Someplace to Be Flying

by Charles De Lint

Hardcover, 1998

Status

Available

Call number

813

Publication

Tor Books (1998), Edition: 1st, 380 pages

Description

Lily is a photojournalist in search of the "animal people" who supposedly haunt the city's darkest slums. Hank is a slumdweller who knows the bad streets all too well. One night, in a brutal incident, their two lives collide-uptown Lily and downtown Hank, each with a quest and a role to play in the secret drama of the city's oldest inhabitants. For the animal people walk among us. Native Americans call them the First People, but they have never left, and they claim the city for their own. Not only have Hank and Lily stumbled onto a secret, they've stumbled into a war. And in this battle for the city's soul, nothing is quite as it appears.

User reviews

LibraryThing member readingrat

This was my first foray into the Urban Fantasy genre and although I really enjoyed it I kept feeling like I was picking this story up in the middle - like maybe this was a second book in a series or something. It took me about 100 pages to start putting the puzzle pieces together.

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LibraryThing member bigorangemichael

After devouring "Trader," "The Mystery of Grace" and "Little Grrl Lost," earlier this year, I was hoping for a similar experience when I picked up "Someplace to Be Flying."

And while this novel certainly had its moments of being just as absorbing as all of those, I still feel like it fell a bit

short of my expectations.

It's not that it's a bad story. But the story takes so long for various elements to come together that I found myself taken out of the novel too much. One thing I found missing was De Lint's usual pattern of having alternating sections told in third-person and then first-person narration.

This is a good starting point for De Lint but not my favorite of his works that I've read. However, it doesn't discourage me from wanting to read more.

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LibraryThing member turbojenn

I always love the stories of the first people, and this one is exquisite.

LibraryThing member Jam_Today

A luscious urban tale based on Native American "fairy tale" themes. As always, de Lint delights.

LibraryThing member bibliojim

This is one of the neatest books I've ever read. What more is there to say? I've seen other people say this is one of de Lint's very best and most approachable books. I've read three or four others, and based on that sampling I think I agree, though Onion Girl was outstanding as well. People who

want military SF probably won't like this book, but for people looking for something that makes them feel like maybe there is something redeeming in the world after all, this is tops. This is one of his "Newford" books, and it's probably good to have read others of them first, but it's really not necessary. I hadn't done that, and it didn't cause any problems. Like another reviewer, I thought maybe there was something that had come before, but all the characters were reintroduced. I do want to go back and read some of those earlier books, though, and hope to find them as engaging.

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LibraryThing member lexport

I deeply wish that more Newford books were full novels rather than collections of short stories. I love the characters and settings that De Lint creates, they are perfect places to escape and let one's imagination roam. I sometimes find the actual writing construction a bit ham-fisted but this can

easily be overlooked for the beauty that is created in the story.

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LibraryThing member zjakkelien

It took me a little while to get into this book, but then I loved it. I think the getting into it might have had something to do with my concentration and less with the book. In any case, in the beginning a lot of characters are introduced and recognizing all of them and understanding a little how

they were connected took a while. But once I had a feel for the universe of Someplace to be flying, it was really enjoyable. I love the atmosphere in the Newford books and I love the characters. In Someplace to be flying, Charles de Lint tells the story from the perspective of magical beings for the first time (according to his afterword). All I can say is, it works. The animal people are fascinatingly drawn. Of course, an absolute all-time favorite are the crow girls. They are lovely; whimsical and fun-loving, yet with an edge if someone they love is threatened. I also really loved Margaret, and the tour of Tucson she gave Lily, showing her all of its secret places. That created a lovely image. The other animal people are intriguing too, Cody in particular. I like how he is in opposition to the Corbae (the crows) a lot of the time, but not really an enemy. The ones that really felt evil are the cuckoos. On the other hand, perhaps they just follow a nature that is completely alien to us.

Another lovely Newford book that reminded me I should read more of them... Plus, this copy I got from Smashwords, and I think it's really sympathetic if an established author sells their books on an independent website like that.

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LibraryThing member leslie.98

Once again de Lint's blend of fantasy, Native American mythology, and reality of small city Newford charmed me. Whilst I wasn't quite as entranced by this as I was by Trader, it did keep me glued to its pages (and listening to the crows that live in the woods near my home!). The ending was a bit

disappointing, but I am still mulling it over so may change my mind about that.

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LibraryThing member KerryAlanDenney

One of the urban fantasy master's very best. I wanted to dance, sing, and yes, fly at the end!

LibraryThing member makeart2

Brilliant as always.

LibraryThing member quondame

It was this book that woke me to the fact that my favorite de Lint character was the city of Newford.
Yes I did read it twice inside 3 days

LibraryThing member LindaWeeks

Charles De Lint writes so beautifully in a blend of mythology, fantasy and fiction which is not only entertaining but enlightening. The themes and values his characters discuss and portray often leave you thinking and questioning your own beliefs and views. Woven through this narrative are

questions of loyalty, love, what makes a family, principles and over all the damage that can be done trying to change the past instead of choosing a new direction for your future.
Makes me look at the crows and ravens where I live in a whole new light.

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LibraryThing member hyper7

To be honest, during the first few chapters I thought it was going to suck. (I mostly dislike the "urban fantasy" type books) but I was wrong. This was really very good, and I'll be looking for more of his books.

LibraryThing member quickmind

I really enjoyed this book. It has all of the hallmarks of a great Charles de Lint novel. We have a disparate cast of characters who end up together by the climax to try to solve whatever problem has come up. We have fantastical elements in the form of beings from another place that is adjacent to

ours, or came before ours, or exists on a separate plane from ours, who inhabit the world with us. They offer a glimpse into something more, if you can open your mind to the possibility. But these beings aren't trying to moralize, or guide humans. They have all of the same shortcomings that humans do, its just that things tend to get more interesting when you are a magical being. The climax of the book was a bit anticlimactic, but I was really more interested in the characters' journeys, and not necessarily some big end of the world event. I find that when you have all of these big epic events that happen all of the time (Doctor Who I'm looking at you), they become less affecting. I just can't summon up the energy to care every single time the world is going to end. But on that note, there was a possibility that the world could have ended in this book, or at least reverted to a time before humans. I was less interested in that part of the story than I was in the characters learning who they were and reckoning with their own histories. In that department, it fell a little short, but I still enjoyed the journey.

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LibraryThing member Dorothy2012

One story of the Animal People and Jack Daw.

Very good, very well written.

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