Moonset by Scott Tracey: A Librarian’s Review

Moonset is a modern fantasy novel set in a universe similar to that of Harry Potter.  There are witches and wizards, but the normal humans aren’t allowed to know about them.  There are spells, spell books, and wizard/witch cops.  There are children who are somewhat revered because their families were murdered.  This time, the murdered family members may have deserved it.  Moonset is the name of a coven, or group of witches, that turned to the dark side years before and caused death and destruction on a huge scale in the world of the magic users.  Some of them had children who were innocent of their behavior.  These children are what the book is about.  They are still their own coven, these children and are wards of the state in a way, except the ‘state’ is that of the wizarding world.  These children are taught only rudimentary magic, things they can’t use to harm others, or defend themselves, and are basically watched their entire lives.   The only upside to this is they are given whatever they want within reason.  They have the clothes and material items they want, just not their freedom.  They are hated by most of those who knew their parents and left alone most places.  This brings out the worst in some of them and causes problems.  This time their move is deliberate, although they don’t know that until later.  A warlock that should have died with their parents has shown up again and is causing problems.  He is claiming that he only needs one of these children to unleash darkness over the world.    The authorities decide to use the children as bait, which of course doesn’t work well. 

Moonset was an interesting and quick read, but not really anything spectacular.  While it had a few original ideas, most of it has been done before, many times and better.  This would be an additional purchase for a public library.  3 stars tops.