Waking the Moon

Waking the Moon begins at the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine, where the supernatural follow the lives of the main characters, Sweeney, Angelica, Annie, Oliver and Baby Jo. This Gothic tale of goddesses and sorcery is ably read by Laura Esterman. Her ethereal voice is well matched to the tale. She narrates in a slow, expressive style, which becomes more animated as the strange events unfold. Conversations are easy to follow as Esterman switches from throaty-voiced Annie to sophisticated Angelica and back to the narration. Even the unusual chanting of the cult of Atheum Lunarsa is forcefully and credibly presented. A.A.B. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

July 3, 1995
When Sweeney Cassidy, a naive freshman at the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine in Washington, D.C., falls in with the wrong crowd, she is expelled for taking part in a lurid escapade. But Hand (Icarus Descending) offers no usual tale of adolescent antics in this full-blooded gothic fantasy. The university is a haven of the Benandanti, who for millennia have guarded against the return of their ancient foe, Othiym Lunarsa, the Moon Goddess. In Hand's post-feminist tale, however, the goddess is not a comfortable earth mother figure but a powerful destroyer. The Benandanti are unaware that Sweeney's friends Oliver and Angelica are the Chosen Ones, whose violent coupling under the moon will begin to wake Othiym. Oliver kills himself, Angelica disappears and Sweeney is whisked away by the Benandanti. Twenty years later, Sweeney's summer intern at the National Museum of Natural History turns out to be the son of her old classmates, the result of that wild moonlit night. Young Dylan's mother has become Angelica Furiano, a New Age author with a large following of goddess worshippers. As Angelica's power grows, fed by the blood of young men, she is gradually becoming the goddess. But Sweeney, vowing to thwart the transformation, confronts Othiym in an apocalyptic showdown. Blending the ancient with the modern, the fantastic with the real, Hand has created a violently sensual fable helped by smart pacing and vibrant prose.