Moonheart is quite aways beyond my usual range, chosen out of (GR/Amazon) recommendations based on recommendations thrice removed from books I've actually read. So, although I realize based on other reviews that this is considered "classic urban fiction", for me, it was quite bizarre and different (a good thing).

Moonheart has its flaws, and it probably won't appeal to many, but I give it a 4 for the intersection of (1) weird/made me think (2) well-written, if not "literary" (3) Native American/Celtic lore (4) Tamson House.

The story weaves between real-world Ottawa and "the Otherworld", a land of myths in which legendary creatures and powers manifest. The cast of characters is lively, but not terribly well-developed. There is a battle (between good and evil of course), and there is much to learn about mysticism/the Way/tao/Native American & Celtic stories/inner silence/the like. Some of that is pretty hoakey (a la magic mushrooms & Timothy Leary), some probably horribly distorts Native American rituals (I, sadly, do not know enough to say - one thing is clear, though, that de Lint is absolutely smitten with Native American cultures, so if he misrepresents anything, it's done out of sincere admiration. Not that this excuses his work completely, but at least it's no Heidegger writing about Jews).

Finally, perhaps my favorite aspect of this story, is the centrality of Tamson House, a magical and mysterious haven and character in Moonheart. I'm obsessed with ... dwellings, and I often daydream (and night-dream) about impossible, sprawling, crazy houses. So based on Tamson House alone, I'd rate this book as a 4/5 (I am not to be trusted).

Not highly recommended, but definitely highly enjoyed.

So many cigarettes. Reading this was like living there.

One day, when Sara Kendall is cleaning out some of the junk from the bookstore that she owns, she happens across a box with what appears to be a medicine bag. She's a sucker for unique items, so she hangs up the picture, gives the bone to her uncle to get analyzed, and starts wearing the ring. Little does she know, that medicine bag will be the first step into a world full of myth and magic. Meanwhile, Kieran Foy searches for his mentor, who has mysteriously disappeared. He's not the only one looking, though. The RCMP are also looking for Tom Hengwr, and they're determined to find him first.

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I was really expecting to love it, as I'd heard so many good things about Charles de Lint's urban fantasy. However, while I didn't hate it, I also didn't love it. Let's start with the good.

There's a lot of imagination to this book, and it draws from sources that are a bit different from your average urban fantasy. A lot of the magic in this world is based on Native American myth, which is a welcome change. It also mixes in a lot of Welsh mythology, which I rarely see. So a lot of the world-building and magic felt quite fresh and new, which I liked a lot.

The writing itself is quite well-done on a sentence by sentence level, and the characters are also quite well done. This feels like a more polished book than most early works, and it's clear that the craft of writing is something that Charles de Lint has spent some serious time on. I especially liked Sara as a character, and I was really drawn into her story.

However, on the not-so-good side, there are some definite hiccups in terms of pacing. For the beginning section of the novel, there's very little sense of purpose or urgency, so for a long time, I didn't feel very compelled by the book. Though the plot does eventually pick up, by that point I just needed it to be finished, so I rushed through to the ending, which definitely was not as enjoyable.

There's also a distinct problem with the romantic relationships. There are a number of these, and what I found was that they are far too much instalove for me. Characters fall in love at the drop of a hat, fall into bed just as quickly, and then end up in committed relationships that feel entirely false. I prefer a lot more development to my romantic relationships, so that was a huge letdown for me.

In the end, I thought this was a strong building block, but had some major flaws. I would read more by Charles de Lint, but when I do, I would hope for some serious improvements in the romance, at the very least, in order to continue picking up his work.

I... Didn't love this. I found myself losing interest throughout the story, and I couldn't even tell you exactly why. Fantasy is probably my favorite genre, and I love urban fantasy, so I expected I'd love a book with good reviews like this. The plot was fine, but the back and forth between settings and characters and times was a little hard to keep up with (I usually don't mind lots of back and forth). I was just... Underwhelmed.

Audiobook note: Meh. Maybe read the physical book? I suspect the dull narration is one of the main reasons this book didn't hold my interest. If I didn't have so many other books on my "To Read" list, I'd be tempted to give this one another go in print form.

I've had this on my shelf for several years, and FINALLY have gotten around to it.

I enjoyed reading a book with a very familiar setting (my own hometown!), as well as the fantasitcal Otherworld that was underlying it.

It was the first time I've read a fantasy novel combining myths and legends from the Welsh and the First Nations people of the Americas, and I enjoyed how de Lint wove the two together.

Regarding the characters in the novel, while Sara and Kieran are obviously meant to be the main heroes, I have a real soft spot for Blue.

I had read de Lint's The Riddle of the Wren years ago - around 1980, if I recall - and remember nothing about it except the cool cover, with its Celtic-influenced design.

Then a friend passed Moonheart to me as a must-read, and I was hooked.

De Lint's storytelling web is woven out of European folk beliefs, Celtic myth, Native American practice, that little niggle inside your head telling you there's more to certain places than meets the eye, mysterious pockets of forest amid an urban setting that feel like they could easily be home to a band of faery, those recurring dreams where you find a hidden door in your house that leads to a previously unknown treasure trove right next door... Somehow it avoids becoming a hodge-podge, and draws you irresistably into his spell.

I subsequently have read everything de Lint has written - up to a point about 5 years ago, when I got behind and haven't yet caught up: the man is ridiculously prolific. The earlier books, like Harp of the Grey Rose & Riddle, aren't nearly as good, IMO: seemed like he was trying to hew too closely to European traditions. Greenmantle was (I believe) the first that brought those old stories into a modern setting, and once he hit on that combination, his unique voice began to come through loud and clear.

This is one of my favorite books. I just reread it some 25 years later and I still love it. It holds up for me. Charles de Lint was always a favorite author of mine and I know why all these years later. I loved urban fantasy done well and he was the one who tuned me in to it. Reading how his wife pushed him to try this was a fabulous thing to share and made me like them both even more. Thank you Mary Ann for helping Charles be the best writer he could.

There was a lot in this book -- an urban fantasy blending different mythologies (Welsh and First Nations). I feel like there was a lot of stereotyping, though the story itself was interesting. Perhaps it was the time, but there also weren't many female characters, and only when they needed to be female for the love interest aspect. The house was fantastic and one of my favourite things. This book was definitely long in that epic fantasy vein.

de Lint is one of my favorite authors, but this early work of his was disappointing to me. Why? 1) he uses names that are unpronounceable. For some reason, I want to be able to pronounce the names in my head, and I hate not being able to do that. The names are filled with apostrophes and other punctuation marks that irritate me. 2) Too many characters. The whole RCMP subplot should have been cut from the book. 3) he has this one character always swearing with these really nasty swears: "Lord lifting Jesus" (what on earth is that, anyway) and "Lord dying Jesus." He did it so often that it got to be really distracting and it would pull me out of the narrative to fulminate about the swear every time it happened. Not to mention that as a Christian, I found it incredibly offensive.

Plot: girl finds some strange Indian artifacts, lives in house with a soul, evil is afoot, girl and guy go to alternate dimension to stop the evil. Add about 100 characters to this with about half of them having unpronounceable names, and there you have it.

This book won't put me off de Lint for good, but I'm not rushing out to get the next in his list, either.