The Shadow Gate FROM THE PUBLISHER
THE ONLY GOOD ELF IS A DEAD ELF
Or so the militant order of Durandine monks thought, and they plannned on making sure that all the elves in their world were very, very good. The elves of the Three Realms have sent out one last spell to bring help... and received it: in the form of the staff of the New Age Psychic Research Center of Austin, Texas. Unless the strangers from Texas can restore the elves' magic, the elves - and the Texans - are well and truly doomed...
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This sprightly fantasy alternates between a world similar to 12th-century France but populated by elves and the New Age Psychic Research Center in Austin, Tex., poking gentle fun at both. The story revolves around the attempt of the elves to restore their long-lost queen Sybille and revive their fading magical powers. Two American women are respectively summoned into their universe in the belief that each is Sybille, but the elves are not the brightest, and they yank the wrong people. The strange encounters between the two worlds are irresistible: a hard-nosed Texas lawyer meets an angel; a real estate developer controlled by forces of darkness is opposed by blue-haired bridge ladies allied with a mad mix of street people, New Age crystal healers and a host of others. While the plot is weak, there are some wonderful scenes, such as a haughty elf-lord getting his consciousness raised by an angry American feminist and peasants convinced that two crumpled tissues are samples of faery weaving. Ball has written historical fiction under the name Catherine Lyndell ( A Bridge to the Sky ). This is her first fantasy novel. (Jan.)
School Library Journal
YA-- A slight but enjoyable tale that tangles the unsuspecting staff of the New Age Psychic Research Center in Austin, Texas with militant monks and elves of an alternate reality. A concealed identity, romantic involvements, and the typical confusions of 20th-century Americans confronted by functional magic complicate the plot. Similar territory was explored more interestingly by Barbara Hambly in The Silent Tower (1986) and The Silicon Mage (1988, both Ballantine), but Ball's lighthearted approach will appeal to readers who are not hard-core fantasy addicts.
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