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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780312875688
ISBN number: 0312875681
Label: Tor Books
Manufacturer: Tor Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: August 11, 2001
Publishing house: Tor Books
Sale Popularity Level: 350885
Studio: Tor Books
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Product Description:
In the Old Country, they called them the Gentry: ancient spirits of the land, magical, amoral, and dangerous. When the Irish emigrated to North America, some of the Gentry followed only to find that the New World already had spirits of its own, the manitou. Now generations have passed, but the Gentry still wander homeless on the city streets. Gathering in the shadows, they bide their time and dream of power. As their dreams grow harder, darker, fiercer, so do the Gentry themselvesappearing, to those with the sight to see them, as hard and dangerous men, invariably dressed in black. Bettina can see them. Part Indian, part Mexican, she was raised to understand the spirit world. Now she lives in wintry Kellygnow, an artists colony a world away from the Southwestern desert of her youth. Outside her nighttime window, she often spies the dark men, squatting in the snow, smoking, brooding, waiting. She calls them los lobos, the wolves, and stays clear of themuntil the night one follows her to the woods, and takes her hand Once again, Charles de Lint weaves the mythic traditions of many cultures into a seamless cloth, bringing folklore, music, and unforgettable characters to life on modern city streets.
Amazon.com Review:
Forests of the Heart is an enthralling voyage into the seamier side of urban magic. Returning to the familiar environs of Newford, where he sets so many of his modern myths, Charles de Lint introduces some of his most memorable characters yet.
The Gentry are ancient spirits of the land, sired in rape and born of woman in the Old Country. When the Irish immigrated to the New World, some of the Gentry came along. Generations later, having no real ties to their new home, they dream dark dreams of wresting the land surrounding Newford from the native manitou spirits. The Gentry's scheming and plotting draw some of the inhabitants of Newford into a dark and desperate fight against them and a primeval spirit, old as the earth itself but slumbering in la epoca del mito, the myth time.
Bettina, a curandera--or healer--is part Mexican and part Indian. She has recently moved to Newford from the deserts of the Southwest for reasons she can't understand. She lives in Kellygnow, an art colony perched on a hill overlooking Newford. Earning her keep as a model for the various artists who live and work there, she tries to apply her desert-learned skills and knowledge in the cold, forested surroundings.
Bettina's fellow Kellygnowians include Nuala, who seems slightly more spiritual than the average housekeeper; Ellie, a sculptor with a very special commission; and the Recluse, a mysterious figure who winters at Kellygnow in one of the outlying private cottages. Donal, an Irish-born malcontent who dreams of better times, joins them, along with Miki, his musician sister, and Tommy, a Native American accompanied by a few of his apparently innumerable aunts. The looming battle against a seemingly invincible foe draws them together and forces them to depend not only upon their skills and powers, but also on hope, trust, and love.
Blending aspects of different cultural legends and myths with his keen insight into human nature, Charles de Lint offers a truly incredible and compelling tale. His specialty is an intoxicating mix of real and fantasy worlds, and Forests of the Heart delivers a delicious punch. With his deft touch and sensitive style, de Lint's mastery of the urban fantasy tale and his ability as a great storyteller remain unchallenged. --Robert Gately
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Rated by buyers 
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I have been reading Charles De Lint for a long time and have quite a collection.This man can WRITE! His imagination and way with words is beyond anyone elses as far as I am concerned. Each book grabs you by the throat and carries you through to the end. You just don't want to put it down. He makes all this stuff believeable. Maybe it IS true?
Rated by buyers 
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Although an avid fantasy and science fiction fan, this is the very first De Lint book I have read, and will probably be the last I will read. The book takes place in the city of Newford, an imaginary city that is a frequent setting for De Lint stories, and draws on a pool of characters some of whom I understand to be recurring in other novels. Drawing on folklore elements from different cultures, and switching frequently between primary characters, the book tells the story of a diverse group of young people caught up in a conflict between Gaelic spirits that seek to displace North American spirits.
The book had problems of every sort:
* Wooden dialogue, and just plain bad dialogue. Apparently bilingual people think everything twice, once in one language and then again in the other language. This gets very tired, very fast. Ce peut te faire fatigue, tres rapidement.
* Cliches. "And, Ellie? . . . Be careful."
* Unconvincing characters. This is essentially a plot driven book, so we don't look for great character depth, but even still . . .
* A profound lack of subtlety. How many dozens of times must various characters remark upon "Aunt Nancy's" giant spider shadow? Did the author think we didn't get it the very first time? Did the author think he was the only one who had ever read West African fables? If he was the only one who had heard of Anansi, what is the point of having this exclaimed upon dozens of times? What would it mean to us?
* Great reliance on ad hockery and deus ex machina. Given that this is a plot-driven book, the plot needs to be tight, engaging and convincing. But the author violates one of the cardinal rules of fantasy writing, which is to set up a framework of operation for the story and then take it seriously and abide by it. You can't have a story about wizards in which Superman suddenly appears. Here, however, a new and important fact about the central conflict is invented every 30 seconds -- didn't I tell you that we could transform the monster by putting a mask on it? Even the characters seem a little surprised and unable to explain the internal logic. It reads as if it were a bed time story for a small child made up over the course of several months.
I understand De Lint has a large fan base. I must believe he has written something better than this to deserve it.
Rated by buyers 
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As I read, my main feeling was de Lint was either talking down to me or wasting my time telling me things I already knew. Either way, I couldn't wait to get past him and into the characters, the story ... but he wouldn't let me. Even so, getting to know a few of the characters more than made up for the frustrations of his technique.
If you haven't read any others of de Lint, especially the ones centering on "Newford," don't start here. Read Trader or his anthology Tapping the Dream Tree very first to get your feet wet, get used to characters which'll pop up in later novels with gossipy, small-town regularity. (Newford's a little like the spirit of Vancouver transplanted into eastern Canada.)
I'd recommend Forests of the Heart most highly for the sole reason of getting to know the character Bettina San Miguel -- she's my sole reason for the stars. Full of spirit (and spirits), a heady mix of Spanish, English, Indigena culture roiling around in her like a pack of dogs (you'll see what I mean) and a tongue sharp as a beak. What a heart, and like a lot of us what she lacks in courage she makes up for in determination (one of the lessons in the novel). She reminds me of one of those people you're gonna love and probably misunderstand a lot as she gets older, she's brimming with mystery. Her story alone is definitely worth the effort of the rest of the novel.
It's really an OK book, a lot better toward the end when less slowed down by pedantic asides and over-explanation. But even then, it was manipulative -- the trick of cliff-hanging the audience to heighten tension. Earlier, it was hard for me to get engaged in reading. It felt like watching one of those horror movies where stupid people get on your nerves doing obviously stupid things. The plot's obvious, so you need to *like* the characters. Yet some of the characters are incredibly dense, stubborn, and I thought far too stupid to be who they otherwise are in the mileu of this novel. Let alone deserve to *be* in a novel. I'd sigh, "Who cares?" Sure, they're characters ... but they'd not become people. They seemed tacked onto the novel, devices, as if the author had designed the book via an outline, thinking if it was complicated enough, if they were, it would show "depth of charater." Paradoxically, this is a work of the mind trying to show the heart.
Every character had moments, which drastically slowed down the story's pace, where they seemed to be given "flaws" (complexity) of character to make them "more human" ... but all it did was show the messy hand of the author. Sometimes it seemed de Lint would drag a character on stage just in order to have an excuse to explain some plot line. The author did a lot more telling than showing in this novel.
There's one good philosophic point he makes, though -- the crucial distinction between power and luck, and why to chose one over the other, how that makes a difference. And I liked how all the characters needed heart healing of some sort, and how that dove-tailed them together.
But it was weary (and faintly embarrassing) to wade through tedium: the author seemed to feel the need to keep having some character or other step up to elaborate. Maybe de Lint's gotten gun-shy about readers who've just "fallen off the turnip truck." Maybe he got hit with loads of "fans" asking him dumb questions at fan-coms. But I wish he'd give his readers more credit. Sometimes the authorial voice was fairly preening, pedantic, and showing off -- trivia, arch ironic wit, "insider's wisdom," all sorts of wink-wink-nudge-nudge stuff. Please. He threw everything into this one.
I sense there's a rabid fan base he writes these stories for. I wish he respected them for their knowledge more. But I couldn't shake the feeling of looking in on a clique, an in-crowd, faintly incestuous for all its mish-mashing of world myths. (And, boy, what mish-mashing!) Perhaps de Lint is their only window on the larger world of the imagination, but I think that's just his conceit.
For all that, though, the injection of the American Southwest is a welcome zest in the Newford series. And Bettina, her lobo, the cadejos, as well as the Creek sisters -- he made them live. They are the stuff good stories are made of. Memories, too.
Rated by buyers -
This was my very first delint book, and my very first fantasy book in a long time. I loved his style and how seamlessly everyday events flowed into spectaular and impossible. I can not wait to get into more of his work!
Rated by buyers -
DeLint is quickly becoming my favorite author, or at least sharing the title with Neil Gaiman.
FotH is the 3rd De Lint book I've read in the inviting city of Newford, and the familiarity with the city is a huge part of my enjoyment reading these. The place is starting to really feel like home, becoming someplace I can see when I read about it.
Of course, the inhabitants, human and otherwise, are the main draw though. De Lint has a magic touch for reaching out and putting a very real soul, very real pain and very real love into every character he explores, from the main protagonists to the smallest side character.
Forests of the Heart again deals with a beautiful blend of the old world faerie stories and native America mysticism, and the two worlds, even in their clashing that this book centers on, fit together like a perfect puzzle.
I try to save 5 star ratings for the absolutely best books, like De Lint's own Memory & Dream, but this is damn close. If you believe there are other things in the world with us, that most people don't see all there is to see and that reality is much deeper than the world at large accepts, read this book. Read as much De Lint as you can get your hands on.
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