| Title | : | Widdershins (Newford, #11) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0765312859 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780765312853 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 560 |
| Publication | : | First published May 16, 2006 |
Widdershins (Newford, #11) Reviews
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This book disappointed me. I have enjoyed other books by the author and in this series. I loved the Onion Girl, and waited eagerly for its sequel. But I thought the plot of Widdershins was too fragmented. DeLint introduced too many new characters, used too many different points of view and tried to tell too many stories at the same time.
Half a dozen new characters were introduced, most of whom got point-of-view chapters, and just as many minor characters from previous books made an appearance. Several old characters were pulled out as Dei-ex-machina, seemingly just so they could get in a cameo. There were at least three or four loosely entertwined plots, each of which deserved a whole book to themselves. Several sin-and-redemption arcs took place simultaneously, but they weren't well enough connected to really complement each other. And Jilly's story, supposedly the focus of the book, was relegated to the status of an unrelated subplot.
Was this a book about Jilly that got hijacked by a subplot that the author found too interesting to ignore? Was it a book about a war between Fairy and Native spirits that DeLint added some Jilly material to in order to sell it to a romance-hungry audience? Was it a parable of redemption where the elements were not sufficiently connected to make a coherent narrative? I couldn't figure it out.
And, in the end, this book left me with the same bad taste in my mouth that had almost tainted my enjoyment of the Onion Girl. Jilly, once more, seeks redemption for the evil she had inadvertently done in trying to escape her own abuse. DeLint's poor raped Jilly says too many times: "I was just a kid, I didn't know what I was doing." Neither she nor, I suspect, the author, entirely believe it. I do. The character is not responsible for leaving her sister behind when she ran away from their sadistic brother, and she's not responsible for creating thought-forms to take her abuse in her place. So why did she spend two books trying to atone for it-- without, apparently, ever learning that it really wasn't her fault? -
A sweet and charming fantasy, this rather hefty volume is in many ways a lighter version of Neil Gaiman's classic "American Gods." It is lighter in tone, being more of a romance than a horror tale, and lighter in impact as well. "American Gods" haunted my thoughts and dreames for weeks after I finished it. "Widdershins" has almost entirely faded from my conscious slightly more than 24 hours after I read the last page.
This is not meant to be dismissive. I enjoyed de Lint's story and universe thoroughly and am quite likely to re-read this book in the future or to dip into others of his Newford books. But there were only a few points at which I felt that the story might not end well -- I can't say more without spoilers -- whereas "American Gods" kept me guessing about resolutions from beginning to end.
The story is like "American Gods" in that it brings together ancient spirit beings from a number of mythologies and puts them together along with humans from the current age. Not all humans can see (or admit they see) the spirit beings but they are thoroughly a part of our post-modern world nonetheless.
The human characters are sympathetic without exception; the spirit beings nearly so. We find redemptive qualities even in the most antagonistic of the latter. Still, even with the quality of mercy being unstrained, raw justice is also applied and it is left to the reader to decide which is more satisfying.
I should add that I found one aspect of this book frustrating, similar to my reaction to the previously-reviewed "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay: the set-up to the world of the book seems too long. Can these modern fantasy authors really not find better ways to jump into the story and provide us with necessary backstory interwoven into the adventure? I don't remember this as a problem with Tolkein, for example. -
This is the closest de Lint has come to writing a sequel to any of his Newford novels; it takes place two years after the events in The Onion Girl and finishes Jilly's story. Still, it isn't absolutely necessary to have read The Onion Girl first; de Lint does a decent job of catching new readers up.
As with The Onion Girl, the thing that takes me the most by surprise is that the returning characters hold less interest than the new characters for me. I was involved with Lizzie from her very first chapter as narrator, but it took until mid-way through the book for me to particularly care what was happening with Jilly and Geordie -- even though when they were new characters in the stories in Dreams Underfoot they were two of my favorite characters. Part of it may simply be that I'm tired of de Lint's descriptions of his regular characters -- Jilly is always messy, petite, with masses of tangled hair and a perpetual smile, which is a great description the first time you see it in a short story, but by the time she's been the focus of two novels and appeared in dozens of other stories the description is getting rather hackneyed. The same goes for Geordie, Joe, and Cassie in Widdershins -- I've just heard them described way too many times by now and it's always exactly the same no matter what other character is describing them.
Still, by halfway through I was invested in all of the characters (with the exception of Galfreya who seemed like a wasted viewpoint), and the story was moving along briskly. Then the other major problem with Widdershins became apparent: de Lint simply had too many moving pieces in this novel. By the halfway point the plot felt poised on the brink of the climax -- buffalo cousins living and dead had massed in between and had brought out the war drums and everyone else was scrambling to find some way to stop it. I could feel the tension permeating the novel -- until that was followed with over 100 pages of jumping from viewpoint to viewpoint to get all the characters who needed to be there in position, which totally wrecked the tension, so that by the time the showdown occurred I was totally taken out of the story. Pacing is commonly a problem with novels that have such large casts of viewpoint characters, and de Lint does not overcome it here.
Still, despite those two (fairly sizable) issues, I liked Widdershins better than The Onion Girl. It does conclude Jilly's story happily, it introduces us to more cousins (always my favorite parts of de Lint stories), and despite the pacing issues it has more action than The Onion Girl did, more jeopardy for everyone involved, so it feels like a more rounded out novel. Definitely recommended for de Lint fans. -
Two upfront disclaimers: One, I am not a fan of urban fantasy. I think it's a real kitschy genre and I've never been able to take it seriously. Two, I never read any of the previous books in this series. So, hey, if this is your thing and you've been following these characters for a long time, my review is going to be meaningless to you.
Aside from those things, I just thought there were a number of problems. de Lint writes really poorly. There's nothing subtle in the narration at all. The explanations of mystical elements are redundant, and worse, the explanations are repeated verbatim by various characters throughout the book (see especially, the power of names, every SINGLE TIME names are traded or given in the story). It's almost as if he has no faith in his readers to interpret things themselves or remember the ground rules for the world he sets up. I also had enormous problems with the structure of this book. The story is told using a combination of third person omniscient and multiple first person perspectives, which is bewildering and utterly confusing. Why do certain characters warrant a first person perspective in their chapters while others don't? Maybe if I'd read previous entries that would make sense, but it appeared completely arbitrary to me. First person points of view for Geordie and Jilly make sense as they come to grips with the feelings they have for one another, but the others were useless to me and just distracting - especially with the third person perspectives sprinkled in-between. The first person points of view aren't even done especially well. Every character has exactly the same voice. They read exactly the same and have no defining quirks to let the reader know who they're listening to without the headings at the start of each chapter. The resolution was also incredibly drawn out. Most of the action abruptly ends about 3/4 of the way into the book and there are still over one hundred and fifty pages of loose ends to tie up. This being the end of a much longer arc, maybe that makes sense, but to me, it just felt unnecessarily prolonged.
All that got in the way of a decent story. Even a new reader can't help but hope to see Geordie and Jilly together and to finally see them overcome their personal struggles to embrace a happier life. The world de Lint creates is nothing new or spectacular (Christopher Golden's is remarkably similar in many respects, and in my opinion, much superior) and the ideas explored are similar to the ones Gaiman presented in American Gods, but it's not horrible either. You can tell a lot of work went into it's creation, it's rules and it's plausibility. The greater conflict between the newer fairies and the spirits (or cousins) of the old world is layered in a way that has promise and is competently strung together, but ---arghhh --- the narration! Mr. de Lint, do yourself a favor and find a new editor. Cutting out those extra narrators and focusing in more tightly on Geordie and Jilly would have made this a much, much better book. -
Charles deLint lives in a weird, wonderful world peopled by Celtic fae and Native American mythic figures. Every time I read one of his books, I live there too for a while. The book explores many types of relationships between friends, lovers and family. It also touches on the effects of abuse and the methods of overcoming it. All these serious themes are wrapped in an engaging story of bogans, faerie courts, Crow girls, music and love. I find myself excited every time I see a new deLint book in the library, and this one lived up to every expectation.
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A real grab bag that'll reward you more if you've read some of the earlier Newford stories. Why? Because the cast of characters is rather large, some have backstories or baggage introduced in past stories. Regardless of whether you've read other Newford stories, you'll need to pay attention to all of the characters because it's not so easy to predict who is going to be part of the action.
That's part of the fun here - this cast of major and minor players really moves around. Their adventures are unpredictable with a few story-driving exceptions .
Charles de Lint brings together archetypes and bit players from fairy tales, fables, North American, Native American and other legends to pull off this complicated set of stories within stories. He also interweaves the perspective of touring folk musicians all the way down to who's working the merchandise table, setting some of the scenes at gigs and formatting the book with section titles that borrow from traditional music.
It's a busy book that wont be a favorite read for everyone, if you're looking for a little Newford taste test, take a dip with
Our Lady of the Harbour (Newford, #1) or
Timeskip, or to start someplace aside from Newford that'll sorta still get you prepped for this one, maybe try
The Wind in His Heart .
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Ow. Did I say Onion Girl (the book to which this is a sequel) was painful? This was an order of magnitude more painful to read and experience. But I thought it was a better book, and truer to the Newford canon.
In this one, a fiddler accidentally makes some enemies among a bunch of trouble-making boggans. Unfortunately, they're part of a larger crisis in the supernatural world, and precipitate a war between the native spirits and the European fairies. When Lizzie, the fiddler, gets pulled into things, her cousin has her arm broken by the boggans, and Lizzie calls her friend Geordie to fill in, who brings Jilly (permanently crippled by the car accident) with him. All of them are pulled into the crisis.
The book is full of major crises and resolutions -- good and evil, prejudice and bigotry, love and hate, and growth and stagnation. Jilly confronts the root of her childhood trauma, and is forced to deal with it directly, at the same time that her friends, coming to rescue her, are completely derailed by the oncoming war.
This was a powerful book, and had a lot to say about how people deal with each other -- their expectations and reality, and their willingness to grow and move on. -
de Lint has come up with a really interesting background for the story, about a kind of war between the Native American spirits and the Celtic fae immigrants. This could be a neat way to explore the appropriation that especially occurs in genre fiction all the time which results in a lot of Celtic-driven urban fantasy. Unfortunately, it looks like (haven't finished it yet) the main focus is going to be on whether or not the human characters can find lasting luuuuuuuv, and....that's not really very interesting to me. Also, the ending (yes I checked it already, I always do) looks terrible. I liked Onion Girl quite a lot, Spirit in the Wires not so much, and I think after this I might got back to earlier de Lint books if I want a Newford fix.
ETA It got better as I went along - altho the question about the buffalo spirits was a big plot hole. It wasn't quite as wholly focused on Jilly and Geordie as I feared, and I liked Anwatan. The parts with Jilly in the pocket world/house were moving. -
Thank you, Charles De Lint, for this book. Not only was it funny, it was also scary, and heartwarming, and oh so full of magic. If Onion Girl made you feel deeply depressed (I did), than this book is the Anti-depressant. Read your fill, and you'll come out ahead. I promise.
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I don't think I realized the first time I read this book that, because of how all the ends are tied up, this was probably the final big Newford book.
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Widdershins (Обратно на часовника?) е поредният многопластов роман на де Линт, изпълнен с десетки живи герои и представен през гледната точка на всеки от тях, като авторът вече толкова си е подобрил стила, че читателя няма време да си поеме дъх през цялата книга.
Лизи попада на група богани, прясно нарушили примирието между фей и духовете на земята с убийството на момиче от церва коляното (тревопасните). С малко помощ успява да ги разкара, но вреадта е нанесена. Новивят вожд на клана на водните биволи обявява война на двора на фей в Нюфорд и призовава духовете на всички починали войни от биволите с цел да изтрие всичи заселници, магични и не, от континента. Оказва се, че на боганите е помагал местен дух, който търси отмъщение. Войната изглежда неизбежна и само Боунс може да я спре.
По някакъв начин Джили успява да се намеси в схемите им и е отнесена в Другия свят, където се заклещва на много неприятно място, подвластно на грозните спомени от детството и, от където може да се измъкне само ако се пребори със себе си.
Няоклкото сюжетни линии се преплитат многократно, събират се и се разделят. Има директни препратки към „Onion girl”, “Forest of the Heart” и „Some place to be flying” като се отговаря няколко отдавна повдигнати въпроса. Има нови лица, както и много от старите любими персонажи. Също така, това е най-бруталната (буквално) книга на де Линт, която съм чел. Редуването на красиви приказни истории с натурална жестокост е нещо, което сякаш само той умее.
Светът на Нюфорд е жив, той се движи във времето, героите му еволюират, а всяка чудатост намира удобно място там. Всеки път се изумявам как може един човек да държи цяла вселена в главата си, да следи десетки герои и повествованието му да не се изроди в сапунена опера. Гледам как намаляват непрочетените книги и ми става едно тегаво... -
I had high hopes for this book. I really wanted to love it as much as I loved The Onion Girl. But I didn't. This book was forced and meandering. So much filler and so much repetitive nonsense.
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The 11th book of a series by an author I've never heard of? Well, really it was just a random borrow from the library.
A bit on the long side, though it never seemed to stray into "boring". It always seemed I must be close to the climax, but really nowhere close.
I've not had to go through the childhood trauma that one of the main characters had to, but I imagine that this novel could be helpful to people in similar situations. -
wid·der·shins (w d r-sh nz ) or with·er·shins (w th -)adv.
In a contrary or counterclockwise direction: “The coracle whirled round, clockwise, then widdershins” (Anthony Bailey).
What would you do for love? Would you write a sonnet? Would you climb mountains for it? Would you battle for it? What about traveling to an alternate universe inside of the woman that you love, to battle beings from her past? This is just what Geordie Riddell has to do to save the love of his life, Jilly Coppercorn.
Fans of Charles De Lint’s Newford books have been waiting with bated breath for Jilly and Geordie to get together and realize the one thing that everyone else knows: They love each other. But they’ll have a lot to get through before they even realize their love exists. There is trouble brewing on the streets of Newford and, as usual, the Fey are involved.
Animosity is building between the Fey clans: The Native American Spirits that have lived since before time began and the New Spirits: those that have come later or immigrated on ships and barges. There is a thunder that is starting in the ground, a rhythm of drums; and the drums mean war.
Geordie and Jilly become involved in the battle through no fault of their own, though the danger has already been predicted for Geordie. If he hopes to survive, he must depend on those around him; especially Jilly. Regrettably, through Goblin involvement, she has withdrawn inside herself, to a world that exists only within her. There, Jilly the Broken Girl, has to relive all of her old hates, her old hurts.
If Geordie plans on saving her, he will need all the help he can get. But in the world of the Fey, there is one cardinal rule: Nothing is ever easy….
For as long as I can remember, Jilly Coppercorn has been my favorite character in De Lint’s Newford books. I identify with her for various reasons, she’s fun, has a good sense of humour; we’re both artists. It’s like she breathes in flesh and blood instead of just on the printed page.
De Lint’s many fans, myself included, have been waiting and waiting to know what would happen to Jilly after 2002’s “The Onion Girl”. And many more wanted to know when Geordie and Jilly would get together. The time has finally come to find out.
“Widdershins” is easily De Lint’s best novel to date. It’s almost like literary fantasy; its themes include discrimination, prejudices, racism, feuds, battles, all told in this glorious prose. The story flows off the page, rather than being just a bunch of printed words. “Widdershins” is also surprisingly somber.
Compared to some of his earlier works where the otherworld in Newford was a little brighter, here we see a darker side of Newford that we have not seen before. There is also some very grim subject matter that, for me, made parts of the novel difficult to read. This is mostly because I care about the characters so much that I hate to read or see anything bad happen to them.
In the end, “Widdershins” is a masterwork. A deft weaving of faiths, lore, legend, characters and plot. The result? A wonderful tapestry of story that just cries out for your attention. Read it and be enchanted.
I for one will be haunted by “Widdershins” for some time. -
Widdershins is the continuation of where
The Onion Girl left off. While technically it can be viewed as a sequel (some would argue that, since
Spirits in the Wires came out after Onion Girl and before Widdershins), again de Lint creates a novel that can stand alone if you hadn't read anything of his prior. You open this book and it immediately takes off after a few fill-you-in pages. So now we know how Jilly Coppercorn came to be, but what happens now? How does she cope with her physical life as well as her emotional and magical life?
It was nice to see that the book wasn't entirely about Jilly... I mean, that's what The Onion Girl was for. Granted the over all plot arc involves Jillys journey of healing herself, but her problems literally drag in some of her friends (and a few strangers as well).
The ending is a fairytale ending, of course. It was predictable but let's just say it was appropriate. It also heralds the resolution to the long standing question of whether or not Jilly and Geordie will ever hook up.... -
For anyone who's been reading de Lint's Newford stories—this is Jilly and Geordie's story. They've been the best of friends, closer than friends, since their college days, and pretty much continuously, one of them has always been involved with someone else—not that that's ever worked out for either of them in the long run. But even they couldn't keep that up forever.
The story within which they finally get appropriately whacked with two-by-fours concerns the efforts of one of the old native spirits, one who really knows how to carry a grudge, to engineer a war between the spirits and the immigrant fairies who migrated to this continent with the Europeans. Joe, Galfreya, the Crow Girls, Christiana, Whiskey Jack, Raven, and other familiar figures from past tales all get involved, frequently with some confusion as to who is supposed to be on whose side. (This confusion is aided by the fact that the grudge-holding spirit's major grudge isn't against the fairies.) It's a solid, enjoyable story, but maybe not the best place to start if you haven't read any of the Newford stories before. -
Overall this was a good book. Makes me want to read/learn more about Celtic and Native American mythology. Numerous characters to keep track of ranging from humans to spirits. It was interesting to see how they all interacted and the mythologies entwined.
What made me decide on a 3 star rating rather than 4 was the ending...or endings. For me a book doesn't always have to wrap everything up in a pretty bow. I actually like endings that leave you wondering what happens next. In Widdershins there seems to be one ending after another, after another; the last 100 pages sum up this pattern. However, with that being said I'd still recommend this one to friends. -
I love Charles de Lint. He was the first urban fantasy writer I encountered, and he remains the best. I like that he has created a cast of characters that he truly seems to love and enjoy hanging out with. And I LOVE that he's finally exploring Jilly and Geordie as a viable couple. The intersection of European myth and Native-American myth continues to be an interesting place upon which to stand in de Lint's capable hands. Very deep, though. Don't expect this to be a light read.
Good with: chai tea and pumpkin bread. -
This review and others posted over at
my blog.
I’m a big fan of de Lint’s work, though I haven’t read as much of it as I’d like. One of my favorite books is The Onion Girl, of which Jilly is the central character. I enjoyed reading about her magical adventures again and following some familiar and new characters.
Many of de Lint’s novels and stories take place in the fictional city of Newford and Widdershins is no exception. If you’ve read any of his Newford books, you’ll likely come across several characters you’ve met before when reading Widdershins – Jilly, Geordie and Joe foremost among them. This novel describes itself as a stand-alone and while I don’t disagree, I’d suggest you at least read The Onion Girl first. Widdershins delves into Jilly’s past as well as some of the events that happen in The Onion Girl so I think it’s helpful to have some history – plus, The Onion Girl is just a great book!
As I’ve seen in some of his other books, the story is told from the point of view of various characters and some of them are told from the first person perspective and some from the third. It takes a little getting used to, but I don’t mind it. We get a lot of viewpoints in this novel, including that of a shadow girl, a dog and a treekin.
The novel is divided into four parts and there’s a lot going on but the main plotline is that some bogans (little fairy men who tend to be rather violent) have killed one of the cerva (deer) people. The relationship between the native animal spirits and the fairies who came over with the settlers has always been a tense one. The buffalo kin are prepping for war and demanding the bogans be surrendered, while the fairy queen is trying to avoid further confrontations. Jilly and company get caught up in the goings on because fiddler Lizzie Mahone witnesses the bogans at a crossroads on their way back from hunting. Lizzie becomes a target and while she’s saved thanks to the intervention of one of the crow people, Grey, the bogans aren’t done with her.
The plot is far more complex than that, so I’m not going to go into further details or we’d be here forever. Given that the book is nearly 600 pages (with pretty small type), there were definitely times where it dragged. I certainly enjoyed the book overall, but I think it could have been shorter.
I ship Jilly and Geordie so I was invested in their subplot. A good portion of the book revolves around Jilly confronting the demons of her past and it gets pretty dark. While not overly graphic, topics like rape and child abuse are tackled. Another big chunk of the book revolves around the tensions between the fairies and native spirits. That was interesting but at times it felt repetitive as the story progressed.
While there’s a magical war brewing and humans are traveling throughout the spirit realms, the book is really about personal journeys and introspection. There’s a focus on personal beliefs and the beliefs of others and how it effects those around then. I think there’s a pretty strong message here about how everyone matters and the significance of forgiveness.
This quote is a good example:
“Why does it have to be like that? Why does wishing we could all just get along and take care of each other have to be a naive, innocent hope instead of something we could all actually work toward?”
I wouldn’t recommend you choose this as your first foray into the world of de Lint and Newford – maybe start with something a little less heavy, both physically and topically. Though, this book does have a lot of threads that feel very relevant to our current times.
This wasn’t my favorite de Lint or Newford book, but it was a solid read. The characters are definitely what made this one for me. The end was a bit too neat though – it seemed like every plotline was tied up in a neat little bow.
I recommend Widdershins if:
+ You ship Jilly and Geordie
+ You’re familiar with some of the Newford books and you want to tackle something hefty
+ You don’t care that you’ve never read anything else by de Lint; you think fairy/spirit wars, humans traveling through fairy lands, and a woman trapped in her own mind all sound interesting -
I really like urban fantasy, Neil Gaiman is the author that made me a fan of fantasy in general, so I appreciate a well told tale of gods and supernatural beings interacting in the world with humans. When it comes to the Newford series from Charles de Lint, I was able to find both
The Onion Girl and this book which, if not a direct sequel, follows closely the events of that previous book. There is a definite need, for me, to read the previous book before reading this one as the events will have that much more of a bite. I have never read any of the other Newford books, but I liked the previous one as well.
I like that Charles de Lint was able to juggle between the very personal struggle Jilly is going through since the previous movie and the big picture of a looming war between the fairy folk and the native "folk". I really enjoyed the characters from the previous book and the new characters as well. The way the Otherworld works with characters weaving in and out and it being so fluid is clever and a good way to not spend too much time traveling. Sure, some might think that there are too many characters but I think that made the epic feel of this book work.
I really enjoyed this and I look forward to going back to the previous books and checking out more stories set in this very interesting world that de Lint has created. -
I'm in the middle of a fun project. I was combing my bookcases looking for books I no longer want to give shelf space. I have realized two things. First, I still have tons of books that look great that I've never read. I need to read from my own shelves. Second, I missed reviewing so many books. So, today I am going back and recording them. If you are not me, the reviews from this project may not be helpful because this is such a personal project. But, my GoodReads is primarily for me and I would love as complete a look at my reading life as possible.
It has been so many years since I have read this one. It was my first Urban Fantasy and I loved it so much. This book is important in my personal reading life because it opened me up to reading more genres. This one was so outside my wheelhouse and I loved it so much, that I began taking more chances on what I was willing to read.
Since the pandemic, I have been reading mostly romance; romance of the super sweet rom-com variety. Nothing wrong with that. It's what my mind needs right now when the world leaves me feeling so raw. But, my brain is beginning to want to stretch a bit and explore again. Reviewing i>Widdershins just reminded me of how much payoff there can be to "reading risky." -
It has been some time since I’ve read a de Lint novel and I’m always delighted about how easily he can suck me into the story. For those who have read some of his books, this is another Newford story, mostly about Jilly and Geordie, but exploring issues of tolerance, abuse and personal growth. There are lots of triggers in this book for those who have experienced abuse or trauma of that nature, so read accordingly. For those who have not read his novels before, de Lint writes of the fantasy, faery, and fairy tales that live just a step to the left of the real world, allowing for exploration into discussions of race and privilege, amongst other topics, that allows him the liberty of not necessarily being in the middle of real world situations. His characters are deep and well ‘drawn’ and he does tend to leave quite a bit to the reader’s imagination, instead of painting the full picture for us.
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This book was in need of a good editor. Maybe by the 11th book, they let the author do what he wants, but some parts were painfully repetitive. He used so many storytellers all in 1st person POV, that the pacing was off. It was annoying that the human character’s only purpose was for the author to explain how magic worked. “What? There are really fairies? Do tell.” The Jilly arc was ok, but how many times does the author need to explain that she was abused by her terrible brother. (Not a spoiler, this was shared in a few other books). That whole part should have been tightened up a lot. This was my first read of this author and I don’t think I am tempted to go back and start the series from the start. I really didn’t love any character particularly except for the Dooney. (Why did I start at book 11? A friend recommended a book with this title and I didn’t double check the author until I was about 35% into it.)
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I have a hunch that I would have liked this book one star more if I had read more books in Newford, as there are a lot of little touches that I think enhance our understanding of these fun characters. There's also a lot of really interesting thoughts about social responsibilities, about the nature of reality, and about our relationship with stories and creativity. There's also a ton of great insight into psychology. In general, the prose is smooth and tight, the characters are fun, and the action delightful.
That said, there's an entire subplot that turns out no one needed to be worried about and that had absolutely no effect on the actual story. This added four or five POV characters and about 100 extra pages that felt like a giant rip-off while I was waiting for the actually good stuff to happen.
However, Honey the Pitbull is the greatest character of all time, so yay!! -
What happens when a small pack of bogans kill a deer-woman, and get caught by a human? What happens when one comes across what looks like a dead fish when one is hungry, only to find out he's still a live - and more than just a fish?
In Charles de Lint's wonderful, dangerous world, it could lead to a war between the native animal spirit-people and the immigrant fairy, one that's been brewing for hundreds of years. One wants revenge for his injury. Others want to destroy the ones they see as evil invaders, no matter what the cost to themselves and the world. Several are called to prevent the war, and others are drawn in by accident.
This is a great big story, and I enjoy it every time I read it. -
I really wanted to like this book, but it just never got past "OK" for me. I liked the ideas, the fantasy world setting, and character interaction. I just never cared about the characters enough to really get excited about the story. I did know when I purchased the book that it was part of a series. That may play part in my lack of really getting into it. One doesn't need the other books to catch on to the story but perhaps one may need earlier books to build a reader relationship with the characters. I will give this series another shot starting with book #1. I really do want to the idea of this fantasy relm.
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Listened. Good narrator. Told from the perspective of many different, interesting characters, which I often don't care much for, but it works well here ; and with several plot lines (that mostly converge at various points). Shit happens quite often, but the telling usually felt surprisingly relaxed. Which I liked lot. But I did feel that it was occasionally just a little too relaxed, and the whole thing felt just a bit long (really, my only complaint (and a fairly minor one)).
