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The Vanishing Sculptor is Donita K Paul’s newest novel. It’s set in the same world as her DragonKeeper Chronicles, but takes place during a much earlier time and in a country that is far removed from the Amara we got to know in her earlier books.

The Vanishing Sculptor is a story about Tipper, a young emerlindian girl (an interesting take on elves) who is forced to sell her father’s masterful works of art in order to pay the house bills for years after her father disappeared. Unfortunately for her, and the world, it turns out that 3 of the sculptures she’s sold were carved out of one of the foundation stones of the earth! She must now set out on a quest (those pesky things, awfully uncomfortable these quests are- according to Wizard Fenworth) to retrieve these statues to prevent the total disolution of the world… and her father.

Even though I really miss Sir Dar, who, in this book, has not even been born yet, I love that Wizard Fenworth is back. Yes! There is nothing better than a wizard who drops off to sleep in mid sentence and who grows bark and leaves during his snoozes, not to mention the bizarre logic he follows that would make a sidewinder jealous with all the zigs and zags it takes.

Donita K Paul writes YA fantasy, and does it very well. The quality of her writing has improved with each book, and, surprisingly, each plot is remarkably fresh. Not all stories are particularly gripping, some are naturally better than others. But they’re all unique.

Happily, she’s gotten over her habit of over-naming things. In the first book of the DragonKeeper Chronicles, EVERYTHING had a weird name. It made it extremely difficult to follow the story, or even a train of thought. Particularly when the things being named didn’t actually have anything to do with the story at all.

This began to taper off until the last few books in the series were a good standard of fantasy naming. No more than is necessary.

In The Vanishing Sculptor, Paul continues to only name what’s necessary. There are only two things that I can really find fault with (aside from the lack of Sir Dar, which was necessary), and that’s that sometimes the quest seems a little too normal. As in, they go here, and then this happens, and then they go here.  So, in my opinion, a couple of scenes could have been removed with a mention of “they continued on to such and such, obtained such and such, and then proceeded to reach the such and such”. That would have left more room for what I consider to be the good stuff to be fleshed out a bit more.

The other thing that I take issue with is that they eat daggarts in Chiril. Which, as we know, is a common treat in Amara a few centuries later. I’m willing to forgive this point by telling myself that Wizard Fenworth and Librettowit brought daggarts back to Amara from Chiril and that’s how they became popular in Amara. Remember, Chiril and Amara are across the world from each other, and so travel is prohibitive. The odds of the same cookie-type treat being popular across the world when people didn’t travel across the world is pretty slim. It’s a minor point, I know, but it irritated me while I was reading.

If you’re interested in ordering The Vanishing Sculptor, it can be ordered directly from Random House, or from your favorite large bookstore.

Addendum: Donita K Paul answered the question “If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?” on Christian author C.J. Darlington’s blog.

Also, I forgot to mention my other The Vanishing Sculptor review at TitleTrakk.com

So, my friends. The hubs has finally convinced me to get a new vehicle. Granted, I flat out refused to get rid of the old one (a 93 Ford Aerostar that we bought off my mother for $1000 about 4 years ago and which has taken us to and from Florida 3 times without incident), and I wanted nothing to do with this fully loaded 97 Pontiac Trans Sport Montana, which we bought off our friend for the should-we-feel-guilty-it’s-this-low price of $1500. But, he wanted cash and didn’t want to deal with sitting around and waiting for his phone to ring and deal with prospective buyers trying to get a loan out for what it’s actually worth, etc.  So, major good deal. And since the Ford has almost 170K miles on it, we now view the 99K miles on the Pontiac as “low milage”.   Hubs refers to it as “The New Disney Cruiser”.

It’s actually pretty sweet looking, but I fought hard against it! I’m used to my Ford which when you touch the gas it GOES and when you touch the brake it STOPS. It was built on a truck chassis, so it sat high as well, which I loved. I didn’t like how low the Pontiac sat, or how soft the brake and gas pedal felt since it was built on a sedan chassis.

But, when hubs pulled up with our Doom Buggy license plate on the front, I changed my mind. It looks beautiful on that van! The price is so worth it just to have somewhere to hang our Doom Buggy plate.

In fact, the plate earned the Pontiac the nickname of “Doom Buggy” or “Buggy” for short. Though most people probably think we’re referencing the horse and buggies that are often driven around here, being Amish country and all.

And I had somewhere to put my Philharmagic license plate frame now too. It was on my Olds before I sold it, and it’s been lonely ever since.

You may not be able to see it, but we got one of those train design plates, where $15 of the cost goes to museums and such. Plus, the darker design suits us.

And to tell you the truth, I loooove the steering wheel. Perfect firmness for comfortable steering. I’m getting used to the brake and gas pedals too, but I’ve found that I’ve developed a lead foot with the firmer Ford gas pedal, and so I don’t actually realize that I’m making the Pontiac speed. Gotta watch that.  I was never a white vehicle person, but I love how it makes our special plates and plate frames stand out. I just wish there was an external antenna for me to put a Disney antenna topper on! I’m stuck looking for a non-Tinkerbell steering wheel cover.