The Veil of Years

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JUN 18, 2001

Roman Gaul can be endlessly fascinating or, as here, it can be textbook dull. In the continuing saga of Pierette the sorceress and scholar, introduced in the well-received prequel, The Sacred Pool(2001), the heroine now takes on the task of saving the Roman Empire. Pierette's studies have taught her two nifty spells that take her across Europe she can light fires with her fingers and she can travel through time by reciting a quick incantation. Her principal objective is to fix a part of history that has somehow gotten off track, but first she has to figure out how and where to go. In her journey she meets Celts, Greeks, early Christian pilgrims, more Gauls and some strange fant mes. Unfortunately, the story is not only a bit disjointed but also peppered with historical terminology that should be fascinating but instead becomes increasingly uninteresting. Douglas (Simply Human, etc.) tells us a lot about city names and how they change from age to age, besides providing some glimpses into how early Europeans lived, ate and dressed. Most annoying, though, is that Pierette doesn't seem to actually do anything. Yes, she travels. She even performs a couple of spells. But while she figures out what she needs to do to save the world, the reader doesn't feel the emotion or the thought processes that go into her actions. Usually someone else rescues her and tells her what she needs to do next. This thinly plotted book fails to pull the reader into what could be a very exciting epoch, and that's too bad.