Doesn't really stand alone well. The apprentice story was definitely stronger than the first couple of witch stories. ( )

Like many other Last Apprentice fans, I was disappointed when I found out that A Coven of Witches wasn't the next book in the series, but just another supplement of short stories similar to The Spook's Tale. While I was grateful to at least get a taste of the dark, I was hoping for a little more.

A Coven of Witches includes four short stories plus a twenty-page preview of Rise of the Huntress, the next book in the series. The first short story follows Gregory in his younger years and the tale of how he met Meg, the lamia witch, his relationship with her and their adventures with Meg's sister Marcia. A very interesting piece of back story, but still left a little underdeveloped at times and left me wanting more.

In the second short story, readers learn about a previously unknown witches named Dirty Dora. Through Dora's eyes, we learn more about the lives and culture of witches, but didn't really add much overall. Some of the characters were included, but the core of the story followed a nameless and generally uninteresting character.

The third story talks about one of Alice's adventures training to be a witch prior to the events of Revenge of the Witch. While this is a fertile area for stories, I know that there was a similar story told in The Spook's Tale.

In the final story, our hero Tom Ward speaks, and gives us another adventure in the fight against the dark.

Delaney delivers the usual dose of darkness, fear and bone-chilling action that his Last Apprentice series is known for. Readers have an opportunity to learn more about certain aspects of Delaney's world that can help the experience. Overall though, I was left wanting for more. The stories were just too short and just not riveting enough but most importantly -not the next installment in the series.

A Coven of Witches is a much better supplement than The Spook's Tale, and definitely will help satisfy fans until Rise of the Huntress hits shelves this fall, but I'd only recommend it for hard-core fans. ( )

This is another set of four short stories set in the The Last Apprentice world all featuring witches.

- Meg Skeleton: Fills in the story of how the Spook met Meg and details the events that happened with Meg and her sister that lead to their imprisonment. Most of this you already know if you are reading the series, but it was nice to have this subplot filled out.
- Dirty Dora: gives some insight into how dead witches become dead witches. This was an okay story but nothing too exciting.
- Alice and the Brain Guzzler: This story tells how Alice ended up learning some of the witch art. Basically it is what happened to her after her parents died and she ended up living with Bony Lizzie. This was probably the best story of the bunch, it gives a lot of insight into Alice's character.
- The Banshee Witch: Tells of the banshee witch that Tom Ward fought with when he was apprenticed with Bill Arkwright. This was my second favorite story of the bunch. It was nice to hear more about Tom's apprenticeship with Arkwright.

Overall a pretty decent set of stories. Alice and the Brain Guzzler and The Banshee Witch make the book worth buying, if you are really set on having the whole series. I personally just got this one from the library to read. The writing is the same style as all the previous books; I enjoyed it. The stories Dirty Dora and Meg Skeleton didn't add a lot to the series for me, but they were okay reads.

Basically this book is just filler as we want for the next book "The Huntress Rises" which is supposed to come out in August 2010. It's a good read and adds some depth to a couple of the characters, so I would recommend reading this book if you are a fan of the series. ( )

Which Witch Will Bewitch You?

Just when I think Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice stories can’t get any scarier, he comes back and frightens me even more! A Coven of Witches is Delaney’s second volume of short stories involving the characters that we see in the ongoing saga of the Spook’s Apprentice Tom Ward. Teasing us with another intermediary volume of mini tales of terror that will scare the breath out of you, this book offers up some pretty gruesome, gross and gory vignettes starring the many witches of Pendle and Chipenden that we have met previously in the other seven installments.

This volume may be short of pages but is certainly filled to the brim with well penned horrifying adventures and vividly drawn illustrations certain to keep the chills and thrills of Apprentice fans begging for more! Bringing up past characters and accounts we’ve already been introduced to, we learn how John Gregory meets his love, the witch Meg Skelton and her evil feral sister Marcia. We’ll watch how our adorable pointed toed witch girlfriend of Tom Ward, Alice Dean, gets her early dark arts training from aunt Bony Lizzie. Many witches of the Malkin, Mouldheel and Pendle clans will drip blood across these pages as they haunt, slay, slice and dice their prey, wreaking havoc across the English countryside giving the Spook and his Apprentice a run for their money. Headless witches, swamp witches, screaming banshees, child stealing, malevolent, and blood thirsty necromancers that rise up from the dead, will all have the reader jumping at those things that go bump in the night if they’re turning these blood curdling pages in the dark by candlelight!

I’m 53 years old and The Last Apprentice teen horror series has never yet disappointed me or failed to give me 100% chilling entertainment. I love this series and really can’t wait for the next book that will return us to the main agenda where Tom Ward and John Gregory have the feared Fiend unfortunately unleashed at last, threatening to consume all of mankind. Sensational read as usual, and a series no horror love should miss! ( )