Long Hot Summoning

I love this series (As you may have read if you checked out reviews for the first two books) but the last installment is the weakest. I miss Austin and Sam is just not as good at being a cat (albeit he does have less experience). This books focuses more on the younger keeper, Diana, which is okay but the first two book were mostly about Claire and she doesn't get enough time in this one. If the series was more than three books (and I really wish it was) then this installment would be fine, but it's the last so I wanted what I fell in love with- Claire, Austin, and Dean. That being said this book lacks nothing in the humor and sarcastic wit of the first two. These book make me crack up again and again and I have read the series at least 4 times now. I definately reccommend if you would like a fun, hilarious trip with those who keep the rest of us from knowing just how often our world almost ends. Make sure to read the first two beofre this one!!!

This book definitely lived up to the reputation of the first two books. It's quirky, zany and just down right funny. WARNING! Some of the gags can hit a bit later which can cause snickering at inopportune times and places! And for anyone who's wondered just what the cat's thinking behind that inscrutable stare...maybe it's best not to know. This is a must read along with the first two books.

Teenage mall elves. Minivans as tangible evidence of evil. Scented candles are assault weapons - as are tote bags. This book is slightly more about Diana than about Claire. Diana and Claire have to share Sam, as Austin gets left behind with Dean. There's also a mummy and an absent-minded professor, an over-enthusiastic grad student, an anime-hero reincarnation of King Arthur, and the third-floor elevator that opens onto the beach. (No giant not-a-squids actually show up, however.) Hell is as sarcastic as ever.If you didn't understand the above references, you probably haven't read the first two books in the series. I would recommend buying them and reading them all in order. Some in-jokes will go right by you if you don't. If you prefer your fantasy solemn and serious, and your elves with long unpronounceable names and bows-and-arrows, this may not be your kind of book- the whole series has a sense of humor, as do Huff's other books. While we do have quests to save the world, the characters are not terribly solemn about it all. Keepers have powers that help keep the balance in the world between good and evil; normal people (muggles, I suppose) are Bystanders. In the first book, Claire, a Keeper, meets Dean, a Bystander. By the end of the second book, Claire and Dean have inherited a hotel, and Claire's younger sister, Diana, is revealed to have greater Keeper powers than Claire or either of their parents. So for this third book, Diana and Claire team up on a mission. Sam and Austin are their respective cats. The plot itself is the usual - a gate of some sort between Hell and this world is getting larger and strange things are getting through, to generalize the plots of all three books. In this case, the location is a shopping mall. It's a fun, reasonably fast read, with a few new twists to liven up its universe. So far, Huff is proving that she can handle that generalized plot line over and over again without boring an audience!

Keepers are those of the Lineage who maintain the metaphysical balance of the world. Now that Diana Hansen has graduated high school she is no longer kept in reserve but is a full-fledged Keeper. She notices a bracelet a student is wearing is tainted by evil and learns that it was bought at a store in the Kingston, Ontario Mall. Realizing that the forces of darkness have almost taken over the mall, Diane gets her sister Claire, powerful in her own right, to help her in her first Summoning.They cross over from the mall to the Otherside where an identical mall is segueing into the one on the mortal plane. There they find allies in Arthur and his elves (street children who have found their way into the Otherside and have changed into another life form). There they prepare to do battle with the evil being known as the Shadowlord, a fight they must win if Earth is to survive.LONG HOT SUMMONING is a delightful and charming urban fantasy that is both funny and exciting. The plot is so fast-paced that readers find a need to see what happens next. The secondary cast is whimsical creatures that include a magic mirror and a cat that used to be an angel. They play a small but pivotal role in the story line, leaving readers feeling as if they were participants in an adult fairy tale.Harriet Klausner

Long Hot Summoning (2003) is the third novel in the Keeper's Chronicles series, following The Second Summoning. The Keepers maintain the balance between good and evil. Their primary tool is possibility itself. Their task is to repair breaches between the Realities, such as here and Hell, as well as between the Realities and the Otherside, a universe of unresolved possibilities. Their companions are cats. In this novel, Diana is attending her last day of high school when she discovers an anomalous bracelet, with the feel of the Otherside, on the wrist of a female jock. She learns that the bracelet has come from Erlking's Emporium in the Kingston mall. She and Sam, former angel turned cat, investigate and find the store managed by a Troll and full of Otherside items, including a pink magic wand. Moreover, Diana meets a magic mirror, Jack, who tells her that the mall is becoming a segue, an area accessible to more than one Reality. Jack really wants to get away from his owners and Diana promises to take him away ASAP. Recognizing that the task is more than she can handle alone, Diana calls upon her sister, Claire, whom she finds kissing the boyfriend, Dean. After Diana gains their attention, Claire, Dean, and Claire's cat, Austin, discuss the situation and decide on their tactics. The next morning, Diana, Sam, Claire, and Austin try to sneak through the Erlking's Emporium into the Otherside; everybody but Austin makes it into a very similar, but distorted, mall. There they find Elves and the Immortal King. Austin, whose path to the Otherside has been rejected by the possibilities, sneaks out to Dean in the parking lot of the Realside mall and they return to the Elysian Fields Guest House. Since time doesn't run the same on the Otherside, they don't even know how long they will have to wait for the others to return, so they carry on as usual. After the midget basketball team, nine dwarfs and a pale female manager, checks out, a Professor of Archaeology shows up with his Mummy and requests a room with a dehumidifier. Then Austin finds a dead mouse in that room. This novel has much the same irreverent feel as Asprin's Myth series. Diana, however, reminds one more of Dairine in Duane's Young Wizards series, full of energy and power, with a gung-ho attitude. The cats are much like those in Duane's Book of Night with Moon/To Visit the Queen duology. The plot is reminiscent of Cook's Mall Purchase Night and Lisle's Mall, Mayhem and Magic. Despite the various similarities, the author has produced a book that is uniquely hers while being just as enjoyable as these other works. Definitely a keeper (sorry, couldn't resist). Highly recommended to Huff fans, to the fans of Robert Asprin, Diane Duane, Rick Cook, and Holly Lisle, and to anyone who enjoys light fantasy with a cheeky attitude. -Arthur W. Jordin