The Riddle of the Wren by Charles de Lint

The Riddle of the Wren Reviews

• 
  Milliebot

  This was another excellent folklore/fantasy take by de Lint. Minda's ordinary life is changed when she becomes haunted by disturbing nightmares. She meets who she considers a magical being in one of her dreams, who assists her in defeating her nightmares, in exchange for her agreement to free him from the stone he's trapped in. Minda sets off on a journey among many worlds and learns of the great power that lies within her.
  
  What I loved about Minda were her flaws. She felt realistic because she is awed by the new beings she meets and the worlds she crosses into, and doubtful about her part in the grand scheme of things. As her own powers manifest, she struggles to control them, rather than just being the best at everything, as can happen in many books.
  
  If you're a fan of Irish folklore, or de Lint's work, check this out!
• 
  Иван Величков

  Това е първият роман писан от де Линт и мога да кажа, че много добре загатва огромния потенциал, който авторът ще развие през годините в следващите си произведения. Тук все още не е намерил гласа си, но успява в малкия обем на книгата да развие доста мащабна история и да наблегне на посланията, които ще станат сюжетоизграждащи в следващите му книги.
  Минда живее в малко градче заедно с баща си, който е съдържател на странноприемница. Животът и е скучен, еднообразен и не особено щастлив, а започва да има и повтарящи се кошмари. Една нощ на сън и се явява Джан – приказно същество подобно на сатир, който и казва, че в сънищата си е преследвана от могъщ магьосник, успял да го затвори в камък преди години. С помощта на дрвни артефакти, които и дава, Минда ще се впусне в шеметно приключение из приказни светове, изпълнени с магия и битки, гооворещи животни и древни раси,ще намери приятели и ще открие изстината за произхода си.
  Харесва ми как главната героиня, въпреки загатването за необозримата мощ, която таи по наследство, е несигурна и уплашена, подобно на всяко момиче на нейно ��ясто. Как успява да израсте до отговорностите, които трябва да поеме, като се пребори с изкушенията по пътя.
  На места де Линт изпада в струпвания на информация за мащабните светове, които рисува, а има и още няколко, типични за млад автор подхлъзвания, като прекалено много сила дадена на протагониста, малко излишни герои... При всички положения пак е по-добре от 80% от фентъзито на пазара и книгата не е остаряла и с минута от времената на написването си.
  
• 
  Eric F

  bumpy - so very talky - clear seeds of much better future writing - but man - the constant circles retreading the same things the reader already knows, sees, can foresee - was a tough read - and seemed very unpolished compare to other CDL work. And the complicated naming of everything made so many things blurry and forgettable.
• 
  Jaylee

  This book is incredibly special to me because it's the first book I bought with my own money. I was 9, and I had Christmas money from relatives. We stopped on the way home from my grandparents' house to go to Best Buy so my brother could spend his money and there was a Barnes n Noble next door, and I got to go there ALONE to pick out a book. And I bought this, and read it all the way home. :3
  
  I really need to re-read it, because I'm not sure if my 9-year-old self had very discerning tastes, lol.
• 
  Elentarri

  The Riddle of the Wren is a beautifully written but generic, old-fashioned, quest fantasy where the teenage heroine finds herself and is supposed to save the world.  Beautiful world building but rather bland otherwise.  I never once thought that anyone important would die or that the quest would fail.  Younger readers might enjoy it more - I seem to have run out of steam for novels where teenage protagonists are involved.
• 
  Kate HT

  What an odd book. It was like an unexpected combination of Gaelic-feel folklore and sci-fi. Not my usual cup of tea, but the book had been sitting on my shelf forever. Overall, the book wasn't terribly descriptive so I had a hard time placing the characters in their environment and imagining what they were doing. Especially the "power" the characters fought with. It was too vague to be impactful. It was just strange, I can't think of another way to say it.
• 
  Mark R.

  "The Riddle of the Wren" is a lively, fast-paced adventure about a young girl discovering her abilities to travel between worlds. She finds herself in a dream-place, and encounters a mysterious and friendly individual who advises her that an evil force is tracking her between dimensions.
  
  This is the first book by Charles de Lint, and my introduction to him. "Wren" is quick, at three hundred pages; there's so much action and an abundance of characters and strange names, enough for a book three times its size.
  
  Some clever dialogue, and intriguing folks, including a giant rodent that speaks telepathically, and intelligent wolves who aren't really wolves. The bad guys are decent; some called the Walkers prove difficult to just swat aside, as the little Wren and her crew battle to save the various realms from unrepentant evildoers.
• 
  Aura Lowe

  Charles de Lint is one of my favourite authors. On a quest to read everything he's published, I picked up his first full-length book, The Riddle of the Wren.
  
  Let me begin with everything I loved. The mythology, heavily influenced by Pan, the Horned One, was a treat. It's nice to see his roots started in the same place that make his more-popular books feel magical. You can see a peak of what's to come in this author's career when there's mention of wild folk. The lack of grammar and layout mistakes was so relieving, and I enjoyed immensely the weaving of description in a few instances. The ease of name pronunciation was appreciated.
  
  This wasn't an automatic five-star rating for me because the story was bland, repetitive, and unoriginal. The main character underwent the same inner thoughts and conversations over and over. The world-building was weak. Within one paragraph, you will encounter 5 to 10 terms unique to this book that have very little explanation or reference. There's just too many of them; it's exhausting to read. It falls prey to the threat of an abundance of characters or locations with no real emotional attachment. Mysteries that seemed important remain unsolved without the flow or feel of a potential second book. I especially disliked the beginning of the book with the early 80s sexist undertones and absolutely miserable, clunky dialogue.
  
  Although I am really harsh on it, it still holds that Charles de Lint magic. I'd recommend it still if you are a fan of his.
• 
  Adrienne

  Review also available on my blog
  The Shameful Narcissist Speaks.
  
  The Riddle of the Wren is the type of old school fantasy novel I would’ve devoured in my younger, high school days. Published in 1984, it’s exactly the thing that would’ve caught my fancy, and while I started reading Charles de Lint during that time, I cut my teeth on his later works, and this one flew under my radar. You can definitely tell he was a fledgling author in this novel, and it turns out Riddle is his first. Like so many books of that era, it begins with the locale’s description before it gets to the main character. It does fascinate me how the conventions of writing change through the decades, and what was acceptable and expected then would earn an immediate rejection now.
  
  Both the main character Minda and her best friend Janey are likable, and the trope of Missing Mom/Dickhead Dad is strong with regards to the former. Janey’s description leads me to believe she’s a WOC, too, so score one for de Lint being inclusive even back then. Minda’s father Hadon blames her for her mother’s death even though she didn’t die in childbirth (not…that that would make it valid either), but rather when she was between one and two. Arguably, of course, women can still succumb to complications even after that length of time, but either way Hadon is still a jackass. Minda has a paternal uncle who would be a much better father than her bio, but even if she did manage to escape, Hadon would just “drag her back,” and apparently Tomalin, the uncle, would let him. While Hadon isn’t nearly as abusive to his daughter as the father in
  Deerskin *shudders* we do not diminish abuse by those degrees.
  
  It’s obvious that Minda carries some “special blood,” not only because of the novel’s plotline, but also because the blurb-mentioned Ildran wants Minda due to her matrilineal history. He tells her she’s “the last of them” and with her “the line dies,” which along with being a wickedly familiar motif,
  
  
  
  Exhibit A
  
  also tells me her mom was some kind of fey. This could also explain Hadon’s ironic antagonism towards his daughter, though if he thought about it for even a second, he’d realize she’s an important piece of the wife he lost.
  
  
  
  I mean, fuck, even Dracula came to that conclusion before he killed his only son in the bedroom he and his murdered wife built together, and he was freaking king of the vampires!
  
  
  
  Family by GodSin666
  
  Granted, it’s possible Minda’s father comes around by the end of the story. I DNF’d so I don’t know, but it still doesn’t excuse his abysmal, abusive behavior. While I was curious about how the story got to where it was going, I knew it was something I wasn’t going to enjoy reading.
  
  Being de Lint’s first book, it’s forgivable that Riddle is rough around the edges, but these were issues he smoothed out in his later works, which is why he was one of my favorite authors (the only reason he isn’t as high up now is because I just haven’t happened to read anything by him in years). I had the same issue with GRRM’s first pieces, and he’s one of my favorites now. It’s a good lesson in not judging an author by their first work. I wouldn’t want anyone to do that for me, and there’s a reason many prolific ones don’t release their initial scribblings until years after they’ve achieved success.
  
  After skimming the comments on Goodreads to confirm my theories, I decided the best thing for me to do was DNF and return the book to the library, but I plan to read another Charles de Lint soon. If you’re interested in what I’d recommend from him, give
  Into the Green (which I just recently purchased),
  Memory and Dream, and
  Someplace to Be Flying a look. De Lint was a major foundation of and influence on my writing style, that sort of mythopoetic eloquence that I desperately try to achieve, so at the very least reading and reviewing this novel has reminded me of how much I want/need to read and re-read more of his works.
• 
  Massimiliano

  A fairly decent read overall, compared to my other foray into DeLint's bibliography,"Moonheart" (which I loathed). An interesting tentative to write a high fantasy with a tantalizing worldbuilding but still a character-oriented story.
  Not perfect, the worlds feel a bit too sketchy and 2-dimensional.
• 
  Elle Hartford

  I picked this up because of a recommendation from a friend, and found it very interesting. The beginning was a little tough (abuse, etc), but the lore of the world was fascinating. The solution was quick but satisfying, I thought. Overall, an intriguing fantasy journey!
• 
  Kayla

  Enjoyed the story. Interesting worlds
• 
  essentiallyconnie

  Just...not very good. Meh.
• 
  MJ

  Excellent world building and complete in one book!!!!! Reminded me overall of Tolkein....on a much simpler plain.
• 
  Katharine Lumley

  3.5 Stars
• 
  Webcowgirl

  I have not actually finished this, I am on page 158.
• 
  Dawn

  I loved this book when I was younger, enough so that I recently ordered a copy to read aloud with my daughters, ages 16, 15 & 12. I'm crossing my fingers that they enjoy the story as much as I did when I first came upon it.
• 
  Audrey Cullen

  
  
  I loved the unique folklore setting of this book, but at times it grew a bit slow and I found my self having to reread sections. It was quite slow- paced, so it took me longer than it should’ve taken for me to finish. I do respect Charles de Lint’s detailed setting descriptions.
• 
  Melanti

  This one is better than Harp of the Grey Rose by far, but it is still nowhere close to being on par with his current books. It is a little bit dated - my opinion would probably be better if I'd read it back in the 80's while this sort of plot was still in fashion.
  
  The good - There were echoes of his current themes - strong female main characters from sad backgrounds, gods that gain their power from their worshipers, the dreaming realm, etc.
  
  The bad - The main character being physically abused in this case doesn't quite make sense. Her reactions in several places are more like one who was emotionally abused, but not physically. I just don't get what the physical aspect of abuse really contributes to the story in this case.
  
  The story has almost a frenetic pace to it. They jump from place to place rapidly- hardly knowing where they're going to go next. Likewise, characters jump in and out of the plot just as rapidly. Some are important and reappear later, others just disappear. I didn't get lost, but I think fewer characters that stayed long enough to get emotionally involved with would be an improvement.
  
  Last, the first few chapters in Fernwillow suffer from not being anchored in a set time period. The characters seem to have modern day concerns - reading, boys, girlfriends - and modern day slang, but there's absolutely no technology other than an abundance of cheap reading material and spending money. Not even being able to estimate a time period bothered me.
  
  The book is worth reading, even if only to see how far Charles de Lint has come. A very long ways indeed. But please, if you're new to his writing, check out his short story collections first.
• 
  Patty

  “She lay there, waiting for sleep to come, but the excitement of what she had just done kept her awake. It was only the first step of – how long a journey? Did it matter? It was enough to be free of Hadon and of the inn, to be responsible only to herself… and the promise she made to the moorman.” p. 40
  
  I have been reading de Lint’s wonderful fantasy for years. I looked over my reading list here and I seem to average one de Lint book per year. He is definitely an author worth revisiting.
  
  This novel appears to be his first published book. For good or bad, it shows. Although Minda’s story is well-imagined and well-written, it seems dependent on old myths and tales. I don’t have a problem with this, but de Lint’s stories have become much more. His world has grown in many ways, all of them making it better and richer.
  
  I did get caught up in the tale and there were several characters with whom I could have spent more time. There was enough tension to make me read quickly to make sure that all turned out best for the little wren (Minda) and her friends.
  
  de Lint writes about friendship, love and honor. All of those themes appear in this book and as a regular reader, I like seeing the beginnings of his wonderful tales. However, if you have never read de Lint, I recommend that you start with some of his stories set in Newford. I especially liked The Ivory and the Horn.
  
  
• 
  Lauren Giova

  I rather enjoyed this book. I felt for the character in all her struggles even if i couldn't identify with her. Minda was innocent enough but she wasn't weak. I can't stand weak or indecisive characters. I understand that in some points in the story there are going to be times when these two characteristics will show themselves but they have to be sparing and believable. De Lint was definitely able to keep the balance.
  The glossary in the back of the book was a plus when i didn't understand some of the fey terminology. I have to say i would have been confused and frustrated if i wasn't able to see what these words meant. It would have kept me from enjoying the story.
  There was also a clean line between good and evil which is comforting. I could pick a side easily. I don't mind the occasional philosophical approach saying that everything is (to an extreme) both good and evil. There is enough of that in the world and when i read sometimes i just want to hate the villain and love the hero[ine]. I was able to do that with this story. I definitely recommend this book.
• 
  Stephen

  The Riddle of the Wren is not the first Charles de Lint book I have read. However, it is the first time I've read a book set in his own created worlds (previous reads were set in Farmer's Dungeon series). Many people had given the book very good reviews.
  
  So, I tracked it down...and WOW! This book was exactly what I had hoped for. The story had a flow about it that I found very easy to get immersed in.
  
  The first thing I noticed was just how likable the main character, Minda, really is. As a reader, I came to feel a genuine concern for her and her plight.
  
  There are many supporting characters introduced throughout, but de Lint does not let this bog the plot down. On the contrary, each additional character brings another jolt of new life to the story.
  
  Overall, the whole of the story was magnificent. This, I believe, was de Lint's first published book, but it doesn't show. I was thouroughly impressed and have now purchased more from him, including Moonheart and the Harp of the Grey Rose.
  
  If you have not experienced Charles de Lint and you enjoy epic fantasy with a touch of folklore, please give the Riddle of the wren a try!