My Favorite Reads is hosted by Alyce on her blog At Home With Books. The idea is to take a book you read before you started blogging and tell your readers about it.In case anyone is wondering, I am completely addicted to the new Farm Town game on Facebook, that's why I haven't posted much lately. I haven't been reading much because of the silly game. However, I love this meme and want to post about the first Charles De Lint book I read, Someplace to be Flying.
From locus (a review posted on De Lint's site):
Charles de Lint has developed a strong and loyal readership for his urban fantasy novels, delivering a reliable cocktail of likeable characters, myth, folklore, and music set against a counter-culture background of one sort or another. Someplace to be Flying, set in the fictional city of Newford, is no exception.
The book opens in the Newford slums when Hank, a jazz-loving cab driver, stops to save a woman being violently assaulted in a dark side-street. When her assailant shoots him as he gets out of his cab, the scene changes. In a flurry of darkness and the sound of beating wings, two mysterious young women appear out of nowhere, killing the man and healing Hank's wound. It is a moment that will change the world for Hank and Lily, the woman he has stopped to save, forever. Slowly they are introduced to a world of magic which has always existed around them, unseen and unknown, one peopled by figures of myth and legend, where trickster Coyote and Raven are real, and where it is possible for a young woman to wish her twin sister out of existence.
Why I Loved this book:
This book opened up the world of urban fantasy to me. I had read a couple books by Neil Gaiman but no one else on the fantasy scene was doing what I found in De Lint's book. It combined classic fantasy writing with the real world and with other things I have loved all my life: religion, spirituality, and mythology from other cultures (in this book, mainly Native American). I was sucked in by the writing style and held on for dear life as I live through the eyes of Hank, Lily, Kerry, Katy, Jack, and the crow girls.
5 comments:
OH! Great pick! I've read a few of De Lint's books and loved them all...Dingo is still in my to-be-read pile, though. Maybe after I get to that I'll add this selection. I think my favorite De Lint is his Jack of Kinrowan, actually two novels in one (have you read it?). He's a super-talented writer. Thanks so much for the suggestion and your review!
I haven't read it. I wonder if Jack is the same Jack from Someplace to be Flying? If so, I will definitely be finding it soon. He was a favorite character of mine.
I've never read anything by DeLint, but it sounds like this came at a great time for you, opening up lots of good reads!
This sounds like it would stretch my reading horizons. I love sci-fi and fantasy but haven't ever really gotten into urban fantasy. I'm intrigued by the part about the woman wishing her twin sister out of existence.
Sounds really intriguing ... I'll have to look for it.
And I don't want to know about this Facebook game ... the last thing I need is another way to waste time!!! : )
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