"Spirits" Review

by Kyla Cathey

In Charles De Lint's novels, magic still exists and walks the streets on the North American city of Newford. Magic springs from the pages of his newest, Spirits in the Wires, too; this masterpiece is a stunning follow-up to 2001's The Onion Girl.

Saskia Madding and Christiana Tree share uncertain origins - Saskia, the girlfriend of Newford writer Christy Riddell, sprang fully formed from a "voodoo" website called the Wordwood, and Christiana is the shadow Christy cast off when he was seven. When a hacker uses a virus to crash the Wordwood, Saskia is sucked into her computer and escapes oblivion by taking up residence in Christiana's head. The two start off to find the spirit that inhabits the Wordwood and return Saskia to her body. Meanwhile, Christy Riddell, the creators of the Wordwood, and the man responsible for its destruction go into the magical Otherworld to find Saskia and the hundreds of others who are mysteriously disappearing from in front of their computers.

The only real failure of this book is Aaran Goldstein, the villain turned hero. Aaran is, at first, a character who is easy to loathe, but when he picks up a street urchin (for purely selfish reasons) he begins to undergo a redemption of sorts. De Lint makes the reader first sympathize, then pity, then cheer for Aaran as he works his way from contemptible villains to hero - then ruins it by turning him back into his original sniveling self with no real cause. Though De Lint is usually a master of characterization, he falls flat with Aaran, despite his successful portrayals of the other characters.

De Lint is a modern master of the fantasy genre, seamlessly weaving our modern world and technology with a world of Native American gods, mythology, and characters from fairy tales. In Spirits in the Wires, despite its relatively insignificant shortcomings, he lives up to his previous works and creates a compelling story with fascinating characters, beautiful language, and the air of magic on every page.