Yarrow by Charles de Lint

Yarrow by Charles de Lint

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this enjoyable work of speculative fiction, Cat Midhir has a foot in two worlds. In ours, she's an award-winning author of fantasy novels. But in her dreams she visits The Otherworld, which is the source of her best story ideas. When the dreams stop coming, Cat becomes untethered and strange things happen.

Set in Ottawa, Yarrow is a fine feat of imagination by de Lint. My only mild complaint is that he introduces so many characters in the first 20% of the book that I had to make a list of them to keep their relationships straight. But I have this problem regularly with other authors, so let's not blame de Lint for my own failings (which are no doubt due to my advancing age and my habit of reading late at night and falling asleep in the process). His characters are well drawn - interesting and very human. Fans of this genre will appreciate the name-checks he dishes out to other fantasy authors, including Ursula LeGuin, Jack Vance, Patricia McKillip and Christopher Stasheff. He even makes his heroine a winner of the World Fantasy Award, just like de Lint himself.

Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman

Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novel has all the merits of Bouman's "The Bramble and the Rose" (Henry Farrell, #3). Farrell is a police officer -- in fact, the only police officer in his rural Pennsylvania town. Among other things, I like the way Farrell solves problems and resolves conflicts without shooting, beating, kicking or humiliating the backwoods ruffians and corrupt rich men that cross his path with alarming regularity.



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