Rating: 
Summary: This is no Narnia
Review: This book will never break out from the ranks of "fantasy" into the realm of quality fiction. Siegel may have elements of a good plot, but she swamps it with florid prose and fails to develop her characters into three-dimensional people. Comparisons to Narnia or even The Golden Compass are incredible.
Rating: 
Summary: A promising first novel.
Review: This first novel by Siegel has a surprising amount of strength. She tackles some of the grand old chestnuts of fantasy and folklore (Atlantis, witches, mermaids) and wraps them around a coming of age story. This could be disasterous, but in the end it more-or-less works.
Fernanda is a very proper young teenager who has been taking care of her family since the untimely death of her mother. When her father inherits a house in Yorkshire from a distant relative, her family travels there to visit. A secret locked in the house calls mysterious trouble to them all and begins a sequence of events that will make Fernanda doubt everything that she thought she knew-- both about the world and about herself.
The first half of the novel is enchanting. It has a very prim and arch voice. But that primness of tone really works well to build the characters of Fern and Will. The initial encounters with Alison and the Watcher are very well done, and the search for the mysterious key is entertaining and believable.
The second half of the novel is unfortunately quite a bit less effective. Fern capitulates too easily to these new experiences, and the character arc of a girl becoming a woman gets slid down like a dip on a roller coaster. She goes from utterly realistic and practical to wholeheartedly embracing her role as the dramatic fantasy heroine without so much as a backward glance. Many of the flaws in the second half would have been resolved if Fern had been struggling more with the world in which she found herself. Once that element was lost, the archness of the book loses its freshness and gives an overly precious feel with far too many grand fantasy stock attributes.
Overall, this is a commendable first book. It should appeal to fans of folklore and fairy tale based fantasy. Its creativity and shine temper many of the more obvious faults.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book....Ending Mediocre
Review: This incredibly imaginative fantasy novel is Chilling Dazzling Enganging and many other adjectives. However, I found the whole Child takes care of dad to be a bit wierd/cliché. Anyways I Loved the way gods and stuff are created. This is one of the few books , like Lord of the rings and Dune that creates another society that has a mythology and customs. It is very engaging, the only dull part is the ending, which isn't that interesting....The first three quarters are a lot better. I love the very ending though. It is delightful. Anyways, I recommend it. There are two sequals: Witch Queen and Dragon Charmer (not in that order), which continue the plot, but each is a story on it's own, too.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book....Ending Mediocre
Review: This incredibly imaginative fantasy novel is Chilling Dazzling Enganging and many other adjectives. However, I found the whole Child takes care of dad to be a bit wierd/cliché. Anyways I Loved the way gods and stuff are created. This is one of the few books , like Lord of the rings and Dune that creates another society that has a mythology and customs. It is very engaging, the only dull part is the ending, which isn't that interesting....The first three quarters are a lot better. I love the very ending though. It is delightful. Anyways, I recommend it. There are two sequals: Witch Queen and Dragon Charmer (not in that order), which continue the plot, but each is a story on it's own, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh what a Brave Old World Siegel presents us!
Review: This is a Precious Book.Young Fern, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, moves with her father and brother to her late uncle Ned's mysterious and isolated house on the coast of England. It becomes clear that the house's air of mystery and foreboding is more than mere atmosphere when her father's sinister girlfriend comes to stay and other shadowy figures are seen skulking about the premises. Fern soon realizes what the key to the mystery is - an ancient talisman that Ned has hidden somewhere on the premises, and which she must find before the sinister girlfriend or her unsavory cohorts. The search for the talisman comprises only half of the book. (The better half, I would say.) After that, Ms. Siegel manages to execute a nifty little figure-eight in time, along the way revealing many profound insights on womanhood, love, and scatology. This is a Book that uses many Capitalized Words so that we Readers can tell which Ones are Important. It is also replete with a nifty appendix detailing the etymology and proper pronunciation of the various characters' names. Why two stars? As I said, this is a Precious Book; a bit too precious for my taste.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Imaginative beginning trilogy.
Review: This is the first novel by Jan Siegel. Grabs me right from the start. Seems to get get clouded with over descriptive terms at times which seems a lil much at times. Characters seem to just pop up out of nowhere without proper introduction of thier origins which takes away from the believability of them. The ending gets exciting. Story is still a recommended read for a fan of fantasy. I will read the next book in this series for sure. I have a feeling the second will be much better.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastical Adventure
Review: Truly, one of the bests books this year. I encourage all who are interested in the arts of magic to visit this magical book. I can't wait for the sequels.
Rating:
Summary: Prospero's Children
Review: While the content of Siegel's book is fantasy, it is definitely not appropriate for children or immature adolescents. It does contain mature themes. However, the book is wonderful. Siegel's word choice and figurative language lift the mature reader off of her feet and suspends her in a magical world. Particularly well phrased is the Prologue. With a masterful combination of fantasy and mystery, Siegel captured me into her world. Her characters are very sympathetic, and her plot is intricate and interesting. I look forward to reading more of her work, especially a sequel to this first book.
Rating: 
Summary: A story that stays with you a long time...
Review: Working at Del Rey, I have the opportunity to read hundreds of fantasy books and manuscripts each year. A lot of them are very similar, which is all right-- just as long as you're dealing with a quality, entertaining piece of fiction. But every once in a while something magical happens, and an editor stumbles across a book that's truly special. Like PROSPERO'S CHILDREN. The first thing that struck me was the writing itself, which is literate and lyrical without losing a beat in the actual story-telling. That impressed me. The second thing I noticed-- and this is the thing that REALLY impressed me-- was the way the characters and landscape stuck around in my imagination every time I put the book down, and long after I'd finished it. Something about Jan Siegel's work really grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let me go. It was a fantasy-- a really good, well-written, contemporary fantasy that starts out in the English countryside and goes way beyond that-- and yet it also seemed REAL. Maybe it's me and I'm just a little crazy. Or maybe there is a hidden, magical world all around us... and a locked door somewhere... and a key that will open it... and a world even more dangerous and magical on the other side.... Who knows?
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