The Books of Magic: Summonings

John Ney Rieber

After the first story in the Books of Magic series was complete, Neil Gaiman vanished, leaving the series in the hands of writer John New Rieber. That is not entirely a bad thing, but it's not a great one, either.

While Summonings is still good reading, the gap in quality between the first collection and this one is noticeable. The stories here are far more unconnected, disjointed, and episodic than those in the first collection, with only Tim to hold them together as a coherent whole.

That said, if you look at this more as a series of vignettes designed to give a little insight into Tim's character, rather than as a complete story arc, you'll probably enjoy it more.