Friday, February 17, 2006

Review: _Spirits in the Wires_ by Charles de Lint

Spirits, pushed out of the real world, take up residence in cyberspace. This creates havoc for people. Spirits in the Wiresby Charles de Lint is an Urban Fantasy novel set in the fictional city ofNewford where magic exists in the modern world. Mr. de Lint creates an entertainingbook with a fantastical reality through his setting, characters and plot.

Settingcan be a powerful role in a book that evokes a strong sense of wonder. Theauthor creates it in this book with his city of Newford, the borderlandsand cyberspace. Newford has appeared in previous books and is familiar toto previous readers, but new people will find the city familiar
becauseof the author’s descriptions. Vivid descriptions also bring the cyberspaceworld and border lands to life, making them seem like they really exist.Characters become affected by the setting.

This book has an ensemblecast of characters that provide different perspectives on the events of thebook and make the story interesting. It starts out with Saskia meeting Christiana.she struggles to figure out her identity because of a lack of memories. Christianais a cast off shadow of Christy, Saskia’s boyfriend. She has grown sincebeing cast off and continues to be a free spirited element of the book. Hollyowns a bookstore, sharing it with her magical brownie partner Dick who becomesdrawn into danger due to her friendships with others. Magical characterslike the tinker Bojo and Robert gives the book a strong flavor of magic.Mr. de Lint makes his characters realistic through dialogue and reactionsof his characters.

In the end, it is the plot that keeps readers hooked.The book reviewer Aaron wants revenge on the people that do not like him.He gets a computer expert to sabotage the web site called the Wordwood, visitedby many people. Unaware that the site is inhabited by a spirit, Aaron setsoff the
disappearance of several people as the spirit strikes back fromthe attack. Christy, his shadow Chrisitana and others must venture into theborder lands to rescue their loved ones and confront the spirit. Mr. de Lintwrites a tight plot that makes the book hard for readers to put the bookdown for any length of time.

Spirits in the Wires by Charlesde Lint is a superb, entertaining book of urban fantasy. A powerful senseof a fantastical reality is brought about in the book through its setting,characters and plot. Mr. de Lint is a master of mythical urban fantasy. Thislatest book, set in the fictional
city of Newford adds another engaging story to Charles de Lint’s impressive list of books.

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