The Old World is the last installment of the Lore trilogy by the young and ingenious author, CT Douglas.

The trilogy's first book, A Pirate's Charm, introduced the main characters and set the stage for this page-turner, pirate adventure. The story begins in 1780 in the island of Barbados, where gemseeker Molly Bishops is pursued by members of the dangerous cult of vampires, The Black Coats.

After escaping her would-be captors, she forms an alliance with the infamous Captain Thomas Crowe, who allows Molly to join his pirate crew. During their voyages, she begins to understand Crowe's unusual crew, the prophetic riddles of an old fortuneteller, and her essential role in the fulfillment of those prophecies.

The second book, East and Eight, presages and continues the epic. The narrative begins in Barbados in 1775, with young Thomas then a crewman enslaved by the ruthless pirate Captain Lapuente. Thomas gains his freedom by helping Oi'alli, the chieftess of the Oi'tan tribe, to recover a stolen talisman. As a token of gratitude, Oi'alli allows Thomas to keep the powerful talisman for five years. When Oi'alli comes to collect it and Thomas refuses to give it back as previously agreed, she curses him with a Doppelganger demon whose actions eventually force Thomas to travel to the island of Wallachia to be exorcised by a Helvetti priest.

As the story unfolds, Thomas and Molly must form alliances with former adversaries to defeat a treacherous foe known as The Eight, a mysterious group persecuting the vampire and werewolf cults in the name of preserving humanity.

The Old World begins with Molly's self-promotion to Captain following Thomas's death after the exorcism. The freedom of Molly and her crew, however, is taken away when Captain Jack Darcy, the vicious Blood Moon werewolf pirate, captures their ship and moves everything to his. He imprisons Molly, and her loyal companions Leon, Geoffrey, Chera, and Ine in separate cells in the lower deck while the rest of the crew is forced to help on the upper deck. Darcy has commandeered the ship to Mombasa, India where he will hand Molly and the other prisoners over to Udbala the Seventh, in exchange for a generous reward of gold coins.

Although Molly's advanced pregnancy is affecting her sorceress powers, she still manages to escape from her prison cell. She scouts the ship unnoticed and gathers useful information to prepare an escape plan.

In the meantime, Thomas finds himself at the Divine, a place between the worlds of the dead and the living, where he will re-experience all the important events from his past. Curious about where a silver thread attached to his body, leads Thomas follows it. As he travels around, he meets an African warrior and helps him to defeat a soul-eating demon. Later on, Thomas meets the fortuneteller from Barbados who Molly visited at the beginning of A Pirate's Charm. The seer shares with Thomas important information about The Eight and, by way of a riddle, tells him how to exit the Divine. Encouraged and hopeful at being reunited with Molly, he continues searching for the door of death, which leads to the exit. Suddenly he arrives at the place where all silver threads are connected. There he finds the Octopus. After an intense conversation, the Octopus is amazed and surprised that Thomas has not yet solved the riddle, so out of pity, he gives Thomas a hint at the answer.

As the story unfolds, Molly, known by others as the “Angel sorcerer,” continually astonishes those who dare to challenge her powers and stand in the way of her freedom. On the other hand, internal turmoil within The Eight is interfering with its plans for global power.

Will Thomas be able to find and cross the door of death and be reunited with Molly before it is too late? Will The Eight be able to reach its goals while eliminating the pouches of resistance growing in Europe? Is the dying Old World giving way to a rebirth in the New World of the Americas?

Join Molly, her loyal companions, and the other underground resistance groups in their journey for freedom against the forceful, influential, and mysterious foe known as The Eight.

The Old World was a tale as engaging as the first two books of the Lore trilogy. The narrative and fighting scenes were powerful and vivid, as expected. Molly's character evolution was surprisingly delightful. However, I found a key mistake that diminished the value of the whole. Nonetheless the unresolved ending leaves the reader wondering if the author is considering another series based on the trilogy narrator, Mr. Geoffrey Mylus.

A highly recommended saga for teens, older readers, and for anybody who enjoys a fascinating pirate's tale with mystical creatures and elements of magic. The trilogy has all the elements to emerge as a blockbuster movie!