The Portal Series, by Sarah Barnard

The three women in the Portal Series represent aspects of western society that we all see everyday and aspects of ourselves as well as the traditional three ages of womanhood. Sarah freely admits they all have aspects of herself incorporated into their individual characters and that she draws on friends habits and mannerisms to give them depth and her close friends say they can see parts of themselves, mainly in Kate and Lily.

Sam is the catalyst for the beginning of the story. She is blond with blue eyes often clouded with stormy grey. Sam is the youngest of the three women, but only younger than Kate by a few months, the maiden who although she is a mother doesn't really want to be. She didn't want children, they happened by accident as is true for many women today. She doesn't cope, has no idea what or who she wants to be and her anger at her treatment in the events leading to the opening of the book tear apart the lives and friendships she encounters. She is depressive and damaged and not someone you need in your life. Yet, somehow, Kate and Lily love her anyway. But you as the reader frequently want to slap her and tell her to grow up and get a grip. Until, in book three you discover the reason behind her behaviour and her anger, and then you might understand her actions.

Sam's children are Tom (Thomas) and Susan - father(s) unknown.

Kate went to school with Sam and they grew up together. She has bright green eyes and long dark hair (although if you find one of the few early versions of the Portal Between there are some descriptions of her with strawberry blonde hair!) Kate is the nurturer, the mother, the carer, the home-maker. She has an inner strength that she doesn't see in herself but Lily and Jack both see it and Sam relies on it more than she cares to admit. She is the one with no magic, unable to feel it or respond to it, but she is the one who holds the families together while the magic rips them apart. Kate forms an anchor to our world and represents a solid stability that both Lily and Sam lean on, and that all their children rely on.

Kate's children are Hayley and Cameron, whose father is Jack.

Lily is, in many ways, the most complex of the three. Lily has eyes like chips of blue ice, pale and piercing and they look right into your soul. She wears her hair long, tied back most of the time and it's dark brown with glints of copper - although she's going grey by the time we see her in the third book, which is looking likely to be the last in the series. She is the oldest, in more ways than one and she has held the power since her birth. She has been trained and uses magic in everyday life but chooses to keep it quiet and subtle. She has a tremendous depth to her and is a force to be reckoned with. A wonderful and true friend but not someone you'd want to cross.

Lily has at least two children that we know of, although we only really see Andrew in the books. According to the book we have no idea who might be Andrew's father, and Lily refuses to discuss Sam's father other than to say it wasn't Ametsam.

Jack is a gentle man with eyes like liquid chocolate and dark hair with just enough curl in it that it never looks tidy. He's married to Kate, although they are living apart throughout The Portal Between and only reconcile at the end of The Portal Sundered. He puts up with a lot but remains loyal to Kate despite everything. He does seek comfort elsewhere but it doesn't last for him and he becomes Kate's stability and her rock when her short lived relationship with Sam falls apart. He's there for her during the worst few months of her life.

Jack and Kate have two children, Hayley and Cameron. Neither child has any real affinity with the magic, not being of a magical bloodline, but Cameron does manage to connect with Ametsam briefly during The Portal Between when his anger bleeds out into the spaces between the portals. Cameron has Jack's dark hair and eyes, Hayley is a bright red head with Kate's green eyes.

Sam's children are the same ages as Kate's with Tom the oldest and Susan the youngest. Both are blond with blue eyes and look very like Sam. Tom hasn't shown any sign of having inherited the family magic but Susan manifests it very clearly at the end of The Portal Sundered and Lily promises to train her in its use.

The child of Lily's that we know about is Andrew, although there are hints that she has had more. Andrew manifests a form of magic during The Portal Sundered but Lily takes it from him and then finds she can't give it back. On the surface Andrew seems like a normal school boy, playing football and getting into trouble with his best friends Cameron and Tom, but you're left wondering what else there is to tell about him.

Ametsam, the main protagonist in The Portal Between, is a physical manifestation of twisted, cruel anger. He is dark, and intelligent, and he is in control of the power he wields although he spends it recklessly in the end as that control slips away from him. But he is still charming and possesses a magnetism and charisma that were almost impossible to resist until he began to change.

When we first meet Ametsam in The Portal Between, his magic has twisted his body into a demonic form - blue skinned and scaled, cloven hooved and horned; a body as twisted as his mind. But before the story begins he was a normal man, charming and charismatic and there are hints that his descent into cruel madness is, in part at least, Lily's fault.

Ametsam has at least two sons - Hiann and Drummer. Their conception and raising were very different and lead to two very different men and their tale is mostly told in the coming third book, so we'll not give it away here.

Hiann enters the story after the confrontation at the end of The Portal Between, where he is seen as one of the good guys and supportive of Lily, but events between the first two books and at the start of The Portal Sundered show him in a darker light as a man who thinks he should have ruled instead of Sam. As the nature of the magic is revealed it becomes apparent that a man can't use the power without it causing physical and mental changes in him, turning any magic using male into a monster.

The Portal Series has one major non human character, although others do wander in from time to time, but the Naiad is a corner stone throughout all the books. She is there when Lily returns to the realm to retrieve a missing child, she is there to heal the damage done when Sam and Lily's magics became almost fatally tangled and she was there to support Sam as the mantle of power was transferred.

A mysterious and intriguing figure who is part water spirit but manifests as human like in appearance, albeit with green skin and hair like river weed, the Naiad reminds us that we rely on the waters that give life to the land and when she is not there the land starts to die.

She is there at the beginning, was there through Sam's captivity and she's there at the very end.