The third and, to date, final book in The Keeper Chronicles series starts with Diana, Claire's younger and more powerful sister, graduating from High School. Immediately thereafter she becomes a Keeper and receives her first summons; to a shopping mall where someone (something, actually) has created a segue that will allow all manner of nastiness to creep over from the Otherside.
Although she is the most powerful Keeper of them all, Diana is quick to realize that she will need help closing down the segue and enlists the aide of Claire to do so. But doing so is a lot more complicated than it seems, at first, and Diana and Claire have to overcome various obstacles - most of them silly, some of them spooky - before they can shut down the segue.
Tanya Huff's Summon the Keeper remains one of my favorite contemporary/comedic fantasy novels. I thought that the second book in the series, appropriately titled The Second Summoning
, was a fun read, just not quite as much fun as Summon the Keeper
; Long Hot Summoning
falls somewhere between the two. It is more fun than The Second Summoning
, but not nearly as much fun as Summon the Keeper
.
There are two reasons for this, I think. The first being that Summon the Keeper had a serial feel to it. Although there was a primary story, there were also several secondary stories to keep things fresh and interesting, as well as Claire and Dean distracted. Both The Second Summoning
and Long Hot Summoning
focus almost entirely on one story arc. Of the two, The Second Summoning
suffered the most, for there were no humorous distractions for Claire and Dean as they struggled with their post-coital relationship issues. Granted, one would be more than a little performance shy if the power of the, uh, coupling summoned an angel into being.
Huff wisely keeps the obstacles somewhat lighter in Long Hot Summoning. Dean and Austin are distracted by a life force sucking mummy, while Claire is off assisting Diana and Sam in saving the world from the segue; something that brings me to the second reason why both follow-up novels lack the comedic zest of the first book.
Claire, Dean, and Austin are no longer the primary characters in the series. Diana and Sam (Diana's cat companion) are. Sad to say, but the latter are nowhere near as interesting as the former; although Sam does have his moments, because he is a cat.
Perhaps it is my being a parent of a teenager, but I just found Diana far too irritating, irresponsible, and immature to really care all that much about. I just wanted her to grow up and take her responsibilities as Keeper seriously. Even worse is her budding romance with a teen turned Elf named Kris. It is a romance without heart, for Diana and Kris do no have much chemistry.
Saving the book are its supporting characters: Claire, Dean, and Austin, as well as the above mentioned soul sucking mummy and her enslaved lover. Then there is this Steve Irwin style archaeologist desperate to come to the enslaved lover's rescue, and a teenaged King Arthur archetype. I could have read about them for another hundred pages, just as long as Diana was moved into the background, where she belongs.
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