Moonheart

by Charles De Lint

Paperback, 1994

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Orb Books (1994), 448 pages

Description

Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: When Sara and Jamie discovered the artifacts, they sensed the pull of a dim, distant place, a world of misty forests, ancient magics, mythical beings, ageless bards, and restless evil. Now, with their friends and enemies alike �?? Blue, the biker; Keiran, the folk musician; the Inspector from the RCMP; and the mysterious Tom Hengyr �?? Sara and Jamie are drawn into this enchanted land through the portals of a sprawling downtown edifice that straddles two worlds. From ancient Wales to the streets of Ottawa today, Moonheart entrances listeners with its tale of this world and the other one at the very edge of sight. A tale of music, motorcycles, and fey folk beyond the shadows of the moon, Moonheart is pure magic… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member threadnsong

Where do I begin with this review of one of the most influential books in my life? It is splendid. I have read and re-read it for (literally) decades, and I always find something new in it. Whether it's the explanation of the magick that resides in music, to the idea of an Otherworld that exists

next to our own, the chance finding of magical items, there are elements that continue to draw me in.

The basic premise is a house in Ottawa built by the grandfather of the current owner that is massive and takes up one entire city block. It houses Jamie Tams and his orphaned niece, Sara. They have an inheritance and run a little flea market where Sara finds some interesting artifacts in a box in the back. Concurrently, the local RCMP are running an operation looking into the paranormal, but behind those scenes is a rich, evil business man who craves absolute power.

Woven into this tale of music and mystery is the feud between the Welsh bard Taliesin, the druid he cast into stone before being set off across the Atlantic in a coracle, and the mythical beings who inhabit the New World, a seemingly ageless sorcerer's apprentice, and the Ottawa folk music scene, and the tale-telling abilities of a master story teller, and you have a classic urban fantasy.

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LibraryThing member avanders

just finished listening (primarily) to Moonheart. I loved it so much. It is involved and profound and fascinating and nostalgic and enrapturing and was just the perfect thing for me just right now. I cannot believe there's no movie or tv series of this book for me to watch now. What do I read

next?! This is one of those books where you feel like nothing else is going to satisfy you that same way for a while.

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LibraryThing member Leiahc

Who among you remembers the first book you read? Or, shall we say the first which made a real impression on you? For me, I grew up on a household that didn't read, and didn't really provide books for a budding bibliophile. So, I did what I could, mostly snitching school books to read from my older

cousins. The first I really remember? Being six years old and sneaking my cousin's high school mythology books from her room. The ideas there absolutely fascinated me. Gods and monsters. Far distant lands with strange languages and customs. I was truly hooked on mythology, fantasy and reading itself. It was an epiphany of massive personal proportions.

Back in the middle/late 80's, I was gifted with “Moonheart.” Another epiphany of massive personal proportions. I fell into the story, into it's world of myth and legend, and became an Urban Fantasy fan for life. Moonheart's story was, for it's time, groundbreaking. While most mythology of the time retained the ancient characteristics of other myths and legends, Moonheart brought the stories into the modern day, creating the modern Urban Fantasy genre. Of course, Emma Bull's “War For The Oaks” winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel , Terri Windling's “The Wood Wife” and Ellen Datlow's various compilations of UF helped cement my love at the time. I spent years collecting all the works I could get my hands on, including a rare, signed copy of de Lint's “The Buffalo Man,” illustrated by Charles Vess, that I cherish.

Moonheart is perfect for anyone who wants to study the beginnings of UF, but it is a tremendous story for what it is – a beautifully written tale combining music (another of my passions), fairie, mystical forests, mythical artifacts and beings and layers upon layers of worlds. De Lint is a musician himself, and his writing is a paean to the musical heart of myth and mystery.

A living house which straddles two worlds, a cast of characters who I love dearly. Moonheart is a beautiful story I return to over and over again.

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LibraryThing member krazykiwi

It's not perfect, it's a bit rambly, sometimes a little confusing. It's dated in places, and not always too well. The characterisation is a little uneven, and there are almost too many characters to keep track of at times. Even de Lint himself in the afterword admits it's not the book he set out to

write, and not the one he'd write now, but he resists the temptation to "fix" it.

And I'm giving it 5 stars anyway, because any book that sticks with you for 25 years, and still gives as much joy to read now as it did then, has to be worth that. Even just looking at it sitting on my shelf, next to a hardcover of Greenmantle I picked up a couple of years ago, makes me happy. Now I just have to find myself another copy of Faerie Tale.

Full review @Booklikes

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LibraryThing member kevn57

This novel is of course magical, because other wise it wouldn't be an Urban Fantasy, but it's also very musical.

From the Author's Note.
" this book was written under the influence of Alan Stivell, Andreas Vollenweider, Neville Marriner, An Triskell, Edgar Froese, Klaus Schultz, Radio Silence,

Robin Williamson, Silly Wizard, the Fureys, and Kate Bush-to name the most prominent"

I too had my mp3 player dancing with Celtic tunes as I read the book, the music references peppered throughout the novel are almost a subliminal influence forcing you to listen to some Celtic tunes as you read.
Aside from that I loved the way that the author has integrated European legends and mythology with North American mythology, throwing in a healthy does of Taoism to boot makes for a very satisfying setting and story. The main characters are both believable and likeable; the human villains are a little one dimensional but that’s a small quibble for such a terrific novel.

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LibraryThing member soireadthisbooktoday

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LibraryThing member Jack_Daw

Like others this was my first CDL book and whilst not his best, it will always be special to me. A great twist of Celtic and NA indian folklore mixed with a bit of suspense and a touch of a horror, a thriller and some romance, something for everyone

LibraryThing member Radaghast

Not my cup of tea. There's nothing obviously wrong with this book. It just isn't what I'm looking for. There's no real central plot, no story. Just a window in a certain time in the lives of the characters. By the time we get to the point, it's too late.

LibraryThing member andreablythe

When Sara Kendal and her uncle Jamie find a medicine bag full of an odd assortment of trinkets, including a bone disk, a gold ring, and other oddities, they find themselves being drawn into a a strange other world. They soon learn that there are dangers along with the wonder, including an ancient

evil. Along with a litany of fascinating characters, including a an ex-biker, a folk singing magician, a anchient druid, a straight-laced cop, they fight for their lives.

My write up sounds uber-dramatic, but that's only because its difficult to encompass a book like there, which has a multitude of complex characters, each with their own desires whose goals criss-cross and interlace with all the others. I only felt lost a couple of times in the beginning as De Lint shifts between multiple points of view, and I had to remember who was who doing what. But as I settled into this epic story of love and magic and old evils, all that smoothed out and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's an excellent example of why De Lint is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

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LibraryThing member ErlendSkjelten

Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2008. 19 hours and 58 minutes.

LibraryThing member LaPhenix

A little bit on the mundane side of fantasy, but an interesting read nonetheless.

LibraryThing member TheBentley

I really loved deLint's Trader--one of the best modern fantasy novels I've ever read--and I've tried a couple more of his books in hopes of finding another one with Trader's depth and complexity. Like Trader, Moonheart made the Reader's List in Modern Library's Best Novels of the 20th Century, so I

had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, I may have held the bar a little too high. Moonheart isn't bad, and I realize it's one of deLint's early works. It's easy to see deLint's future in its pages--the beginning of his trademark blend of Native American with Celtic mythology, the premise of being accidentally transported to another world, the favoring of intuitive magick over learning. If you are already a devoted deLint fan, it's worth going back to Moonheart to see something of how his mythology started, and it's certainly not a dull book, but if you're only going to read a few modern fantasy novels--or even only a few deLint novels--this is not one I'd choose.

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LibraryThing member jlsimon7

I'll be honest, I only got half way through this book. I read another book by Charles de Lint, that seemed to drag in places, but the story line was interesting enough to keep me going. This one just didn't. After 225 pages I've found I don't even care how it ends. That happens rarely with me. Even

when I'm tired of the book I will often stick it out and get to the end. A few times a book got boring enough that I skipped ahead a few chapters, but only a hand full of times have I just given up completely.

So what is this book about? Sarah (I think that was her name) finds a ring that is pulling her into a non-linear timeline. There are super naturals that seem to be working a magic of sorts. We know if they are not immortal, their lives span hundreds of years.

There's an uncle Jamie in there that seems to be a connection between Sarah in the present and the past.

Beyond that I have no idea what was going on in the book because I couldn't focus on it enough to care.

Sorry for the negativity. I try to write my reviews with the same concept I have of football. I don't have the talent or skill to play, so who am I to judge? I accept I will never be an author regardless of my love of books. I don't have the talent. But this book needed an editor in the very worst way. A good editor could have eliminated enough of the drag for the book to sail. Instead it just sunk for me.

I could recommend this book to individuals that enjoy a good fantasy novel, and have the patience to work through it.

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LibraryThing member salol

This book held me riveted from start to finish. It was my first book by DeLint, and I have been tracking them down ever since. This book holds a special place in my heart for turning me on to such an amazing author.

LibraryThing member macha

3 and a half stars. excellent, but could have used some editing towards the end when the climactic sequence goes on and on. and on.

LibraryThing member james.d.gifford

I "read" this in the audiobook format. There's an awful lot to say, but perhaps the first and most obvious thing is that de Lint is a trailblazer of urban fantasy, and much of that is on display here. At the same time, things like the tropes around indigeneity are troubling. It's so very much a

part of and an expression of its time period (early 1980s) that it's difficult to read it today without putting oneself there. This is both a success and trouble in the book that goes outside of how I think most readers would come to it.

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LibraryThing member KittyCunningham

Everybody smokes!!

LibraryThing member threadnsong

One of my all-time favorite books and one which I've read multiple times. I have another edition around here somewhere, but the one I always turn to is the paperback edition with the tree, Taliesin, and Sarah sitting underneath it. It started my tradition of bringing a book into an Irish pub when I

just wanted to come in, enjoy a pint and dinner, and then go home.

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LibraryThing member ladycato

This classic fantasy novel is highly enjoyable and very tense, though not flawless. It's a book with an incredible magical house (the best part of the whole book), Ottawa Mounties who investigate the paranormal, and melded Celtic and First Nations mythology. It feels like a huge, deep fantasy, and

is original in so many ways.

Yet uneven in others. The shifting point of view really jolted me at the start and I never fully adjusted to the technique. There is a huge cast of characters, and I struggled to keep everyone straight. It didn't help that a large number of characters were bland stereotypes. Pretty much all of the native characters came across that way-not negative stereotypes, necessarily, but tired ones. Same with a major Celtic bard, too--he was paint-by-numbers in every way. There were two instances of insta-love that were so insta-love I was left bewildered.

That said, it's still a gripping book. There's the HOUSE! The magnificent Tamson House that straddles worlds and defends its people. And there's... well. The house is the best part. Read it for the house, as it does end up taking over the plot in a big way through the end.

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LibraryThing member Crowyhead

A most excellent story. The characterization isn't, IMO, as good as in some of de Lint's later novels, but it is still a great, magical adventure.

LibraryThing member Treebeard_404

Originally published in 1984, the modern-world portions of the book feel just a bit dated. But the mythopoeic sections still ring true.
[Audiobook note: excellent reader.]

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