novels

I loved 'Yarrow'. It's far and away one of the most magical books I've ever read. Being the first de Lint book I've ever read, it's served to introduce me to one of the modern masters of fantasy admirably.

'Yarrow' is exciting and fluid from beginning to end. It'll have you on the edge of your seat. The characters are wholly believable and fascinating people.

De Lint doesn't shy away from darkness and evil characters. The book is littered with profanities, semi-graphic love scenes and gruesome slayings.

It's a good book, it's near the top of my all-time favorites list and I'm so glad that Orb brought it back into print. This is a book that every self-proclaimed fantasy fan needs to read.

The book starts with an interesting question that forms the basis of the plot: Where do writers get their ideas? For the heroine, Cat Midhir, those ideas come from her dreams. So what happens when the dreams stop? That's what "Yarrow" is all about.

I did find the first part a little bit slow. I thought there were too many scene shifts, and introductions to a lot of characters who turned out to be little more than scenery in the end. I felt that these minor characters were developed almost at the expense of some of the other characters who should have been given more space. Case in point: Kothlen. I would have liked to see his character developed more, even in flashbacks, so that when Cat loses him, we don't have to be told how awful she feels; we should be able to feel it for ourselves.

Other than that, de Lint has woven a wonderful story. I liked Tiddy Mun, Cat's little gnome friend, and the villain, Lysistratus, was deliciously formidable. I highly recommend this book to fans of Charles de Lint who may not have read this earlier piece of urban fantasy.

This was my first De Lint book way back in the 1980's, it is still one of his best to me alongside Moonheart and Memory & Dream.
De lint has a darkness in some of his best books, I'm not horror fan but his works have just enough magic and beauty to not read like a horror book. But they do have a deep and frightening darkness...Caitlin's enemy, the creature that steals her dreams is a brutal monster and there are some very scary scenes in this book.
But in the end the entire tale is soo engrossing I can't put it down. Sadly many of his more recent books lack that depth, or maybe I'm just older and less inclined to be taken in by them..and yet I can still read this book and other older De Lint and be drawn in as before.....
What De Lint does when he is truly inspired can only be called true magic...if you want that kind fo magic read this, Moonheart and Memory and Dream...but be warned they are not for children nor readers who do not like some truly, deeply, dark evil in their books.