Long Hot Summoning, by Tanya Huff
Book Review by Joshua Palmatier
Have you read this book?
This is the third book of the Keeper Chronicles series, which can now be found in the omnibus edition appropriately called The Complete Keeper Chronicles. I've read the first two and obviously enjoyed them enough to continue with the series. Overall, the first book is the best in the series--the most interesting and compelling--probably because it presented a new idea, new characters, and a cool setting. This one was fun, and it was good to visit with known characters, but it didn't draw me in as much as that first one.
The basic premise is that the forces of darkness are attempting to take over the world by using a mall. Essentially, they're creating a mall on the Otherwide that mimics a mall in our world. The darkness is trying to sync up the two malls, thus creating a segue, a gateway between the two worlds. If you enter the mall in our world, you cross over to the Otherside, and vice versa. Diana, just graduated from high school and now an official Keeper, is Summoned on her first day of freedom, and of course Claire goes along to help. Can they stop the segue from being completed? And how is REALLY behind the segue in the first place?
This was most certainly an entertaining read, and the idea behind the segue and how the two malls are syncing up was a blast. Tanya Huff certainly played with "seepage," with pieces of the Otherside crossing over and being sold in our world, as well as people and objects slipping to the Otherside as well. Huff had fun poking at malls, shopping, teens, and pretty much everything else she could reasonably include in a fantasy novel set in a mall.
One of the best aspects of this book in comparison to the other two is that the cats are used more here. We see Austin and Sam participating much more than in the previous books, and that was fun. We also see Dean doing more in this book by himself, with an entire subplot where he has to deal with a particular visitor to the bed and breakfast that started this series out in the first place.
Another aspect that I thought was good was that this book was most definitely centered on Diana, whereas the first two were focused more on Claire. The change of viewpoint character was smart on Huff's part, because there really isn't much more she can do with Claire and Dean that wasn't more or less covered in the first two books. Shifting to Diana gave us a fresh perspective and, while we dealt with Diana quite a bit in the second book, here we get an entire story arc that's centered on her. The change of pace was nice.
I also liked that on the Otherside, Diana and Claire were both restricted in their powers, unable to access the possibilities with breaking the Rules (thus allowing the Otherside to break the Rules as well). This made it much more difficult for them to solve their problems, and of course made the plot and final outcome more uncertain.
I have nothing negative to say about this book. It was a most enjoyable read, a little lighter in content than the first book, but definitely entertaining. A good series overall and one I'd recommend for those who like their modern world poked fun at with some good old fantasy thrown in.
The basic premise is that the forces of darkness are attempting to take over the world by using a mall. Essentially, they're creating a mall on the Otherwide that mimics a mall in our world. The darkness is trying to sync up the two malls, thus creating a segue, a gateway between the two worlds. If you enter the mall in our world, you cross over to the Otherside, and vice versa. Diana, just graduated from high school and now an official Keeper, is Summoned on her first day of freedom, and of course Claire goes along to help. Can they stop the segue from being completed? And how is REALLY behind the segue in the first place?
This was most certainly an entertaining read, and the idea behind the segue and how the two malls are syncing up was a blast. Tanya Huff certainly played with "seepage," with pieces of the Otherside crossing over and being sold in our world, as well as people and objects slipping to the Otherside as well. Huff had fun poking at malls, shopping, teens, and pretty much everything else she could reasonably include in a fantasy novel set in a mall.
One of the best aspects of this book in comparison to the other two is that the cats are used more here. We see Austin and Sam participating much more than in the previous books, and that was fun. We also see Dean doing more in this book by himself, with an entire subplot where he has to deal with a particular visitor to the bed and breakfast that started this series out in the first place.
Another aspect that I thought was good was that this book was most definitely centered on Diana, whereas the first two were focused more on Claire. The change of viewpoint character was smart on Huff's part, because there really isn't much more she can do with Claire and Dean that wasn't more or less covered in the first two books. Shifting to Diana gave us a fresh perspective and, while we dealt with Diana quite a bit in the second book, here we get an entire story arc that's centered on her. The change of pace was nice.
I also liked that on the Otherside, Diana and Claire were both restricted in their powers, unable to access the possibilities with breaking the Rules (thus allowing the Otherside to break the Rules as well). This made it much more difficult for them to solve their problems, and of course made the plot and final outcome more uncertain.
I have nothing negative to say about this book. It was a most enjoyable read, a little lighter in content than the first book, but definitely entertaining. A good series overall and one I'd recommend for those who like their modern world poked fun at with some good old fantasy thrown in.
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