Subject: Into the Green by Charles de Lint

From: [email-masked] (Alayne McGregor)
Date: 12 Feb 94 03:36:53 GMT

INTO THE GREEN by Charles de Lint
                reviewed by Alayne McGregor

     Angharad has the triple gift: tinker, harper, and
witch. But that gift is at best mixed, in a society where
witches are persecuted and hunted down for their powers.

     She survives by staying out of the major cities, where
the persecution is the worst. But now she can no longer do
that, because she is the only one who can fight the threat
of an ancient device, which would remove the Green magic
from the world.

     Alone, she journeys to the city of Cathal. With witch-
finders and thieves following all too closely, and with
uncertain allies, she tries to find the device and save the
magical heritage of the Summerblood.

     Angharad is no Amazon heroine, nor a sorceress tossing
off spells. de Lint has produced a refreshing variant on the
quest novel with a heroine who can't slip silently into a
city, who makes mistakes, but who still uses her
intelligence, skills, and compassion as best she can.

     It's an engrossing novel, with an ending not easily
guessed, and written with de Lint's typical care and feel
for language. If I have any criticism, it is that it
sometimes seems too distanced, and that it's difficult to feel
the tragedies along with the characters. Nevertheless, this
is a well-done fantasy, better than 90 per cent of what's on
the F&SF shelves.

%T      Into The Green
%A      Charles de Lint
%C      New York
%D      November 1993
%I      Tor
%O      hardback, CDN$27.95
%G      ISBN 0-312-85672-5
%P      254pp