Sweep (book series)

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Sweep
Author Cate Tiernan
Country USA
Language English
Series Sweep
Subject(s) Wicca
Genre(s) Fiction, Young Adult
Publisher Penguin Group
Publication date January 29, 2001
Media type Paperback

The "Sweep" series, published in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia as "Wicca" and in Italy and France as "Dark Magic", is a series of books by Cate Tiernan. Starting with Book of Shadows, the series is a work of fiction set against a U.S. East Coast background. The heroine, Morgan Rowlands, discovers that she is a "blood witch" and learns that she must battle dark magick.

As the series progresses, Morgan comes into contact with not only a truly remarkable set of characters but many problems that teens face today.

Contents

[edit] Main Characters

[edit] Morgan Rowlands

Morgan lives in Widow's Vale, New York and is a high-school junior when the series begins. She is introduced to Wicca when Cal Blaire comes to her school as a senior. The two develop an emotional relationship throughout the first book, which only grows stronger during "The Coven", in which Morgan discovers her heritage, powers, and real family. Morgan loses her best friend, Bree Warren, when the two of them fight over Cal's affections. They remain enemies until their friendship is rekindled in "Awakening". A Seeker comes, in "The Coven", to Window's Vale to stop Cal and his mother from performing dark magick. At the time, Morgan does not know this and almost kills the Seeker. Morgan is betrayed by Cal when he tries to force her to join the dark side. As Cal tries to kill her, she only survives due to her two best friends, Bree and Robbie. Morgan later falls in love with Cal's half brother, Hunter, the Seeker from the International Council of Witches. From there onwards, Morgan uncovers more family secrets, allies, foes, and the full extent of her hereditary powers. Her birth mother had pyrokinetic powers, and Morgan inherited them from her. Pyrokinesis is a rare ability among blood witches. She can also shape-shift, another rare ability inherited from her birth father. In "Eclipse", Ciaran says that Morgan is the "Sgiùrs dàn", meaning "destroyer", who will drastically change the future and course for the Woodbane clan. By the fourteenth book, she overcomes the darkness, allowing her and Hunter to be together. However, in "Night's Child", Hunter is assumed to have died. By this book, Morgan is 37 and a widow of Colm Byrne, a witch in her coven. She loves him, but not as much as she loved Hunter. She has a daughter named "Moira" who is Hunter's. Darkness returns and Morgan must fight again.

[edit] Cal Blaire

Cal, or Calhoun is a fairly main character for some of the books. His craft name is "Sgàth", which is Gaelic for "darkness". He is son to the legendary Selene Belltower and Daniel Niall, and half brother to Hunter, Alwyn and Linden Niall. He is 19 years old and described as tanned with shaggy dark hair; Morgan compares him to a [1] God. He moves to Widow's Vale in "Book of Shadows" where he meets Morgan and her friends. He forms a coven, called "Cirrus", with Morgan and other students attending Widow's Vale High School. During their weekly circles he starts to realise Morgan's potential and when his mother, Selene Belltower, a witch of great dark power, comes to learn of Morgan's power and past, she orders Cal to get close to her. Everything is running smoothly for Cal, until his half brother, Hunter, a Seeker for the International Council of Witches arrives. Cal leads Morgan to believe that Hunter is evil and they get themselves into trouble when they come to a deadly confrentation with him. Cal soon falls for Morgan and realising he can't protect her from his mother's plans for her he tried to kill her. He comes back in "Spellbound" to win back Morgan's heart but Hunter has already shown her Cal's true colours. At the end of this book he saves Morgan from his mother by sacrificing his life.

[edit] Hunter Niall

Hunter Niall is one of the important main characters in the Wicca series. He is described as tall, thin and lean, with short blonde hair and stunning green eyes. He is the youngest member of the International Council of Witches at the age of 19, half brother of Cal Blaire, son of Fiona and Daniel Niall, brother to Alwyn, cousin to Sky Eventide and Morgan's "mùirn beatha dàn" (soulmate) not until after Cal had tried to kill her. Their relationship doesn't start off well as Cal and Selene lead Morgan to believe he's evil. But Morgan is left conflicted when both Hunter and her mutually partaking in a tàth meànma at Practical Magick and she sees he isn't who she thought he was. Once Cal leaves there is obvious chemistry between the pair and during the series Hunter evolves and develops into the central figure in Morgan's life. Father of Morgans child, Moira Byrne.
Hunter's Wicca name is "Giomanach" which means "hunter."

"I put the braigh on David Redstone today. Morgan was there. She saw the whole thing, I doubt she'll ever forgive me. But I need to make her try, because I need her. Goddess how I need her.

I think I'm falling in love and I'm frightened."

- Giomanach

[edit] Sky Eventide

Sky is Hunter's cousin and best friend who came with him to Widow's Vale to look out for him. She, too, is from England, and her craft name is "Athar", Gaelic for "sky". She leads the Widow's Vale coven "Kithic", which receives Bree and Raven as transfers from "Cirrus" after Bree's altercation with Morgan. Later the two covens combine. Sky is bisexual, and she falls in love with Raven, a classmate of Morgan's and a member of Cirrus and Kithic; the two maintain a tumultuous on-and-off relationship until Killian, Morgans half brother came by and destroyed their relationship slowly Sky and Raven broke up and Sky went to England to visit her family after all,she needed that after what she faced in Widows Vale with Raven. Sky also helps Morgan through her Wiccan education and works at a record store. She is often described as an intense, reserved and arrogant person, but Hunter, who knows her best, describes her as loyal, wise and loving. She is constantly described as protective over Hunter and she, too, comes back in "Night's Child" to help Morgan and Moira to find him again.

[edit] Alisa Soto

Alisa is a half-blood witch with the powers of a full-blood witch. Initially, she was afraid of Wicca, but when she finds out she is part witch, she forces herself to confront her powers. She finds her mother's book of shadows after Morgan receives it from the owner of the store "Practical Magick". Within the book of shadows, Alisa finds out that her mother, Sarah Curtis, had stripped herself of her powers in fear of them, which inadvertently resulted in Alisa inheriting those powers. It turns out that in Alisa's family, the firstborn female is cursed with uncontrollable telekinesis. Alisa also possesses this power and, as it is later revealed, so does her grandmother. Alisa meets her mother's family later in the series and even receives her mother's tools from her grandmother.

[edit] Moira Byrne

Moira is the daughter of Morgan and Hunter and is introduced in "Night's Child". She is 15 years of age and lives in Cobh, Ireland. She has a bucolic life in Ireland with her family and friends. Her adoptive father is Colm Byrne, who died in a car accident. Like Morgan, she is a powerful witch, and her birth was destined. She is in love with Ian and does everything to prove he isn't a dark witch like Cal. At the end of the book, she is 16.

[edit] Ciaran MacEwan

Ciaran is the "mùirn beatha dàn"(soulmate) of Maeve Riordan (Morgan's birth mother)and also the birth father of Morgan. He later killed Maeve and her lover Angus when she refused to be with him. He is also in one of the most powerful Woodbayne covens named "Amyranth" who perform dark magik. Ciaran captured Morgan and intended to kill her and steal her powers. One of his coven members found a watch on Morgan that he had given to Maeve as a present. As soon as Morgan had told him that she was Maeve's daughter it was unbearable for him to think that Maeve and Angus had beared a child. He performs tath meanma on Morgan and discovers that she is in fact his daughter. In that moment Hunter comes in to save Morgan and Ciaran disapears with Hunter. The other coven members continued with the ritual. In that moment Hunter saved her with the help of Ciaran. The next time Morgan saw Ciaran was in Widows Vale they both shape-shifted into wolves.She had put a watch signal on him to track him. After a while he contacted Morgan through a vision and said he would go to Widows Vale to meet her once again. When Ciaran went to Widows Vale he asked Morgan to join forces with him but she always declined.Until she called him and the night that she called him he was stripped of his powers.

[edit] Other Characters

  • Bree Warren (Morgan's best friend and girlfriend of Robbie)
  • Robbie Gurevitch (Morgan's other best friend and boyfriend of Bree)
  • Mary Grace Rowlands (Morgan's adoptive mother)
  • Sean Rowlands (Morgan's adoptive father)
  • Mary Kathleen Rowlands (Daughter of Mary Grace and Sean Rowlands, and Morgan's adoptive sister)
  • Maeve Riordan (Morgan's birth mother)
  • Daniel Niall (Father of Cal Blaire, Hunter, Linden and Alwyn)
  • Fiona Niall (Mother of Hunter, Linden, and Alwyn)
  • Raven Meltzer (Promiscuous acquaintance of Morgan's)
  • Selene Belltower (Mother of Cal Blaire)
  • Angus Bramson (Maeve Riordan's lover)
  • Alyce Fernbrake (Friend of Morgan and owner of the Practical Magick store)
  • David Redstone (Friend of Morgan and ex-owner of the Practical Magick store)
  • Killian MacEwan (Morgan's half brother and Ciaran's youngest son)
  • Kyle MacEwan (Morgan's other half brother and Ciaran's oldest son)
  • Iona MacEwan (Morgan's half sister and Ciaran's daughter)
  • Rose MacEwan (Morgan's ancestor)
  • Diarmuid (Rose MacEwan's lover)
  • Colm Byrne (Morgan's husband and Moira's adoptive father)
  • Katrina Byrne (Moira's adoptive grandmother)
  • Mackenna Riordan (Morgan's grandmother and former leader of Belwicket)
  • Sarah Curtis (Alisa's mother)
  • Justine Courceau (Hunter is assigned to her due to her misuse of magick)
  • Ian Delaney (boyfriend of Moira Byrne)
  • Lilith Delaney (mother of Ian high priestess of her coven)

[edit] The Series

Book Number Title Year of Publication Perspective
01 Book of Shadows 2001 Morgan Rowlands
02 The Coven 2001 Morgan Rowlands
03 Blood Witch 2001 Morgan Rowlands
04 Dark Magick 2001 Morgan Rowlands
05 Awakening 2001 Morgan Rowlands
06 Spellbound 2001 Morgan Rowlands
07 The Calling 2001 Morgan Rowlands
08 Changeling 2001 Morgan Rowlands
09 Strife 2002 Morgan Rowlands
10 Seeker 2002 Hunter Niall
11 Origins 2002 Rose MacEwan
12 Eclipse 2002 Morgan Rowlands and Alisa Soto
13 Reckoning 2002 Alisa Soto
14 Full Circle 2002 Morgan Rowlands and Hunter Niall
Super Edition[2] Night's Child 2003 Morgan Rowlands and Moira Byrne

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Greek
  2. ^ Night's Child is called "Book 15" in the Wicca versions, though not in the "Sweep" versions.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links