Wormwood (Taylor novel) facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | Graham Taylor |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Shadowmancer |
| Genre | Fantasy novel, Children's literature |
| Published | 2004 (Faber & Faber) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Preceded by | Shadowmancer |
| Followed by | Tersias |
Wormwood is a fantasy sequel to Graham Taylor's Shadowmancer. It follows the adventures of the book's two main protagonists, Dr. Sabian Blake and his servant girl, Agetta Lamian. The work is a Christian allegory.
The work, like its predecessor, was criticised for attacking other religions. Taylor professed that this work was against the kabbalah, which he sees as a practice that leads to Satan.
Plot
The story takes place in London, where Dr. Sabian Blake is sitting in his attic at the top of his house in Bloomsbury Square, looking out to space through his telescope, in search of a special star. He is told about this star by The Nemorensis, an ancient book that holds many old and powerful secrets. It has predicted that the comet Wormwood (which was foretold in the book of Revelation) is hurtling towards the earth, and would spell certain doom for London and all other lands around her. As Blake is observing this, a series of cataclysmic and destructive events, referred to as a 'sky-quake', hits the city, the aftermath of which involves horses and dogs going completely mad and attacking everyone in sight. The reason for these happenings was that the power of the Keruvim was being used in the north by the evil Pyratheon, in his vain attempt to overthrow Riathamus. We are then introduced to Agetta Lamian, Blake's servant-girl, whose father Cadmus Lamian owns a lodging house on Fleet Street.
Eventually it transpires that Pyratheon's evil sister, Yerzinia, is using the Nemorensis to call down the comet and reshape the devastated London in her own, dark image.
