31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Had To Have Been There..., April 11, 2001
This review is from: The Second Summoning (The Keeper's Chronicles, No 2) (Paperback)
I suppose you could think of "The Second Summoning" as a fairy grandmother coming of age story. Except that Claire Hansen should have come of age some time ago, she is hardly a grandmother, and rather than being a fairy, she's a Keeper (pardon the inadvertent pun). For those of you who haven't read "Summon the Keeper," this makes her a sort of badness fixer par excellence - a bona fide Karmic mechanic.
Other key members of the cast are Diana, Claire's younger (and more powerful) sister; Dean, who Diana nearly sacrificed in the previous book; and, finally, Austin, the ineffable talking cat. There are many others who provide delightful bit parts, but it is Claire and Dean, with some considerable help from Diana, who manage who nearly manage to disrupt the world. Austin, as always, provides running commentary and never misses a straight line.
What did they do? Well, after a short, disastrous separation Claire and Dean return to each other with such carnal enthusiasm that they generate a huge amount of positive feelings. This would be fine, but Diana has built an unauthorized, huge happiness intensifying snowflake as a decoration for her high school Xmas party. The resulting feedback loop unleashes a giand goodness bubble that falls under the influence of Lena, one of Claire's friends. Lena just happens to be trying to manifest an angel in her bedroom at that precise moment. What does she get? No surprise here, she materializes an angel - with spiky hair, and, unexpectedly, an impressive set of, you know, things - male things.
If having to clean up after an impossible angel isn't enough; Claire, Diana and the rest of the crew soon have even worse to deal with. Newton's Third Law of Metaphysical Dynamics - for any flow of wonderful good that materializes in the world there is an equally awful flow of nastiness - comes into play. In a backyard in rural Canada a demon makes her appearance, complete with a really impressive set of, er, you know, female things.
In no time at all Toronto is a shambles and the world is headed for Armageddon. Claire and Diana to the rescue. Or they would be if they would ever stop bickering.
Tanya Huff is one of those rare authors who defy classification into a specific genre. Most noted for serious fantasy and an excellent vampire series, she shows in the Keeper series that she has a real flair for light fantasy as well.
In many ways Huff's style for these books is quite reminiscent of Terry Prattchett. Certainly, her characters are every bit as quirky and charming. And she has the same ability to navigate the thin line between humorous and silly. Hopefully, Ms. Huff will continue to write this well for many novels to come!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A romanic urban fantasy hat is simply exhillerating, February 15, 2001
This review is from: The Second Summoning (The Keeper's Chronicles, No 2) (Paperback)
She is a Keeper, a guardian on Earth, insuring the metaphysical balance stays intact. Whenever Claire Hansen is Summoned, she ventures to a spot where an opening from Hell requires closing by her. Since her last assignment, Dean a non-magical Bystander accompanies Claire even knowing what she does for a living. While they finally come together to make love, the power released is so powerful that a nearby teenager is able to brings forth the angel Samuel. He cannot return to the light because he has no earthly idea why he was called.
An unattended opening in remote Woverton grows until a female demon exits it on the mortal side and begins spreading chaos. Apparently, Byleth is Samuel's counterpart with both behaving like teens filled with flaming hormones and neither feel saintly or devilishly. The demon must return to Hell, but that cannot happen until the angel returns to Heaven. Keeper Diana, Claire's sister refuses to send back the supernatural being Samuel and wants him to stay in a place where he does not belong-or does he?.
THE SECOND SUMMONING is much lighter in tone than the first book in this series (see SUMMON THE KEEPER) as the novel is a witty parody of its predecessor. The romance between Claire and Dean makes a great subplot while Diana's hijinks intrigue the audience, especially the parental and grandparental boomers caught by moral dilemmas caused by someone on the side of the light. The angel-demon arc is an evolving satire different than anything the popular Tanya Huff has done before. Fantasy readers will enjoy this tale and feel summoned by Ms. Huff to become a series regular.
Harriet Klausner
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aluminum, March 16, 2001
This review is from: The Second Summoning (The Keeper's Chronicles, No 2) (Paperback)
Unlike some other reviewers, I found this book to be just as witty as the first. In some cases, the humour is a little more obvious, as there is some . . . well, the verbal equivalent of slapstick. Maybe there isn't a talking Elvis, or much of a hole to Hell, but there ARE teenagers . . . Speaking as a teenager, which I should think I'm certified to do, the teenagers in this book are frighteningly accurate. Diana's speech, that of her schoolmates, their phrases and pet words . . . Too close to the real thing. I mean, I didn't even know what the phrase "going commando" meant until about three weeks ago . . . So in brief: it's a week after the end of Summon the Keeper. Stuff may or not be happening. What with and all that, problems arise with teenagers, cats, and the Word of God. I can't get any more specific, lest I give away major plot points. Good things: More Diana. I thought she was amusing last time around. If you hated her, well, then . . . And there's still a good deal of Dean and his unmistakeable Newfoundland turns of phrase. There are also more Canadian/American jokes (which I guess you have to live close to the border to get) and hockey references. *I* know the difference between icing and offsides, thank you very much! Bad things: the plot doesn't make as much sense. If you miss one little thing, well, then, you're kind of messed up for the rest of the book. And things that seem incidental, aren't. Vice versa occasionally. I still think it's worth five stars. I annoyed all and sundry by reading the funny bits aloud -- which amounted to enough of the book that I didn't have to re-explain who everyone was by the end. So, in summation, it's definitely a worthy successor to Summon the Keeper. Get it!! :)
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