I know that deLint is classic, and that everyone should like it because of that, but I didn't like this. Yes, it is going to be different from newer urban fantasy, but it wasn't the slow pace that bothers me. I mean, I have read epic fantasy that progresses at a snails pace. It was more the overall feel of the novel. It just felt like it was from a different time, and that I would have had to be alive then to appreciate it. The style just really didn't sit well with me, and of course the plot, characters, and setting weren't that appealing to me either. It would be like reading an urban fantasy twenty years from now that was just published recently. People might not understand the Harry Potter references, the weird abbreviations, and other references to pop culture that are so overused in books now. I understand that all of those things make books relevant to the time, but something was lost in translation here. Not my style.

This book seemed to appeal to me in streaks. There were times when I felt fully and enthusiastically engaged with the characters and their converging storylines and other times when I struggled to pick up the book. In all fairness, life has been rather unusual lately and real world events may have contributed to those moments when I struggled.

I will say this had a very unique setting for a fantasy novel. I do believe this is the first time in my experience that the characters were Canadians. This is also the first time the magic system drew heavily on Native North American Indian folklore. I quite enjoyed both of those aspects.

Boring. Pretentious. And mention of characters smoking so much that I wanted to take a shower every few pages.

A lot of stuff happens, epic in scope, but it's SO LONG. Hard to keep my attention at times.
The indigenous rep is limited to "ooh magical elves" which is a real shame - it's much better discussed here and apparently his later novels have better and more nuanced representation. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/28801/1882521616
Sara as a character was not as interesting as she could have been - I wish we'd had more time from Blue (the biker)'s point of view. I liked this but would have enjoyed it more had it been more concise.

I loved this book - it read a bit like the best Madeleine L'Engle, drawing from the mythologies and folktales of Wales and indigenous North America. There's a great trickster character named Pukwudji (what is it with tricksters? - Pukwudji, Pooka, Puck), one of my favorite Welsh bards, and a lot of theriomorphic gods and totems. There's a good bit of backstory, which I love but many others don't, so those who like their books fast-paced with lots of action might be disappointed, while those who like to wade in slowly and spend time absorbing a book's ambiance will be delighted. Really satisfying fantasy.

3.5 stars

There is a 4 star (or higher) book in here, and maybe if I hadn't listened to it, I could have skimmed the parts that weren't as interesting to me.

I really liked the world building and the magic (as I do with most of Charles de Lint's books). Sara and Keiran both had journeys (literal and figurative) and growth. It probably says more about the genre than the book itself that I kept picturing them as teens, even though the book is very clear that they are adults who have already built their lives in our world.

I could have done with less of the battle, and (even though I'm a mystery reader) some of the real world crime dragged for me as well.

Still, I'm glad I read it.

ALL of his urban fantasy books are WONDERFUL, but I admit Moonheart is my favorite.

This was the book that introduced me to the magic that is De Lints writing. I loved this story, and find myself pulling it off the shelf at least once a year. I have read a lot of this type of fiction, but his was the first, and in my opinion. some of the best.

This time through was actually a re-read for me, the first since the book was new and so with the passage of the intervening years and the effects they have on my memory, mostly serving as one big eraser, reading Moonheart in 2012 was rather like the first time. I've read many novels and short stories by Charles de Lint since Moonheart was published in the 1980's but this early novel of his always stuck in the back of my mind as something special, so much so that I sent it to someone dear to me who was in need of a good read while on the mend from surgery. She enjoyed it so much that I sent her more de Lint novels and she actually sent Moonheart back to me to re-read because she enjoyed it so much. There you have the life of a well traveled book and life well lived it has been.

As for the novel itself, readers coming to it from de Lint's later work will recognize themes that are obviously close to his writer's imagination and the familiar blending of myth that is out of our present time with some very present realities of what we know as "our world." What makes Moonheart special in the de Lint canon is the mythologies he chooses to blend and weave into then present day Ottawa. I am partial to Arthurian legends and myths having read much of the source material while a graduate student and so I very much enjoy the way he weaves these archetypal myths into the native mythologies of northeastern Canada and then fuses these with a very real world narrative. This sort of complex myth weaving alongside a rather hard boiled narrative is not for the weak of heart but arguably nowhere is de Lint more successful at doing in this in novel form than he is in Moonheart. Forests of the Heart comes to mind as also excelling in this grand mythweaving but the story at the heart of the novel, that is to say the Moonheart, is second to none for the way it touches the reader's imagination and most likely their hearts.