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shane_tiernan's review against another edition
3.0
Someone told me it's "more of an English thing", the reluctant/unwilling hero. He's not Rambo or Schwarzenegger, or the Rock, or Bruce Willis all 100% American. It always seemed so strange to me, seeing as I wanted to be Spider-Man when I grew up, until I was about 10 and realized that wasn't going to happen and then I settled on cop or firefighter, some job where I could save people (but never soldier because I didn't want to actually kill people). So it's kind of funny that the first time I remember encountering and not liking the reluctant hero was in another Gaiman book, [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere (London Below, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348747943l/14497._SX50_.jpg|16534]. Gaiman didn't write this volume of The Books of Magic, but he started it off with the first volume, so Tim Hunter, reluctant hero, was already pretty well defined and John Rieber carried on the tradition.
So if you're looking for some ass-kicking warlock I would suggest you look elsewhere. Tim's got magic, he's just not sure how to use it or if he wants to use it or what it's for, Tim's basically not sure about anything. But not to worry the story is filled with a bunch of other interesting characters and ideas so it's not just a teen angst story.
So if you're looking for some ass-kicking warlock I would suggest you look elsewhere. Tim's got magic, he's just not sure how to use it or if he wants to use it or what it's for, Tim's basically not sure about anything. But not to worry the story is filled with a bunch of other interesting characters and ideas so it's not just a teen angst story.
shane_tiernan's review
3.0
Not a ton happened in this one compared to the last one, other than "the tattoo", but it was still fun and there was definitely some tension. Seemed like a setup for some crazy stuff to come.
crookedtreehouse's review against another edition
3.0
There are a lot of interesting pieces to this collection. My favorite being the succubus storyline where you're set up to believe that this is going to be a typical story where a male has to overcome a seductive succubus to master his own fate. Instead what you get is a very empathetic female character, who happens to be a succubus, navigating her feelings around a boy who uninentionally treats women poorly. It's a much more interesting story premise. Tim Hunter From The Future and Tim Hunter From The Current Timeline are both almost villains in this collection. Their decision making is mostly poor and they're incredibly selfish. Several female characters attempt to help Tim in various ways, and he struggles against them improving his humanity. From that perspective I liked this book.
The other parts of this book, however, didn't interest me. The constantly shifting questions about Tim's parentage don't emotionally engage me. I don't like Tim. Why do I care who his real parents are? The arc about a chimney sweep child who is thrown out of paradise to work in a factory of magic robots who are ... doing something, I guess ... was extremely dull. And adding in the Faerie Folk into the mix, just so their king could tell Tim that everything he knew about his family is wrong. Again. made my eyes roll.
I'm not sure I'm ever going to like Tim Hunter and The Books Of Magic, at this rate, but I'm at least curious to see how the story progresses, and whether it crosses back over with Hellblazer or Sandman anytime soon.
The other parts of this book, however, didn't interest me. The constantly shifting questions about Tim's parentage don't emotionally engage me. I don't like Tim. Why do I care who his real parents are? The arc about a chimney sweep child who is thrown out of paradise to work in a factory of magic robots who are ... doing something, I guess ... was extremely dull. And adding in the Faerie Folk into the mix, just so their king could tell Tim that everything he knew about his family is wrong. Again. made my eyes roll.
I'm not sure I'm ever going to like Tim Hunter and The Books Of Magic, at this rate, but I'm at least curious to see how the story progresses, and whether it crosses back over with Hellblazer or Sandman anytime soon.
emlickliter's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
4.0
The Books of Magic, Volume 2: Summonings by John Ney Rieber – This coming of age story is full of cool characters! Happy Reading!
crowyhead's review
4.0
This is a good installment in the series. I do really love Molly, Tim's sort-of-girlfriend; she's so much more adult than Tim is! I would read a series about her just as happily. One thing that consistently throws me about this series, though, is the feeling that I've missed issues. Do the collections skip issues, or something? I still haven't figured out where Gwendolyn (the woman who takes care of Tim while his dad's in the hospital) came from. It's really confusing.
crowyhead's review against another edition
4.0
This is a nice fat story arc that finds Tim increasingly embroiled in magical doings. Curiously, the Tim of the future is also involved in the present, but this Tim has been lead astray by a demon.
leeann20's review against another edition
3.0
I like that you don't really need to read these in order
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