Charmed books are remarkably easy to read. There amongst the books I turn to when my reading muscles are tired.

Since I was a kid I've been a fan of telefantasy, having watched simply thousands of episodes of series like Star Trek, Blake's 7, Highlander, Stargate, Buffy/Angel and obviously Charmed. I watch little fictional television other than sf and fantasy and science related shows like CSI and more recently Bones.

In this Charmed book, a series of bizarre meltings are occurring around San Francisco in the lead up to Halloween. C.K. Piers is a young witch, although one that has not had the guidance of a whitelighter or elder witch in the same way as the Charmed Ones. A year prior to the events of this book, her fiance Jace had been killed in an accidentand she has not dealt with her feelings spending the time hiding away from them rather than trying to recover.

And so when she decides to try using her powers to bring Jace back to her, she inadvertently allows an evil sorcerer to twist her spell ans use her power to his own end. The end in question being to destroy the portals between this world and the realm of the dead, and to remove the barrier between the worlds.

This is a fun book, it reads like an episode of the show, and one of the better episode at that. And this is exactly what I wanted from the book when I picked it up. The three sisters are so instantly recognisable as themselves, the authors have nailed their characters perfectly.

This book proved a very pleasant change - having watched the episodes of the current season of the TV series where the show seems to be attempting to rediscover itself and its direction following the staged deaths of last season's finale, with the sisters trying to carry on leading normal lives under false identities. For me the show at the moment is not working, it's not utilising its strengths. And so reading a story set in earlier times before this change was wonderfully refreshing.

Good book this. Now, let's hope the show regains it's feet.