Book Review

This book is a follow up to The Book Of Three. Now that Charmed has ended, it was time to finish what the first book started, namely giving us a detailed look at the world of Charmed. The original book covered Seasons One through Five, and this one covers Seasons Six through Eight. As with the first volume, this book is very well written and great attention is paid to all the details.

In this book you will find descriptions of the main characters (the Charmed Ones, Leo, Cole, Chris, Wyatt) and the supporting characters (Patty, Penny, Daryl, and so on). Also, there is a section that gives a rough time line history of the Halliwell family, updating it with information gleamed from the last three seasons of the show (this time line originally appeared in Volume One). New to this book is a section that lists all the men that the Charmed Ones had relationships with over the last few seasons of the show.

The descriptions of the main characters is well written, although it really did not tell me anything I didn’t already know. However, one thing I didn’t like about Volume One was how they ended Cole’s entry with him being “vanquished finally and forever”. As I repeatedly pointed out, Cole came back from being vanquished once, so it was logical to assume he could do so again, if Julian McMahon was available to guest star. As you all know by now, I was proven right on this point. Julian McMahon returned and guest starred as Cole in the 150th episode of Charmed, Seven Year Witch, proving that Cole is indeed not “vanquished finally and forever”. Indeed, this book contains a small update about Cole in regards to his appearance on Seven Year Witch.

As for the other character entries, they are pretty much spot on.

This section also has a brief rundown of all the alternate realities and histories the Charmed Ones encountered in the final seasons of the show. This is a continuation of the same information that was provided in Volume One.

You will also find sections that give descriptions of all the magical beings that were featured in the final seasons. The beings in question are divided into two categories, Good and Evil, which are then divided into sub-categories. The Good side includes witches, white lighters, muses, etc, while the Evil side includes Warlocks, Demons, dark lighters, etc. In short, all the magical beings you remember from Seasons Six through Eight are included here.

There are also sections for powers, spells, potions, and rituals, for both Good and Evil. These sections also include the episodes that said spells/potions/rituals happened in and descriptions of the results of those same spells/potions/rituals (such as the To Call The Book Of Shadows spell from Chris-Crossed).

Rounding out the book is an Episode Guide covering Seasons Six through Eight, a glossary of Charmed terms, and a look behind the scenes. The Episode Guide is well done, however, I couldn’t help but notice that while some episode descriptions were long and detailed, others were very short, only a couple of paragraphs long. I wonder why this happened? Perhaps making well detailed guides for all the episodes would have taken too long? I really have no answer for this. This section also includes final looks at the seasons in question and the puns about the titles of some of the episodes (such as A Call To Arms).

As a bonus, there are several color pages of various characters and scenes from the show. These pictures are a joy to look at.

As with Volume One, I enjoyed the interviews with the principle actors, Alyssa Milano (Phoebe), Holly Marie Combs (Piper), Rose McGowan (Paige), Brian Krause (Leo), Drew Fuller (Chris), and Dorian Gregory (Darryl). It was fun reading how each actor made the character they played their own. A character is more than just a being from a script, it takes the actors involved to bring said character to life, and the Charmed actors did just that. These people were very good in their roles. Although, in my opinion, they were given some pretty bad scripts towards the end of the show, I never saw any of them give a bad performance. Part of being a good actor is the ability to rise above what has been written and give it your best shot, no matter what.

Also, these interviews describe a lot of the work the actors do off screen as well. Alyssa Milano, for example, has been involved in a lot of humanitarian work, and she really puts her heart into it. It’s the little things like these that make these interviews show that these actors are real people, just like you and me.

Finally, the end of the book contains a tribute to Aaron Spelling (who died soon after Charmed ended production), including one of the last interviews he gave. Also, E. Duke Vincent is interviewed again. The last interview is once again with Brad Kern, who gives his thoughts on the final seasons of the show. As I mentioned in my review of Volume One, I don’t much care for the man, nor the direction he took Charmed in. However, I did find the interview in of itself quite interesting.

This is a good book for any truly Charmed fan to own. I feel it deserves a place on your shelf right next to Volume One. I give it a 9/10 rating.

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