I started reading this on my Kobo on a lovely spring afternoon that I couldn't squander inside. It wasn't necessarily next in my queue, but I knew it was close anyway, and being a big fan of de Lint's work, I've been eager to get to it. This is an early novel of his that follows up his previous book, Moonheart, about the recent history of a curious building in Ottawa, Ontario.I had high expectations for this book based on his other work that I've read. Perhaps for that reason, I was a little disappointed. For one thing, the structure of the story was very different from his later work, as the first half of the book was comprised of what seemed individual, stand-alone shorts, not lead-up to the dramatic climax as it turned out to be. It diminished the desire to keep reading when I came to the end of a section and everything seemed to be resolved.What really failed to grab me, though, was the characters. I could see the beginnings of the rich and very human characters he created in later books, but I found none of the ones in this book very likable. The book in general improved as it got to the long final part that the others led up to, but there was a bit of continuing to read out of habit, rather than out of a genuine interest in what happened next. Maybe I might have enjoyed it more if it wasn't written by Charles de Lint, but either way, I wasn't crazy about it and would recommend some of his other work rather than this one.
I finished reading Spiritwalk a week or so ago. No one does urban fantasy like de Lint; and few have been doing it longer. I’ve enjoyed all the books of his I’ve read that were originally published under his own name. Not exactly unqualified love, but what can I say? De Lint published 3 darker fantasies under the name Samuel M. Key; I’ve read two of them and they were OK, but I shelved the third, I'll Be Watching You (1994), after starting it a little while ago. It was just a little darker than I wanted. Spiritwalk is the sequel to one of de Lint’s earliest novels, Moonheart (1984) (which is also quite good). Both books take place in Ottawa, and are about the inhabitants of Tamson House. The house is built on a confluence of ley lines; it is quite large and the enclosed garden is larger than it has any right to be. Both the house and the garden form a sort of convergent zone of the supernatural and it is a convenient stepping off place for travels to (and from) other realms. As one can easily imagine, things can get a little squirrelly in such an environment, especially when most the inhabitants of the house don’t really believe in magic.I’ve have 45+ books by de Lint, and I’ve read about a third of them; I'd recommend all except the Samuel M. Key books to anyone who likes good fantasy and interesting characters.
What do You think about Spiritwalk (1993)?
I'm currently going through Spiritwalk and am less pleased with it than The Blue Girl. The action centers around Tamson House, a house introduced in another book Moonheart. It's a block house (literally, a house that occupies an entire city block) that's larger on the inside than it is on the outside (Tardis like), sitting on the convergence of many leylines and a portal into other realms. Wild and wacky things happen here, and characters who thought they understood the world find things tipped
—Larry Wentzel
A collection of previous released short stories related to characters from his 1984 novel Moonheart: A Romance, Charles de Lint's 1993 book Spiritwalk is pretty fantastic.Part of what I'm loving working my way through de Lint's fiction is how he ties everything together - this book is not only a sequel, but acknowledges it exists in the same world as both his Jack of Kinrowan character (Jack the Giant Killer, 1987, and Drink Down the Moon, 1990) and his own author character Caitlin Midhir (Yarrow, 1986), and although the shared-world and world-building devices he's used are really fun for readers of his fiction, they aren't even the best part.What's really great about the stories in Spiritwalk is how he can handle multiple characters through multiple storylines and yet continues to deal with the same themes while never losing their individual voices, from the gruff ex-biker Blue to the mythical Coyote, he creates this amazing world full of characters that breathe and yearn and desire.Although Spiritwalk may not be for the de Lint first timer (it is a sequel, after all), it was a delight to read and has me quite excited to continue my journey through his stories.
—Kirk Macleod
I started reading this, but struggled to get into it. The story should have been right up my street - a mysterious wood and house, legends of Merlin and Faeries all muddled together and lots of modern twists. However, I just couldn't get into it. This is the second in a series, but I don't think that was the problem - the author was careful to give backgrounds to the characters when it was needed, but subtly so as not to disrupt the flow of the storyline. I also liked the style - very lyrical and easy to read. But for me, it jumped around far too much. The chapters are very short, but may still contain more than one viewpoint. Characters were suddenly introduced, only for them to disappear again for pages at a time. I'm used to fantasy epics with huge casts, but I found it hard to keep up. A shame that I couldn't finish it, but there are far too many good books out there for me to read. I might well return to the series in the future and try it from the beginning
—Dark-Draco
