draggonlaady

A wonderful, wonderful man in Pullcow (howdy, E!) introduced me years ago to the amazing worlds of Charles de Lint's imagination. It has been probably 3 years since I read anything by him, and I've been missing the eerie overlap of this world and that world that is the hallmark of de Lint's writing. So I picked up The Riddle of the Wren at a used book store recently. This is the first of his young adult that I've read (and I wasn't even aware he wrote young adult fiction until I nabbed this). It is also the first of his novels that I've read - prior experiences have been chains of short stories, many with recurring characters and/or shared worlds. Turns out this is the first novel he wrote, so kind of appropriate that it's the first I read, I guess. It is set in its own universe, a universe of many balanced worlds that can be traveled to and from if one has some magic and knows the secrets of the gates. The main character is a 17 year old girl from a backwater, magic-less world who is tossed headlong into the wider universe after an encounter with a malicious wizard. It was a very fun and satisfying read, and I recommend it, but ultimately wasn't what I was looking for - no fault of de Lint's writing or the story, but I was hoping for a return to the traces of wonder in this world sort of stories of Jenny Coppercorn and her lot. Any disappointment I found was for having expectations in blind disagreement to the description on the back of the book. So read it. And read anything else you can find of Charles de Lint's works, they are fabulous.