Search - A Coven of Witches (Last Apprentice, Bk 8)

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.