The Magic Manuscript: Voyage to Eve Ilion is Worth a Gazillion Magical Journeys

Two teenagers, Arthur and Jennifer, unearth a medieval manuscript in Cornwall, in modern England, during the Christmas holidays, in The Magic Manuscript: Voyage to Eve Ilion, by Barbara Burgess.  While reading the manuscript, Jennifer becomes engrossed in the story of fifteenth-century Lady Genevieve, a sixteen-year-old Cornish girl who escapes from her brother when he tries to marry her to one of the earls of Tudor against her will. Jennifer is, in reality, catapulted back to the fifteenth century, as well as to England in the sixth century. When Arthur realizes she is missing, he follows her back in time.

Paul Piehler, who is a former student of C. S. Lewis at Oxford University, professor at McGill University (Rtd.), and author, wrote:
Rarely has identification of exemplary heroes and admiring readers been taken further than in Barbara Burgess’ fascinating ongoing work, The Magic Manuscript. Arthur and Jennifer are two young Brits enjoying a Christmas holiday down in the ancient Cornish village of Morgan Porth, a place just vibrant with associations of Arthur, the legendary monarch of Britain, or more precisely Logres, as the ancient realm was called. But the action begins seriously when they come across a mysterious, normally inaccessible, cave, where they discover an ancient medieval manuscript that has the ultimate literary quality of mysteriously drawing readers into the actual lives and adventures of its heroes and heroines.
 
Thus what Barbara Burgess has done is brilliantly to merge the myth … of reincarnation into our natural inclination to identify ourselves with the ancestral heroes of this fascinating story. And once transmuted into their ancient heroic models, Arthur and Jennifer find themselves acting out the legendary, you might say the archetypal, adventures of these heroes. Thus they are helped by a guide of mysterious powers (Merlin in various incarnations), undergo a sea voyage to a magical kingdom, face down dragons and enchantresses, overcome trial by seduction, and are assisted in the acquisition of magical powers and weapons from the wise, beneficent Lady Eve (the Lady of the Lake), acquisitions that play decisive roles in this adventure, and the adventures, as we are promised, to come …

Barbara Burgess

This adventure is superb! It offers a lovely plot, great characters and an incredible story. Readers are likely to fall in love with the well-crafted personas, a rockin’ hero and heroine. Burgess greatly succeeds in creating a baffling world that offers tenderness and hope in the midst of complex adversity; and in which pursuit of instinct and love, dedication, and shared sacrifice overcome barriers.

If a picture is worth a thousand words to many people, then a fiction book like The Magic Manuscript: Voyage to Eve Ilion is worth a gazillion magical journeys.
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Voyage to Eve Ilion by Barbara C. Burgess
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This adventure is superb! It offers a lovely plot, great characters and an incredible story. Readers are likely to fall in love with the well-crafted personas, a rockin’ hero and heroine. Burgess greatly succeeds in creating a baffling world that offers tenderness and hope in the midst of complex adversity; and in which pursuit of instinct and love, dedication, and shared sacrifice overcome barriers.
If a picture is worth a thousand words to many people, then a fiction book like The Magic Manuscript: Voyage to Eve Ilion is worth a gazillion magical journeys.
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See my review at
http://youngpeoplespavilion.com/?p=2001
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