mostert novel; it won’t be my last.

Rated at: 4.0 show less

Mostert mixes just about every genre imaginable and comes up with a captivating “non-genre” novel. Despite the protagonist’s science-fiction connection — Gabriel Blackstone’s a hip hacker info pirate with a psychic talent for “remote viewing” — the novel is drenched in gothic atmosphere and is, at core, a cross between a mystery and occult thriller about the achieving the alchemical dream of gaining universal enlightenment and supernatural power. Blackstone is approached by an ex-girlfriend who was involved in a past period of his life when he was actively involved with remote viewing. Now happily married to an older man, she asks Blackstone to again psychically “slam a ride” and investigate her stepson’s show more disappearance. The young man was somehow involved with Minnaloushe and Morrighan Monk, sisters who live in a brooding Victorian mansion in Chelsea and claim descent from John Dee. Blackstone is entranced by the mysterious sisters. Reading a computerized journal he falls in love with its writer. He does not know which sister is the writer, but does know the sister who is not journaling is a murderer. Meanwhile they show him how to push the envelope and live with an intensity he never knew existed. Mostert’s Monk sisters are bewitching characters and her (their) mix of modern technology, ancient alchemy, and the esoteric Art of Memory becomes a convincing commentary on how our modern memories “have become flaccid because of all the technological tools we use.” We have laughably short attention spans, are “increasingly incapable of internalizing knowledge,” and “forget what we’ve read almost as soon as we’ve read it.” Since we suspect this may be true, the rest, no matter how fantastic, seems plausible. show less

Aug 30, 2007
Mostart - Season of the Witch

Natasha Mostert's Season of the Witch (Dutton, 2007) is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I obsessively turned the pages fearful of what might come next, but desperately needing to know, I was almost as obsessed as Gabriel Blackstone in his hunger to taste again the cosmic illumination he felt, only once, in a trip into the memory palace, a most dangerous and fascinating place..

What a wild magical and disturbing ride. "Slam the ride" is what the Remote Viewers (RV) called it when they broke into psi-space to catch glimpses of the thought and memories left by others. Gabriel is one of the most talented of RV's recruited by Eyestorm a private British company based in Oxford. With him show more is Cecily Franke, nicknamed Frankie. They are the two youngest recruits and amongst the few that make the final cut. They receive training from Mullins the stern leader who insists they work as a team, but Gabriel prefers to work alone. In the end his own arrogance and the death of a young woman cause him to pick up and leave. He does this without even saying goodbye to Frankie - his lover and friend.

Years later he is working in London with a computer geek named Isador. This talented fellow can hack into any system ever created. Gabriel and Isidore are partners in an illegal company that steals information for one company from their competitor. A very lucrative business being information thieves, but Gabriel has not left his past behind as he had hoped.

Frankie calls on him years later. She is married to a very wealthy man whose adult son, Robbie, is missing. He was last seen in the company of two beautiful women, the Monk sisters, Morrighan and Minnaloushe. Morrighan with her luxurious black hair and Minnaloushe a ravishing red-haired beauty. His father felt his son was bewitched by them. Robbie wanted only to be in their company. Then one night he disappeared. Frankie used her RV talent to try to find him or at least discover what happened to him, but she could sense nothing. She begs Gabriel to "jump the ride" and use his stronger talent to find Robbie. He accepts this job reluctantly, but one evening - almost without trying - he slips into psi-space and, using Robbie's memories, travels with him through a house of many rooms, a manion with hundreds, maybe thousands of doors, and Robbie knows precisely which doors to open and in which sequence. Then a woman wearing a black mask appears and leads him to a doorway he knows to be wrong, but he is so enchanted by her that he follows her to what is ultimately his death.

Gabriel is intrigued. The secret to Robbie's disappearance is obviously linked to the Monk sisters, and Gabriel promises to unravel the mystery. This leads him into a world more dangerous than he ever imagined, one of Solar witches with powers that transcend reality. One of the sisters is surely a killer, but Gabriel is so captivated by them that he becomes much like the besotted Robbie and cares only about being with these enchantresses and their magic. It is solely, though the love of a special someone that he has any chance of survival. show less