Fiction Addict

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Young Adult

Publisher: WaterBrook Press

Publication Date: June 2nd, 2009

Reviewed by Kaci Hill

A few years ago I fell in love with Donita Paul’s DragonKeeper Chronicles, recommended to me by a friend. Paul has a unique ability to combine fantasy, adventure, and faith in such a way as to explore deep themes in an inventive way that isn’t overwhelming. Truth be told, she’s one of three writers who really introduced and sold me on fantasy. Her primary audience is young adult, but “all ages” better suits.  The DragonKeeper introduced us to the complex continent of Amara, and The Vanishing Sculptor, sometime before the DragonKeeper, involves Wulder’s coming to the distant continent of Chiril in the same world. Here, an emerlindian girl named Tipper meets two Amarans who pull her into a plot that involves saving both her father and the world from a broken gateway (which behaves something like a wormhole or portal) threatening to suck everything in itself.

I’ll admit – the cover copy says none of this—it says, in fact, very little of the actual story, for the better, in my opinion. And I’ll admit Paul very cleanly veiled my eyes (either that or the sun fried my thinking abilities) to the ultimate purpose, so that I was just as blind as Tipper and her friends as to what in the world Wulder (and Paul) was up to. Regardless, Paul is a former teacher who has a magnificent command of her stories, weaving in a myriad of tiny details that dare not be overlooked, because those small things are very likely to involve a surprise. Her ability to thread together truth and creativity in such a seamless fashion has been and will be something I admire (and, who knows, maybe I’ll learn a trade trick or two).

The book does seem to rely a little bit on readers being familiar enough with Amara to understand some of the story world, but nothing distracting, I don’t think. The characters supply sufficient information. Also, Paul treated DragonKeeper lovers to two much loved characters (whom I will not name here), a nice little surprise to look forward to. And if you haven’t read either series, you really should.

Donita Paul has been and continues to be one of my favorites, and I look forward to whatever else she has up her sleeve.