Wizard of the Grove

Well written--the action carries the book. Altho there is political intrigue, we are not bogged down in those details but learn just enough to understand why things are the way they are. Crystal's parentage is uniquely designed to give her the powers she'll need to overcome the evil wizard who bent on taking over the countries--with help from a centaur, dwarf, a reluctant dragon (briefly) and Lord Death. Her open heart brings her heartaches as she learns about love, but necessarily ties her to the humans she lives among. Some of the scenes are not-very-well-developed action interludes (probably some editors suggestion of what "the readership" is looking for) but overall I'd read this again.

This book is a definite buy for myself. The two novel compilation felt extremely long as I stretched it out to make it last. The first novel Child of the Grove was absolutely fantastic and The Last Wizard was also very, very good. It had almost everything that I was looking for in a fantasy novel. My only complaint would be that it seems to have hasty conclusions, with aspects introduced in the novels that never become important or are mentioned again and endings that leave you wishing there was just a bit more resolution.

While I adore Tanya Huff, I definitely like her later stuff better. Both halves of this were perfectly serviceable with strong female characters and one of the more unexpected love triangles I've seen, but I didn't find it particularly memorable.

This book was great. It started out a little slow at first, but once all the history was explained it became quite good. I could hardly put it down. This book is full of wit and sarcasm, two things I am always happy to read. It also contained some romance and an interesting twist at the end. All in all, a great book.

An interesting pair of stories about Gods interfering with the world and trying to defeat a Wizard who is immortal and trying to take over the world.

It's a great read. It has interesting use of Gods and magic.