Moonheart

Rating:
Summary: Urban Faerie at its very best!
Review: This was the first De Lint I discovered, and I still feel that it is his finest work. His adept blending of contemporary Ottawa, music, magic, Celtic mythology as well as Native beliefs are what give this book its multi-level appeal. This novel was my first foray into the "urban faerie" sub-genre of fantasy, and led me to a number of other fine novels. If you like De Lint, I would suggest: Tam Lin by Pamela Dean War For the Oaks by Emma Bull Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand and the Borderlands Series by Terry Windling and Ellen Datlow.

Rating:
Summary: This one had real power ...
Review: We have two heroes. First Sara, an heiress who works in a junk shop for fun. She lives with her eccentric uncle Jamie in a mansion that covers a city block in Ottawa. Then Kieran, the folk musician rescued from prison by a mysterious mentor Tom Hengyr.

The conflict: Sara finds a ring in the junk shop. Soon everyone wants to take it from her. First, the "paranormal branch" (!) of the Mounties hauls in her uncle for questioning when he attempts to get the ring dated at the museum. The Mounties are looking for Tom Hengyr or Kieran whom Sara realizes she knows slightly from folk music circles.

Then Kieran comes to Ottawa because he feels a "great disturbance in the Force" indicating Tom Hengyr is in trouble. Unfortunately the old guy has disappeared.

Sara spots Kieran in a coffee shop and attempts to get the full story. Unfortunately, a Mountie is there on a surveillance mission -- and inexplicably attacks them. It becomes immediately obvious that the poor cop is possessed by Evil. When Kieran fights back with magic, he and Sara tumble into another dimension where they meet shamans, manitous, and the Welsh bard Taliesin who may or may not be the evil opponent of Tom Hengyr.

This novel -- frequently silly and often exciting -- just keeps rambling from there. Of course we have WAY TOO MANY characters including a hard-boiled Inspector and his girlfriend, a truculent biker and HIS girlfriend, the eccentric uncle, an eccentric professor, and three hitmen. And this is just the group in the House which acquires its own ability to radiate a protective force-field and to access other dimensions.

I liked the native Indian and Celtic mythological underpinnings. I could never quite get the hierarchy straight because de Lint uses Indian names for pages without providing a glossary (and why not a glossary since the divination system got an appendix?).

I guess the Celtic fey folk immigrated to the New World and attempted an uneasy integration with the native manitous who already held the land. Fascinating.

Anyway, it's a long and disorganized but absorbing read. I especially like how de Lint handled the Evil Force, rendering it a more personal Jungian evil rather than the usual cliched universal evil. I recommend this book, especially for your next extended weekend away from the job ...