As part of their fourth annual Hammer-Amicus Blogathon, hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews (https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/) and Cinematic Catharsis (https://cinematiccatharsis.blogspot.com/), I’m leaving the world of film and TV behind, to take a look at a trilogy books, published under the Hammer banner.

THE ENGELSFORS TRILOGY

The Engelsfors Trilogy of books was written by Sara B Elfgren & Mats Strandberg and published between. 2011-2013. They were published in the UK between 2013-2015 under the Hammer name, in a deal Hammer had done with Arrow Books. I’m not sure what their intention was with the deal, but part of the plan seems to have been to publish novelizations of classic films, such as Shaun Hutson’s Twins Of Evil and publish newer stories by new or upcoming writers such as Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon.

The Engelsfors Trilogy was published under this partnership.

The trilogy is centered around the Swedish town of Engelsfors where a group of girls discover that they are in fact witches, the Chosen Ones. Imagine a series about Willow instead of Buffy, but more than one witch, with a council in charge and an end of the world prophecy and you get the idea.

The first book, The Circle introduces us to the girls, in their late teens as their powers are awakened. The groups, Vanessa, Linnea, Minoo, Anna-Karin, Ida, Rebecka and Elias. Each has their own element, that brings with it special powers, except Minoo, who doesn’t at first seem to have any.

One of the inspired things Elfgren and Strandberg do is give them powers that are the opposite of how they are. Vanessa, for example is the popular, party girl who gets the power to be invisible. Anna-Karin who is shy, withdrawn, often bullied, gets the ability to make people act out of character via mind control, whereas, as I mentioned, Minoo, despite being the most intelligent girl of the group and likely the school, doesn’t seem to get any at all. And so it goes for each of them.

The other great thing about the characters, thanks to the writing is that not only are they all different types of girls, who, while they may know each other in passing, although Ida has bullied Anna-Karin in the past, once they get their powers, while connected by them, they do not become friends right away. The friendships between them that develop have to be earned and Elfgren and Strandberg do this very well.

The writing is very good, the story developing at a good pace as the first book is as much a mystery, who is trying to kill the chosen ones and why, as it is about the girls and their powers, as the use (and in cases abuse) them as they deal with the threat.

The second book, Fire, deals with the fall out from the events of the first book as the girls try to get on with their lives as friendships and relationships form or end or change, while a new threat arises. There is also a bigger role with the council getting involved with the Chosen Ones, while the people in town seem to be getting involved with what appears like a community group that veers towards a cult.

Again there are life and death stakes at play as the story builds to its conclusion.

The final part, The Key, tests the bond between the chosen ones to breaking point as, again, relationships and friendship change. With a prophecy that the world will end within a year, choices have to be made with unlikely allies, as it heads to a fitting and quite powerful ending.

The writers Elfgren and Strandberg may have been influenced by the likes of Buffy and Charmed when developing their story, the council here are a lot like the one from Buffy for example, and has things to say about (mostly) men trying to control and rule girls who have great powers.

But the story has life of its own and while, perhaps the identity of the killer in the first is obvious, while the reveal in the second perhaps comes out of nowhere, the books as a whole are a superb trilogy that the final book wraps up very well indeed.

The Engelsfors trilogy, may perhaps be considered a young adult series, although I think adults would get a great deal out of them. It’s a very good trilogy indeed.

I’m still bemused as to why it was released under that Hammer banner, it doesn’t fit in with what you might consider Hammer to be. It could be they viewed the trilogy as a potential film series (a film was made of the first book in 2015 by a Swedish company).

But whatever the reason, I’m glad the series came to my attention as I think it is a very, very good one.

One certainly worth a read.