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The author's blurb at the back of Pocket Books' gives away the sort of readership they're aiming their CHARMED novels at, so it's perhaps unsurprising that I tend to rate them so badly.

Having said that, the HARRY POTTER books with adults shows that books designed for younger readers can appeal to older ones as well. Even something like CHARMED could at least provide an undemanding interlude between more substantial fare.

But that's not really the case as Pocket Books clearly feel that the pre-teen market is the one to aim the novels at. Perhaps they're right, as one of the main reasons older viewers will watch the television series is the eye candy, which obviously isn't a factor in print.

Anyway, enough of the spiel, and onto the review...

With two of the sisters involved, there's only one sister available to fall in love with a hunky guy who turns out to be a demon. Since that plot device has also been done to death, it's a welcome surprise to find that SHADOW OF THE SPHINX avoids using it.

Instead, Carla Jablonski taps into Paige's desire to test out her newly-discovered powers. Finding herself alone in the Manor, she finds a shape-shifting spell in the Book of Shadows, and decides to try it out. Only one problem - she doesn't read on to find out how to reverse it first.

The others return to find Paige missing, and a stray cat in the house. With no immediate concern about Paige's absence, they take the cat to the local shelter, only to work out later that the cat was their sister. Even worse, by the time they realise this, the shelter has given the cat away.

This is only the start of their problems as it turns out that the shelter gave the cat to a cult fascinated with Ancient Egypt, and that Paige's involvement with their ritual has the effect of transporting her and the cult leader back in time.

Time travel in CHARMED is nothing new, but the Egyptian setting offered plenty of potential. The idea of a human trapped in an animal's body is also nothing new, but again offers plenty of scope.

Sadly, neither idea is really exploited to the full, although the novel is reasonably until Paige is rescued from Egypt. Then we get the familiar silly face-off in the Manor, and my interest - which wasn't exactly that great beforehand - slipped away.

Deprived of the on-screen eye candy, CHARMED all too often relies on non-threatening cults and simple chants to get our heroines out of tricky situations. On the plus side, it's nice to see Paige taking centre stage for a change, but the rest of the regulars could probably just have easily been swapped around (Piper for Phoebe, Leo for Cole, and vice versa) for all it mattered.

Overall, a reasonably entertaining lightweight read, but nothing special. BACK TO THE TOP

SHADOW OF THE SPHINX

Written by CARLA JABLONSKI

POCKET BOOKS

$5.99


RATING: 5/10


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