The second book in The Valerian Trilogy, 'The Dragons of Blue Lias'by Yeovil Prize shortlisted finalist and UEA PhD graduate, SophiaWorden, is peopled with characters who time travel, quest, learn (andforget) magick spells, and who come to understand that healing is anindividual process, and that sometimes the Holy Grail is not theanswer. These characters remain an unruly bunch of knights and kings,queens and archivists, fairies and dwarves, vampires and fossil hunters.Valerian continues to be rather more like England than the fairy kingdomof Avalon, ruled over by Queen Morgana. In Avalon, Queen Morgana is fretting over the wedding of her granddaughter, Blancheflor, to thehapless Valerian knight, Sir Lanval, as well as the transformation of her son Mordred and her grandson Morleon into vampires. She is also trying to run Brunwych: the School For Magical Miscreants, conduct mysterious ritualistic sacrifices and make sure that Merlin doesn't escape. Meanwhile, Lord Darvell, Violetta and Arabella are visiting Kief in order to discover the truth about Violetta's former murderous actions, although as Lord Darvell complains, the truth is somewhat malleable in her hands. Not as malleable as Time Travel, which causes Violetta and her new friend Aurélie to generate an alternate time line in hot pursuit of the Holy Grail..How will the dwarves, Travellers of Space and Time, fix this? Will they bother? Does it matter? For now the returning King Arthur has some powerful new allies:Sir Pippin the Holy Fool, and Arthur's new friend, Mary Anning, the fossil hunter of Lyme Regis. And, although the 'Chief' complains about the girls turning flamingos pink, Aurélie says,'Some people might prefer them like that.'
