The Vanishing Sculptor: A Novel
by Donita K. Paul
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Book Summary Information
Author: Donita K. PaulEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-06-02
ISBN: 1400073391
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Book Reviews of The Vanishing Sculptor: A Novel
Book Review: A charming fantasy tale of adventure and discovery for all ages
Summary: 4 Stars
Tipper is at her wit's end. She's been struggling to manage her family's estate since her father, the famous sculptor Verrin Schope, disappeared several years ago. To make ends meet, she's had to discharge most of the workers and sell off her celebrated father's most cherished works. Her dotty mother's extravagant spending habits don't help, and the wise old Grand Parrot Beccaroon, despite providing invaluable moral support, isn't much of a manager, either.
And things are getting worse. Tipper begins having ghostly visions of her father. Is he dead, or has Tipper fallen into her mother's bizarre fantasy that Verrin Shope makes nightly visits home? She learns from a pair of strange visitors that her father is trapped in a hole between dimensions, and it's slowly dissolving him. The problem extends to the fabric of reality itself, which is beginning to unravel and threatens the entire world. It seems a matched set of Verrin's sculptures formed the anchor of one end of a dimensional portal, and when Tipper sold the three pieces to different buyers, the portal was disrupted, starting all the mischief.
To save her father and her world, Tipper must recover the missing sculptures, and there's no time to lose. Is this sheltered country girl up to the challenge? She's going to need a lot of help. Fortunately, there are friends closer at hand than Tipper realizes, and something wonderful is astir that will change Tipper's world forever.
At first glance, The Vanishing Sculptor is a straightforward adventure-quest story with a lot of familiar elements. There's a lost treasure to recover, a journey to undertake, villains to vanquish, and a world-shattering threat hanging over the whole enterprise that must be neutralized. The heroine, Tipper, is a winsome young lady with a lot to learn about the world and herself. She has an assortment of friends to help with her quest-a wizard, a warrior, an artist, a scholar, and a wise advisor. There are also dragons, which are much more than the sluggish house pets they initially appear to be.
That last point is one element of a major theme that characterized the story for me: Appearances Are Deceiving. Just about everybody and everything in this story has some hidden depths or talents that nobody suspects, and sometimes even the individual in question isn't aware of the full extent of their abilities. Little sculptures hold the fabric of the world together. The absent-minded wizard isn't quite as random as he appears. The young dragon-keeper is much more than the custodian of an isolated castle. Tipper's seemingly senile mother has method to her madness, and even Tipper herself has a power she never imagined.
In the course of learning to not take anything at face value, Tipper and her friends, and, incidentally, the reader, begin to see that there are real, powerful, unseen forces that shape their world. Tipper's people have a kind of agnostic acknowledgment of a supreme being, but it quickly becomes clear that this quest has been orchestrated by a very real Deity, Wulder, who wants to reveal a revolutionary, liberating truth to the entire world. It's a huge paradigm shift for Tipper and her skeptical advisor, Beccaroon, and they don't fully embrace it at the end of the book, but the path ahead is clear.
Donita K. Paul's The Vanishing Sculptor is a charming fantasy tale of adventure and discovery that promises to appeal to all ages. It's a prequel of sorts to her DragonKeeper Chronicles, but familiarity with those stories isn't a prerequisite to enjoyment of this one.
Summary of The Vanishing Sculptor: A Novel
Donita K. Paul?s 250,000-plus-selling DragonKeeper Chronicles series has attracted a wide spectrum of dedicated fans?and they?re sure to fall in love with the new characters and adventures in her latest superbly-crafted novel for all ages. It?s a mind-boggling fantasy that inhabits the same world as the DragonKeeper Chronicles, but in a different country and an earlier time, where the people know little of Wulder and nothing of Paladin.In The Vanishing Sculptor, readers will meet Tipper, a young emerlindian who?s responsible for the upkeep of her family?s estate during her sculptor father?s absence. Tipper soon discovers that her actions have unbalanced the whole foundation of her world, and she must act quickly to undo the calamitous threat. But how can she save her father and her world on her own? The task is too huge for one person, so she gathers the help of some unlikely companions?including the nearly five-foot tall parrot Beccaroon?and eventually witnesses the loving care and miraculous resources of Wulder. Through Tipper?s breathtaking story, readers will discover the beauty of knowing and serving God.
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