Customer Reviews

Summon The Keeper

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have decided after reading most of Tanya Huff's books, and with the rest on order, if I could chose a metaphysical home, I would like to take residence within Tanya Huff's imagination. Any book where Hell gets the best lines, and a last word that left me howling with laughter, is worth reading. But this story, like everything she writes, is impossible to duplicate. Even within her own books, no two series are similar. Except for the high quality of writing, it would be difficult to guess the person who writes the Valor Series and the Blood Ties / Smoke series is the same writer who created the Summoning books. The Enchanted Emporium comes closest but it is different again. There are many very fine writers of fantasy publishing today but I still feel spending eternity hanging out in Tanya's head would be endless fun. Since I can't, reading the books is the next best thing.

Ok, I'm going to write a short summary of this book...but there is one thing you need to know BEFORE you read the summary: this is one of the funnier books I have read in years. Keep that in mind...Claire is a Keeper, one of the few of the lineage strong enough to help maintain the balance of good and evil in the world. She follows Summonses to "accident sites" and then she uses her powers to repair the sites. She follows a Summons to the Elysian Fields Guest House and finds it is or rather was run by a Cousin, a less powerful person of the lineage. The Cousin takes a hike leaving Claire to mind...well...A portal to Hell in the basement, a sleeping corrupted Keeper, and a randy ghost of a sailor. But Keepers are only supposed to be tied to one sight when they get OLD, and Claire is far from that. Throw in one of the most realistic anthropomorphic cats (read sarcastic in the extreme) and one hunky maintenance man and a meddling younger sister (who is too powerful for her own good) and you know all Hell will break lose (sorry). Huff's vampire detective series is great, but these are laugh out loud funny. So far there are three (Second Summoning and Long Hot Summoning follow this) and we can only hope for more. Give em a try...Second Summoning is my favorite (but best to read them in order)

This isn't a Cat Book.

I think cats are fine, but I'm a dog person (you really have to be one or the other, it's like politics) and was wary of Ms Huff's opus due to both the large cat on the cover, and large blurb on the back featuring the cat. But, I repeat, it isn't a cat book (I guess they thought that was their marketing hook).

This is a fun, frothy fantasy, very light in tone (despite the presence of Hell in the basement), somewhat akin to Piers Anthony in his more tolerable incarnations. It's angst-free urban fantasy--the plot is essentially episodic, as new interesting guests arrive at the hotel--and one can imagine it being a Warner Brothers TV hit, a neat cross between Faulty Towers and Bewitched, without becoming too "twee."

If you want something a little more psychological dense, or consciously literate, Charles de Lint may be more your style. But if you're in the mood to be playful, give Huff a chance to win you over.

Note: a 3 star ranking from me means a pleasant enough read; 4 stars indicate a very enjoyable work; but I'll only give 5 stars to books that are or ought to be classic; sadly, most books published seem to warrant 2 or less ... I try not to read those.

and you will probably decide to just leave it messy.

Claire Hansen and her cat Austin have sought refuge in the rather seedy Elysian Fields Guest House not because it was late at night, pouring rain and the only place that had both a vacancy and allowed pets (though those were factors) but Claire had been summoned to the site. She is a descendant of Adam and his first wife, Lilith and therefore has a responsibility to help keep good and evil balanced. The Guest House has a portal to Hell in the basement and a 'guest' who has been in a trance in room 6 for decades. On the plus side there's also a charming ghost and a hunky handyman.

Claire's job is to seal the portal so she can move on to the next site but she also has to deal with the various guests who check into the house, (vampires, retired Olympians, werewolves) cope with a nosy neighbor and a weekend with her teenage sister. Added to all this is an ethical question, must a charming man be avoided just because he is too young or too dead?

This is not a serious horror story - this book is seriously funny. It is the first of a series, I can't wait to get to the rest.

Summon the Keeper is an OK read. I truly did not think that the book was anything extraordinary. Clare Hansen is a great character but very one dimensional. She never quite develops in this book.

I would say pick it up as a good summer afternoon read but don't expect it to carry you through until the evening.

What do you get when you mix one headstrong young woman with special powers, one younger, hunky but incredibly NICE man, an irritating French-Canadian (redundant) ghost with an overactive libido, a self-important talking cat (also redundant), a sleeping witch that wants to take over Hell and the slightly schizoid but hilarious voice of pure evil. One heck of a funny book that what you get!

Tanya Huff has a propensity for strong female characters and SUMMON THE KEEPER offers no change in that. Claire is a Keeper, one of those mysterious few that hold our world together by sealing breaches in the fabric of the universe. Summoned to a small Bed and Breakfast in Canada she is confronted with pure evil, a hole to Hell and a sleeping witch. Not only that but she meets Dean, the hunky handyman, to whom she is very attracted, but of course he is too young for her... Anyway this is a story of one really hardheaded babe who seems to do everything in her power to destroy any potential relationship she may find.

So read the story and find that; 1) Dean is too good for her, she doesn't deserve him; 2) She really needs him; and 3) Dean is a wus, but a nice wus.

Great story, can't wait to read the next two, really RECOMMEND this one.

The unusual characters and plotline keep you diverted for most of the book.

Tanya Huff is one of my most loved authors. I have read everything of hers, minus the quarter books, and have debated on them.

She writes with humor and style. Fast paced, but allowing you to keep up with the story. She does not dewll on a single aspect of humanity, but tosses in everyday aspects of life and how they effect having to save the world.

The charaters are fun and likeable. They have their quirks and negitives, but they get the job done, and just becasue they have special powers dosen't mean they can do everything alone, which is great.

Huff's Summon the Keeper is a somewhat a rarity in the fantasy genre. It is both good fantasy and very funny. It is satisfyingly grounded in all the myth and mythology of classic fantasy, while at the same time poking gentle fun at the genre itself.

I have often not been satisified with the "talking cat" variety of fantasy; however, I found Huff's Austin to be the quintessential cat---sarcastic, inscrutible, and yet very loving of "his human". His occassional comments have made me look at my own cats and wonder if they would say the same things if they spoke. (According to Austin, I'll never know since they're all fixed.)

While some readers may find Huff's phrasing difficult at first, there is a rythmn to her writing style that will allow the reader to catch on.

I've referred this book to a number of people now, and all have been as enthusiastic as I was!

However, a word of warning, it's the type of book that is hard to put down and the giggling it will cause will make doubly difficult to go to sleep!!

Sorry, couldn't resist the pun, but "Summon the Keeper" is a keeper of a book. It's light, witty, refreshing, satirical, and honest -- a tough combination to pull off. Yet Tanya Huff does it well, and keeps the plot moving along well.

Most of the plot of this book, I feel, is a MacGuffin. The real depth of the book comes from the unforeseen passion between Claire (a Keeper) and Dean (a much younger man, and a Bystander). Normally, Keepers and Bystanders do not mix, as Bystanders often have the wool pulled over both their literal and figurative eyes because of what the Keepers do.

Simply put, a Keeper puts his or her life on the line to maintain balance between good and evil. So Claire, the Keeper being "summoned" to take charge of an incident, has a great deal of power to wield, yet the power is sharply limited.

And falling in love with anyone, much less a non-magical Bystander, was definitely not part of Claire's equation. What happens next includes pitfalls of romance, magic, sporting events, current events, cat-human relations, and many other things. Ms. Huff satirizes them all with great aplomb, and I enjoyed her wittiness as much as it appears she did while writing it.

This book is hilariously funny in spots, and is definitely recommended for anyone who likes humorous fantasy, semi-realistic urban fantasy, or cats mixed with their fantasy. Five stars, recommended.