The Shadow Gate

Less good than I had remembered. The story - the frame - is great; but the ending is rather a deus ex machina, and...the fact of who she is, and that she knows who she is, makes the first half of the book basically the author lying to the readers. Not even unreliable narrator; we are told things, told what she's thinking, and that's not what was going on at all. It's hard not to spoiler this, so I can't write any details. Oh, and the "romances" are even more out of nowhere and unrealistic than most. Nick likes protecting people, but that's really not enough for a relationship...I'm dropping my rating from 3 stars to 2.5 - it really doesn't work for me. The writing is Ball's usual excellence - solid characters, excellent dialog, and show more vivid descriptions - but that's not quite enough to make up for the rest. show less

Struggling, magic-depleted elves in an alternate world accidentally summon staff from a New Age Psychic Research Center in Austin, Texas, to save them. It follows the humorous interaction between modern Texans and fantasy creatures as they face off against dark forces.

A decent fantasy, involving elves, magic, travel between worlds, and intolerant monks, which all come together but not exactly the way the back of the book made it sound like they would. Ball creates sympathetic elven characters who have the traits we love to read about in fantasy novels, while at the same time showing that modern humans would likely find much of their behavior and attitudes offensive. I thought the story ended a bit abruptly, with the sort of unanswered questions that often get picked up in a sequel, but this seems to be a stand-alone novel. Overall, an enjoyable read.

Foi uma desilusão. O tema de elfos num mundo com uma porta de entrada via um livro para o mundo dos humanos até é interessante mas a escrita ė algo aborrecida e a história não ganha interesse nenhum