Ok, so, back to The Renquist Quartet by Mick Ferrin, where More Than Mortal delves deeper into the whole Nephilim mythology and the Urshu, sterile ambassadors between the Mortals and the Nephilim. Given we're in England and Scotland for the entirety of this book, dealing with a sealed sarcophagus buried beneath Morton Downs, we're essentially dealing with Merlin Taliesin. Well, eventually. Said mentor to Arthur doesn't actually wake up until roughly 3/4 of the way through, which gives us plenty of time to delve deep into different Nosferatu political and social structures.
Basically, the troika (three female Nosferatu) living in a castle on the moors are being disturbed by excavations at Morton Downs. One in particular, Columbine, is having horrid nightmares about 600AD and driving the Saxons off the land. Marieko and Destry join her in summoning Victor to England to figure out what's going on. Which sets off a bit of a territorial spat with the Highlander Nosferatu of Clan Fenroir.
Eventually, Victor gets dragged off to Scotland as a prisoner/guest of the Laird, and the troika contacts the LA colony, which brings Lupo (about 20 pages from the end) and Julia (a bit earlier) to England.
And of course, there's Merlin, who essentially has his own plots after a several centuries nap. Which is amusing, since his own plotting makes the Nosferatu plotting look a bit like amateur hour.
I remember being not that thrilled with this one when I read it the first time, and some of that remains, since nothing really happens until the very end. However, as an older man, I can now see it as a "bottle episode", really showing off how things really work in this setting, just to watch it fall apart when a certain being drives through like a 70's car chase.
I actually rather liked it this go round. While not as action packed as the first two, it has a lot of fun with what it is.
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