Moonheart

By: Charles de Lint

Narrated by: Richard Powers

Length: 19 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©1984 Charles de Lint (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"He shows that, far from being mere escapism, contemporary fantasy can be the deep mythic literature of our time." (Fantasy and Science Fiction)

Loved it!

Loved it just like the first time I read this so many years ago! will definatly read it again!

Beautiful, beautiful world

Ah, to tred the forested ways, the scents of grass and trees, of sunshine and summer flowers. To walk a world lost to time, overwhelming loss of beauty, in a world we humans destroyed, destroyed in our quest for riches, our souls tossed aside.

The loss is heartbreaking, and yet, if we listen closely enough, the sounds of flute and harp, of drum and the wind amongst the leaves may still live within the deepest places of the heart.

excellent book

I have read many of Charles de Lint's books, including Moonheart. This is the first time I have listened to one in audio format. I found the narrator has really told the story very well and crosses back and forth between characters with amazing clarity, for a book with so many characters. This audio book is of excellent sound quality and a great story by a great author.

Enjoyed

I have read several Charles de Lint and always enjoy his books. This book was good and was well read.

Liked It, some other DeLint has been better

The story focuses around a woman named Sarah and the people in her life she has surrounded herself with, including a strange character - The Tamsind House. The Tamsind House (may be misspelled) is where she lives with her uncle and an assortment of characters who have found themselves there. It is communal and any traveler is welcome. The house is magical and seems to provide what you need, whether you have consciously asked for it or not, and it is ever changing.

Sarah works at a antique store that her family owns despite a lack of need. She is wealthy. Through her work she find some items, "treasures in the rough," that seem to not make sense how they got there and have magical qualities. These items transport her and her self made family into an alternative universe where native american and celtic magics exist. Sarah's family, some wizards who follow "The Way," and a government agency are all trying to find an individual, magic, and items that will determine if good prevails over evil.

This is fantasy and coming of age combined. It definitely has a 70's feel to it with communal living and government investigation of the paranormal. It deals with the effects of the entrance of caucasion peoples on Native American land and cultures in DeLint's alternate universe.

I love DeLint. I have really enjoyed The Onion Girl and Widdershins. This book did not feel as strong as some others of his. The characters were not as developed, however, I feel you can still attach to them. There, however, is a lot going on and at times it felt certain story lines were not as flushed out as they could have been. They felt briefly touched on. When I finished I was left wanting.

Regarding the narration, I found myself missing Kate Reading, the narrator who has done several other DeLint books. It's not that Paul Michael Garcia is bad, but I felt his interpretation of the characters did not help DeLint's less than perfect character development.

The concept of the book is interesting and I liked it, but I don't think I would listen to it a second time.

I was staring into space most of the time

Hard to listen to, the narrator is good but the story is all over the place. one thing that annoyed me was the obsessive need to describe what brand of cigarettes was being smoked and need to over describe everything and I do mean everything 40 words when no more than 5 would suffice. However I do like deLint's general writings especially the Crow girls stores.

Really Enjoyed It

I was really captivated by this book. I absolutely love the twist on Welsh mythology and giving mythological characters a new life. I also love how relatable every character is, they all have strengths as well as flaws. Although I did find it really obvious which characters he was going to kill off, it was always the ones you weren't very attached to. I also loved the crossover between Welsh and Native American with a time travel twist, really interesting.

Another case of a book being longer than its story

A good blending of legend and horror, unfortunately made too long and a bit muddled by mostly unnecessary side-stories and sections where the main story dragged.

I'd really give this a 3.5.

I read Moonheart over 20 years ago and loved it. Listening to it now just gave me an "I like it OK." reaction. My normal reduction in pleasure when I do a second read or listen is about 10%, but this time the reduction was more like 30%. I can't pinpoint why.

There is a negative, for me, that I failed to notice when I read the book way back so many moons ago. This website states: "Charles de Lint and his wife, MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with their little dog Johnny Cash." I'm going to correct this to: "Charles de Lint and his wife, MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where they smoke cigarettes."

The cigarette snips were well written, so I might have liked it if the wording had been changed a bit so that the activity described was focused around preparing and drinking coffee, I have never been a smoker, and hearing about cigarettes two to four times during every commute to work irked me a bit.

Favorite book, fantastic story

I have read this book several times, the first Charles de Lint book I ever read and my favorite. I am so glad to have the audible version now. Wow, what a fantastic story. The performance was wonderful, so easy to identify the character based on the voice - amazing talent!!