Recent years have seen a sharp upswing in the theories regarding the lives of Jesus and the individuals that surrounded him, most especially Mary Magdalen. The stories and myths about her are as numerous as they are bizarre and sometimes preposterous. While there are tales that the Magdalen fled to the British Isles following the Crucifixion, precious few have attempted to place her there at birth. In Magdalen Rising, Elizabeth Cunningham takes us back to Mary Magdalen's beginnings and rewrites all of our previous ideas about where she came from and where Jesus was during the time that he is missing from the Gospels. It's an extraordinary undertaking that doesn't always succeed as planned.

The Shining Isle of Tir Na mBan is the mythical home to eight warrior witches. When Little Bright One is born to Grainne she is born to all of them. She spends her youth raised wild on the island, learning the arts and crafts of sorcery and weather-witchcraft from her mothers. She is taught to believe that her father is Manannan Mac Lir, God of the Waves and believes this until she is forced to learn otherwise much later. When Little Bright One becomes a woman she receives a vision of the legendary Queen Maeve, takes her name, and becomes an apprentice of the old witch who inhabits the hills of the island, the Cailleach. The Cailleach teaches Maeve everything that she will need to know in the wider world, including languages that have never been heard in the British Isles. Once Maeve has been suitably trained the Cailleach tells the mothers that Maeve must be sent to study at the druid college on Mona.

As soon as Maeve arrives on Mona a portent is spotted in the wings of cranes passing the island. The cranes spell the name of Mave and Esus, a Celtic god of the wood. Unknown to anyone but Maeve however, a link between these names exists already. Since childhood Maeve has had visions of one name Yeshua ben Miriam, Jesus, in a place that she doesn't know but she knows that she is connected to him somehow. She sees the portent as a hopeful one. Unfortunately her entry into the college and her meeting and eventual relationship with Yeshua/Jesus/Esus will have a calamitous effect on both of them and everyone around them. Her actions could determine the fate of not only the Celtic nations but a future belief system based on the very life of Yeshua.

The book is written in a first-person narrative from Mave's point-of-view. I will admit I had a problem with the narration for the simple fact that though the book is very obviously taking place 2000 years ago, it's written as if Buffy Summers is telling the story. It's full of modern slang, verbiage, and ideas which made it hard for me to form a connection with story. I give kudos to the author for attempting such a brave idea and the story itself works well. I would have enjoyed it more had I not been so distracted by the jarring modern narrative style. That's why I'm only giving this 3.5 stars.
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Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing (April 1, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0976684322
ISBN-13: 978-0976684329
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