Summon the Keeper

Okay so, I know I said last night that I'd have Initial Reactions for The Vampire Diaries up this evening. However, my family and I are going to dinner at a friend's house so I will most likely not get to watch The Vampire Diaries tonight. I am disappointed because I'm really anxious to see how things are going to unfold with Elena and her "emotionless state." Guess I'll just have to make time in my schedule to watch it tomorrow. *sigh*

So instead of Initial Reactions, I've decided to review one of my all-time favorite books that I just finished re-reading. I will try to keep the review as spoiler free as possible, but be aware that I'm not very good about that.

Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff - Review

I mentioned earlier that this is one of my all-time favorite books so we'll go out on a limb and say that I loved it. I also love rereading it, which I don't get to do often. There are just so many wonderful nuggets in it for a fantasy/mythology nerd like myself.

Summon the Keeper introduces Claire Hansen, Keeper, and her talking cat, Austin. It holds true that if there is a snarky talking cat, you're usually off to a good start. Claire sort of inherits a guest house where there's a hole to Hell in the basement and a "Sleeping Beauty-ed" Keeper in one of the rooms. The maintenance man/cook of the guest House is Dean. He's also the running love interest and all-around-hero-type. A couple chapters in, we're also introduced to Jacques, the ghost. Each of these characters is well developed and brought to life brilliantly. Their interactions comprise most of the action in the book, but it never gets stale.

For most of the book, the story revolves around Claire running the guest house. This would be boring if all the guests were normal. The guests most assuredly aren't normal in any sense of the word. We get werewolves, a vampire, old gods/goddesses, and a psychic medium, along with a bevy of supernatural visitors on Halloween. Not to mention, the next door neighbor, Mrs. Abrams, popping in all willy-nilly.

In addition to the guests, Claire must battle the forces of Hell, who/which is hilarious. Hell is one of the best parts of Summon the Keeper. It has running dialogues with itself and the occasional talks with Claire and Austin. I would go into that more, but I think Hell is best discovered on your own.

The world Claire, Austin, Dean, and Jacques inhabit is slowly built up throughout the book. It sort of reminds me of Buffy, but only in the supernatural existing alongside the "real" world quite well. Well, that and the humor. The Keepers' function is to fix whatever holes happen to be torn in the fabric of reality. There are Cousins, who are essentially lower-tier Keepers... sort of. Claire explains it better in the book. As for the rest, go read the book. Not spoiling any of the fun surprises is rather hard at this point. I will say this, though: You don't have to be gigantically versed in mythology to enjoy Summon the Keeper. It helps a bit, but it's not required.

I think if you're a fan of mythology, fantasy, and humor, you'll love this book as much as I do. Of course, as I love Summon the Keeper to bits, I'm rather biased.

Housekeeping

Yeah... most likely not watching TVD tonight. I should get a review up Friday or at least some time this weekend. If you'd like to know how my weekend's going to shape up in terms of watching and reviewing stuff, you should go check out yesterday's post where I go in-depth on the matter.

Also, clicking Tanya Huff's name up in the section title will take you to her Wikipedia page.

Love ya, Jessie.