Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint

Spiritwalk Reviews

• 
  Иван Величков

  Не за първи път го казвам, но де Линт е цар на разказа. ТУк отново нещата му се получават доста по-добре от колкото в предходния роман в поредицата - Moonhearth. Колкото и да ми харесаха четирите сюжетно свързани истории, не мога да се откъсна от представата, че авторът използва Долината на река Отава като полигон за идеи и сюжети, които доразвива в доста по-популярната си серия за Нюфорд. Съответно героите и идеите седят леко разринчени по крайщата, сякаш пясъчни замъци правени от нервно и нетърпеливо, макар и талантливо, дете.
  При всички положения никой няма да сбърка ако реши да се потопи в света на къщата на Тамсън с нейните дух пазител, живееща в няколко измерения градина, кръстопът между селенията и изключително симпатични обитатели. Някак не искам да разкривам сюжетите на произведенията, защото ще убия част от магията, която де Линт успява да пренесе в съвременния ни свят. Може би е добре да се чете след Moonhearth, но не е задължително. Тук имаме съвсем нов набор водещи герои, а това което е останало от предишните стои като фон.
• 
  Andrew

  Spiritwalk continues the story of Tamson House from Charles de Lint's
  Moonheart. The House is once again under threat, and the residents again find themselves fighting to save it and themselves.
  
  Spiritwalk is presented as a series of short stories and novellas tied together. It works, although to me it felt slightly fragmented; I found Moonheart much more cohesive and enjoyable. Likewise, the characterizations in Moonheart were stronger.
  
  de Lint embraces European and Native American mythic traditions, blending them here with a believable present day setting. For me, this is the definition of urban fantasy.
  
  A good book, though not quite as good as its prequel Moonheart.
  
  ---
  
  At the time of this review, Spiritwalk is available
  free from Tor in PDF, HTML, Mobi, and ePub formats.
• 
  Rebecca

  "In the heart of the house lay a garden.
  In the heart of the garden stood a tree.
  In the heart of the tree lived an old man who wore the shape of a red-haired boy with cracker-nut eyes that seemed as bright as salmon tails glinting up the water.
  His was a riddling wisdom, older by far than the ancient oak that housed his body. The green sap was his blood, and leaves grew in his hair. In the winter, he slept. In the spring, the moon harped a windsong against his antler tines as the oak's boughs stretched its green buds awake. In the summer, the air was thick with the droning of bees and the scent of wildflowers that grew in stormy profusion where the fat brown bole became root.
  And in the autumn, when the tree loosed its bounty to the ground below, there were hazelnuts lying in among the acorns.
  The secrets of a Green Man."
  
  This is the passage that hooked me, forever and always, on the writings of Charles de Lint.
• 
  Tom

  Collects three short stories and a novella set in the same world with characters from the Moonheart novel.
  
  A bit of a daft mish mash of Native American and Celtic mythology set in the environs of Tamson House, which is protected by the guardian spirit of Sara's uncle Jamie who can talk to residents via a computer. Characters are mostly cardboard cut outs and have little depth, or they are rather cringey such as Blue who is a big tough biker with feelings who does watercolour paintings!
  
  Early de Lint stories mainly, these were for magazines or published as chapbooks by de Lint himself and it shows. I'd recommend for completists only - but don't try this as your first de Lint. It's a tad too ridiculous and kitsch for my liking.
  
  The Newford novels are his best imo.
• 
  Allen Garvin

  A sequel to Moonheart... well, actually, it's a collection of short stories involving Tamson house and the characters, mainly Blue the biker, from Moonheart. Westlin Wind is the best of the stories, and worth reading; Ghostwood is easily the weakest. Overall, the effect of the book is weak.
• 
  Mortalform

  Every new read of a Charles de Lint book reveals more of myself to me. The language of myths and archetypes in profound and extends many hands ready for an invitation to resonate with your life.
• 
  Duffy Pratt

  It's a return to Tamson House, which is simultaneously a house, a sentient being, and a gateway between alternate universes. The house first appeared in Moonheart, which was a considerably stronger work.
  
  This is a collection of a few short stories and a novella. The short stories were decent, and they are linked enough that the book almost feels like a full novel. Unfortunately, the novella which capped off the book was weaker than any of the rest. It felt like we were retreading material from Moonheart, and yet the stakes felt lowered. The danger seemed tepid in comparison, and the wonder less wonderful.
  
  Even so, de Lint writes gracefully, and he has some characters here who I enjoy reading. The stuff with the house itself, and the encroaching forest, was actually quite good. But the main antagonist was simply dull In the future, if I can find them, I will likely stick to the Newford books.
• 
  Kevan Manwaring

  
  De Lint takes us down territory familiar to those who’ve read Moonheart –
  which was far more of a successful novel, while this seems collection of short stories and a novella (Ghost Wood – the main story of the book). However good these are independently, with there effective blend of the magical and mundane, I am not convinced this piecemeal strategy pays off. The book does not feel greater than the sum of its part. This could be because the 4 tales were originally printed independently by De Lint’s own small press; Axolotl Press. They deserve bringing to a wider audience.
  The idea of Tamson House is a good one, and the weaving of Celtic, First Nation and fantasy brings a fresh spin to the genre. De Lint’s strength is in his characterisation, especially the women – for which he is rightly admired – but the main male protagonist of Blue, the ex gang member/biker, is a good mixture of the tough and the tender – the contradictions which De Lint uses to create multi-faceted characters. Sometimes this ‘pick and mix’ approach seems to create contrived Frankensteins – the pagan priestess who happens to ‘know how to use a gun’, the playwright gardener, the poet who can ‘handle himself in a fight’. This approach means the broad cast is in danger of falling into two camps: the ‘sensitive violent’ type; or the ‘introvert powerful’ ones. Some of the cast seems interchangeable at times, like heroines in an Arthurian tale: the Sara, Esmeralda, Emma trinity particularly. Though there are subtle differences, with a big cast sometimes to reader wearies at trying to remember what each one looks like.
  Yet the dialogue is jaunty, the interactions and observations convincing. There’s a solid humanity here, which stops the story going away with the fairies completely. De Lint excels at depicting the magic on our doorstep, or under our noses. Tamson House is an effective gateway and refugium for all kinds of misfits and weirdness – placing it in the middle of a city, hiding in plain sight is a refreshing twist on the haunted house theme.
  The wood within its walls contains much wonder. There’s real magic to be found, as De Lint taps into genuine traditions. The depiction of First Nations medicine is well-researched and respectful. The borders between this aboriginal tradition and the imported one is a rich territory, which De Lint conjures up deftly, but without probing too deeply into the politicised fault-lines of such issues. There’s room for everyone and every belief in De Lint’s egalitarian universe – not quite one size fits all, but ‘all magic is the same’, all belief systems ultimately represent the same (other) realities. This is convenient for the plot, when the characters have to seek help from Native American shaman, Celtic archetypes, Trickster figures or Mounties. Help comes in many forms, as do the monsters – refreshingly, the villain(s) of the piece, is an elderly couple with an eye on the ‘des res’ immortality of Tamson House. Where this approach falls short is in the glib New Age image of the Welsh bard Taliesin wanting to be initiated into a Bear tribe – one asks, why? Such a master of his own tradition would hardly be a spiritual tourist, like a festival-goer workshop-junkie.
  The story seems to repeat the same trope of ‘damsel in distress’ as Emma is rescued not once but twice, first in Ascian in Rose (as ‘Button’), then in the Westlin Wind (as her reconstituted self). It normally involves shotguns and bikers. Nevertheless, these shorter stories are more satisfying and tighter in structure, than the rambling Ghostwood – the main set-piece. However he may try, De Lint does not quite capture the same deep magic and raw reality of Holdstock’s Mythago Wood sequence, which he seems to wish to emulate. Whether this is coincidence or plagiarism, it’s hard to tell – but the notion of the ‘first forest’ and its archetypes is depicted with unforgettable power in Holdstock’s ‘Lavondyss’ and the idea of a wood or house which is bigger on the inside and connects to the Otherworld Holdstock has made his own, but is also explored brilliantly in John Crowley’s Little, Big. Nevertheless, De Lint’s books are easy to read, enjoyable page turners, with flashes of enchantment and the whiff of the wildwood (however urbane). For many, the author provides an accessible doorway into these greater realities – and so, as an introduction to the Mysteries, De Lint cannot be faulted.
  
  Kevan Manwaring, 16 Sep 06
  
  
• 
  Catherine Fitzsimmons

  I started reading this on my Kobo on a lovely spring afternoon that I couldn't squander inside. It wasn't necessarily next in my queue, but I knew it was close anyway, and being a big fan of de Lint's work, I've been eager to get to it. This is an early novel of his that follows up his previous book, Moonheart, about the recent history of a curious building in Ottawa, Ontario.
  
  I had high expectations for this book based on his other work that I've read. Perhaps for that reason, I was a little disappointed. For one thing, the structure of the story was very different from his later work, as the first half of the book was comprised of what seemed individual, stand-alone shorts, not lead-up to the dramatic climax as it turned out to be. It diminished the desire to keep reading when I came to the end of a section and everything seemed to be resolved.
  
  What really failed to grab me, though, was the characters. I could see the beginnings of the rich and very human characters he created in later books, but I found none of the ones in this book very likable. The book in general improved as it got to the long final part that the others led up to, but there was a bit of continuing to read out of habit, rather than out of a genuine interest in what happened next. Maybe I might have enjoyed it more if it wasn't written by Charles de Lint, but either way, I wasn't crazy about it and would recommend some of his other work rather than this one.
• 
  Susan

  new tie-in short story "Tamson House, Ottowa"
  short story + 3 novellas
  "Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood", Ascian in Rose, Westlin Wind and Ghostwood
  
  RE-READ 3/10/1999
  RE-READ STARTED 5/26/2015 ("Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood")
  
• 
  Caitlin H

  After looking through some reviews, it seems that Spiritwalk is meant to be two short stories & a novella. This wasn't indicated in the edition i read, & i wish it would have, because i read it as a novel, which only lead to it feeling extremely disjointed.
  
  The confusion especially increases when the cast of characters is basically the same from one story to another. The first two deal with Emma's "gift" & the beings that are trying to steal it from her. The last narrative is about another threat to Tamson House itself, & how it plays out. Reading it all together as a novel, it felt like one of those "movies" riffed on MST3K where it's only two episodes of a TV show mashed together ("Fugitive Alien," "Riding With Death," "Master Ninja"; you get the point).
  
  (I'm going to hide the bulk of this because even though i don't think it's too spoilery, i want to make sure.)
  
  But even then, there are still issues with the stories, i feel. A very few of the characters are already established, but it basically only comes down to Blue. Jamie is, of course, present, but not in the corporeal sense, & Sara is never around. The new characters met throughout the course of the book unfortunately never feel to me like actual people, the way they do in other of de Lint's stories, including the short ones. Even with Emma, who is the one new character that is present in all three stories, there's never a sense of getting to know her at all. This feels strange to me, since i know that de Lint can, at least, give a very good feeling of talking about rounded individuals, even if he doesn't delve fully into the Department of Backstory. But in Spiritwalk, that sense never comes into being. Even when de Lint references interactions between characters (that the reader doesn't get to see in "real time," indicating the passage of time between the stories), there's no real sense of the characters as people. Like, you can like Esmeralda as almost a concept of a person, as the Westlin Wind, but there's no real feeling of her as a person. And if that's meant to be that way, even Tim or Emma don't have the feeling of being individual people.
  
  This even extended to the threat to the House in the last story. An old man who wants power, & who has read throughout his life about how to die, become a spirit, & gain power, to come back to life as possibly immortal? I feel like even Mal'eka, in Moonheart, was better defined than this guy. Why should he be so powerful & such a threat? Why was he able to make Otherworlds on his own, when it was almost "unheard of"? And even then, despite everything that happens, there's no sense of fear & urgency the way there is in Moonheart when going up against the "bad guy(s)," as it were. There, Mal'eka is presented as very dangerous, & the tragga are about as nice to deal with. But in Spiritwalk, there's none of the same sense of urgency & danger, even with the concept of the Otherworld trying to destroy the House & everyone in it. There was no reason for this old guy to be so powerful, & at the same time, his power never felt manifest. I feel that if Spiritwalk had all been on one track from start to finish, it could have built up more: built up the old guy's power & show him as being dangerous. It could have even tied in with the whole "things trying to kidnap & kill & use Emma" thing.
  
  The book overall felt as though it was written by someone else, truthfully. To me, de Lint's signature style was lacking from the stories; i didn't hear his voice. It felt strange. I kept reading because the execution was such that, cutting back & forth between characters, there was a constant cliffhanger. The fact that i read the bulk of it in just a few hours should, at least, attest to its readability. Of course, after the first two stories, i also kept reading to see how (if) it would tie together.
  
  The odd feeling of the book extends to the weirdness of the multiple references to the penises of two different creatures. I'm not sure what to make of that at all, except that it made me feel uncomfortable & confused, along with accentuating the lack of de Lint's usual voice. This is something i have yet to come across in any of his other stories.
  
  It also disappointed me that one character at one point tells another that they chose the "easy route out" by effectively committing suicide. Never before has this been brought up in such a way in any of de Lint's other stories, either. In Memory and Dream, for example, characters feel grief over it, feel it as "senseless," but never do they say the dead individual "took the easy way out." Perhaps this is just the character speaking, maybe she was simply goading the other person into acting, but since she was trying to use it as a way to get the other person to come back with her, it felt unfeeling, cruel, & rude. The discomfort i feel stems from not knowing how the character meant it, & even then, the simple use of the oft-used, foolish, unfeeling phrase irks me.
  
  There were two passages that i liked for personal reasons, though i suppose they say nothing new, & in no "amazing" way, but they stood out to me for putting certain things into words.
  
  It was nice to finally see Sara again, though i couldn't help but feel annoyed that she & "Tal" (Taliesin, who is always referred to as "Tal" in this, which felt odd & silly) were rarely ever around, more content to stay in one of the Otherworlds. Something about it feels too pat to me, & at the same time, it was a little disappointing to see that Sara's abilities seem to have still grown very little, & are never even really needed to be brought into use.
  
  To say nothing of Emma's "gift." The explanations given of both her & Esmeralda's "gifts" don't make much sense (which i feel i might've been fine with, had de Lint's voice in the stories been as it usually feels), & when it comes to Emma, it doesn't seem to end up making any difference, anyway. I wouldn't call the ending a cop-out, but it was definitely disappointing. I'm sure it's meant to say something about how Emma's grown & how she can take responsibility, even up to giving up something that she doesn't want or need in her life, but it didn't feel that way. Her "gift" was never really explored, except extremely briefly. If it was meant to be that she knew enough that she was willing to get rid of it, & give it to someone else who needed/wanted/could use it, that never came across. The exact opposite did, in fact, when it mentions that she feels an emptiness inside after it's gone. The statement that she feels lighter after doesn't quite counteract this fact. I really wish that the "gift(s)" had been dealt with more in-depth, which also lends to me wishing that, instead of three separate stories, Spiritwalk would have been one.
  
  
  Overall, if someone wanted to start reading de Lint, i would suggest another one of his books. I started with Moonheart, which, while the same world as Spiritwalk, is, i think, stronger. It benefits from being one whole cohesive story that allows the characters to come into their own, & the reader to familiarize themselves with them. In Spiritwalk, this felt noticeably absent. The book is readable, & a quick read at that, but i don't think it's a good book to start reading de Lint with.
• 
  Judy Cyg

  Charles de Lint is one of my favorite authors, and "Spiritwalk" one of my favorite books of his. For me, his (Newford) stories, collected in one cover, are his best. The interactions of my favorite characters, with new ones, are like coming home to a much-missed family. Spiritwalk was like that, yet with all my myth and magic and poetry I savor in Mr. de Lint's books. The heroes are like us, but with our awareness strong, and the villains can never win. Happy endings are what I look for.
  
  (My two favorite stories are, by the way, "The Stone Drum" (Jilly) and "Seven Wild Sisters.")
  
  I reread many of his books periodically, and find the same refreshing renewal of magic each time. I hope the enchantment never ends. "Spiritwalk" has joined the reread favorites.
  
• 
  Georgianne

  I wasn't sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. I didn't realize until I was done that this was really a collection of shorter stories, previously released, combined to make this novel. There were times I went back thinking I had fallen asleep and forgot what I had read or the bookmark had accidentally gotten moved, but that wasn't the case. After a bit, I just decided eventually everything was going to tie in and to to just let it ride. I really enjoyed reading more about Tamson House and wish it were a real place, so I let all the bugaboos go. If you liked Moonheart you really need to read this just to see how the house and some of its resident characters fare a few years down the road.
• 
  Brandon

  I found myself caught up in the possibility of the world having just a little more to it than we realized. The characters were worth getting to know, but did not have much to them. There seemed to be little urgency to the events of the book. Toward the end I noticed I was just finishing to finish. It was also hard to tell at times if this was a collection of stories or a single storyline. A great example of world building, but not much more.
• 
  Laura

  Started in 2017. Good read. Different. Fantasy and myth. Several gaps jumped over. Didn't feel the need to give everything a full backstory. Bit and allusions. The Westlin Wind. A character gave back her magical gift, and it was the right choice. Relationships that would normally be romances weren't. Romances that were weren't perfect.
• 
  Mckinley

  Goes with Moonheart. A bunch of series set in the same time/place - house.
• 
  June

  This story continues the story of Tamson House; the otherworldly house in Ottawa. I like the characters and de Lint's manner of story telling.
• 
  Sara Miranda

  Great book
  
  I love Charles de Lint style of writing. It weird, sweet truly astonishing,. It makes your own imagination go . LOVE IT
• 
  Doris Raines

  THE SPIRIT WALK🚶🏾‍♂️🚶‍♀️👌
• 
  Wickedpen

  Just want to note that I love this cover by fantasy artist David Bergen. I'd be overjoyed to find a print.
• 
  Yvonne Boag

  Solid three and a half stars
• 
  Marion Over

  It's Charles de Lint. A Master Bard if there ever was one in this modern day. Always wonderful, always haunting and pure magic.
• 
  Bill Ramsell

  A collection/sequel/prequel to Moonheart, a very old favorite. Every time I read one of these stories I want to visit Ottawa.
• 
  Kara Babcock

  Spiritwalk bills itself as “the sequel to Moonheart”, and while this is technically true, the events of Moonheart are only barely linked to this book. Reading it will spoil certain outcomes from Moonheart, but you could probably read it without having read the first novel. I wouldn’t recommend this course of action, however, simply because it seems that Charles de Lint doesn’t spend as much time in Spiritwalk developing the atmosphere of the worlds in which this story takes place. Whereas Moonheart was a vast and sprawling tale of faerie, intrigue, and wild magic, Spiritwalk is a narrower but more disjointed story about the tensions between magic and the mundane.
  
  This was not an easy book for me to like. Urban fantasy like this generally takes longer to endear itself to me, but de Lint really hit it out of the park with Moonheart, which had that perfect balance between character and plot. In comparison, Spiritwalk tends to vacillate wildly between the two, usually to the detriment of the former. My case in point would be Esmeralda. She is mentioned early on in the book as an absent friend who once spent time at Tamson House, and eventually she materializes to become a major character. I didn’t like her though—her self-confidence and self-possession came off as annoying and heavy-handed. She always sounded like her explanation of events was always right. And though de Lint hints at a much deeper backstory to Esmeralda, he doesn’t actually share much of it.
  
  In general, it seems like Spiritwalk spends very little time fleshing out its main characters. Poor Jamie, now the guardian spirit of Tamson House, learns the hard way that he can’t leave the House behind and wander the Otherworlds. I enjoyed this story arc, for it is familiar and predictable, but de Lint executes it very well. Jamie naturally misses his interactions with the wider world, so he tries to “get out” more. Yet this leaves the house vulnerable to a bad guy who wants to leech its magical power. For all that this is very interesting, however, de Lint spends very little time focusing on what Jamie has learned—I think we spend about two chapters total seeing things from Jamie’s point of view before returning to less interesting characters.
  
  I should mention that this house-getting-taken-over plot is ostensibly the core plot of the book. In many ways, Spiritwalk feels like a series of connected novellas; the book is split into four major parts, with the final, Ghostwood, containing shorter named chapters as well. Though they are connected through common characters and a clear progression from one to the next, each could also be read standalone. Now, there’s nothing wrong with taking several novellas and publishing them as a single volume—but then, please, advertise them as such. Alternatively, if the goal is to present the works as a single work, then adapt them into a single novel. Spiritwalk takes the middle path, hence my difficulty with it.
  
  There is nothing technically amiss here: de Lint once again shows his skill as a writer and a storyteller. Sometimes I found the way he uses magic somewhat frustrating … growing up on epic fantasy has trained me to expect intricate, systematic magic, and the wilder magic that de Lint portrays here doesn’t sit as well with my orderly soul. (This portrayal of magic, I find, makes it very easy for plots to veer in unexpected directions while the author claims that “the magic did it”—and while I don’t accuse de Lint of that here, I can’t say I enjoyed the opacity of the magic’s presence either.)
  
  So, Spiritwalk is a competent work. But that’s just it … it feels very mediocre. I liked it well enough, but I wasn’t excited by it. It didn’t wow me like Moonheart or bring me closer to the characters who appear in both. It was kind of like, years after a successful movie comes out, the studio releases a cheaper-budget TV movie sequel to capitalize on the anniversary. The same elements are there, but the screen feels smaller, the scope less ambitious, and the actors weary of their roles.