Past the Size of Dreaming [Hardcover]

Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2001

The continuing story of wandering witch Matilda (Matt) Black and Edmund Reynolds, a young man with magic of his own, finds the pair in the town where Edmund grew up-and the benevolently haunted house that was a refuge for Edmund and his friends when they were children. But the house begins to speak to Matt, telling her that she and Edmund must seek out his long-scattered friends. As they search, they find that some have grown up to be ordinary, untouched by any hint of magic. Others, though, have been transformed in ways that defy imagination.

Now, they must all come together again. For a darkness is rising, a dangerous, powerful entity. And the only chance of stopping it lies in the hearts of the lost children of the house...

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Algis Budrys said it best: "Most writers show and tell. Nina Hoffman sings." Past the Size of Dreaming is the wonderfully inventive continuation of A Red Heart of Memories. Readers rejoin the wandering witches Matt (Matilda) Black and Edmund Reynolds as they revisit and heal the painful past. For those who've not yet read the first book, Hoffman reintroduces them with "Matt Black smiled. She had found Edmund three months earlier in a pioneer graveyard, and she had stayed with him ever since." Matt "spent most of her time talking with things instead of people" because "anything shaped by humankind might have a story to tell her." Edmund and Matt have found two of Edmund's childhood friends, Nathan the ghost and Suki (Susan), the girl Edmund rescued from an abusive father. They seek the others, Julio, Deirdre, and the twins, Terry and Tasha. To defeat the demon-controlling master wizard who once abducted Julio and is still controlling Galen, his apprentice, they must pool their magical resources. --Nona Vero

From Publishers Weekly

The New Age-y na?vet? of the plot and characters, as much as the easy and inexplicable magic, reduce Hoffman's latest to a read for the initiated only. The sexless witch Matilda "Mattie" Black and her magically gifted companion, Edmund Reynolds, who wandered through the Stoker Award-winning A Red Heart of Memories (1999), are now reunited with friends from the past, all squatters in a benignly haunted house. They speak to inanimate objectsAgarbage cans, automobiles, earth, air, even the house itself. They cast spells and envelope people and objects in nonburning flames. One of the group, Julio, was abducted as a child by a sinister magician; when he escaped, he carried a second personality, which named itself "Tabasco," for a bottle on a table. Now, however, Julio has been transformed into a woman called Lia. Another presence, Nathan, hanged himself in the house years before, but lives on. Hoffman has received praise for vivid fantasy, but here this amounts to a fuzzy concern with spiritual union with all the universe, wrapped in prose disconcertingly given to exclamations such as "Yow!" and "Wow!" (Feb. 6) Forecast: Hoffman has her fans, but she's not going to gain many more with this piece of work.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; 1st edition (March 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044100802X
• ISBN-13: 978-0441008025
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,297,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Sequel, March 10, 2001

By 

Julia Liberman (Lexington, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Past the Size of Dreaming (Hardcover)

I loved this book. I'd been looking forward to it for a long time and it lived up to my expectations. Filled with transformations and strange magic, Past the Size of Dreaming continues the story begun in A Red Heart of Memories. Having found Edmond's friend Suki and settled (temporarily) in the magical, sentient house which served as the safe haven for Edmond and his friends during their adolecent years, Edmond and Matt attempt to locate Julio and Deirdre. Matt learns of the events that helped to drive the four friends apart fifteen years earlier through dreams which the magical house sends her. When Edmond tries to find Julio with magic he fails. Leaving Suki and her ghostly boyfriend Nathan (who is trapped in the house except on Holloweens and seances) to keep the house company, Matt and Edmond go in search of Deirdre, who is relatively easy to locate. A drive to the desert finds her ensconced as a small-town, small-animal vet. She is happy to see Edmond but reluctant to return with him to the house. Using their very different magics (Edmond can communicate with the natural world, whereas Matt can communicate with human-made objects) and some common sense, they end up finding everyone, including the twin witch sisters Tasha and Terry and the person Julio has become. Everyone has changed, some more than others. As the friends get to know each other anew, an old enemy begins to move against them. I don't want to give away what happens next, as this book is filled with many fantastic surpises. The writing is supurb and fans of Ms. Hoffmans earlier work will not be disappointed. Be prepaired for an engrossing, beautiful read.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Geat urban fantasy, February 15, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Past the Size of Dreaming (Hardcover)

Thanks to Matilda "Matt" Black, a witch with the ability to talk with inanimate objects and see into people's dreams, Edmond has regained his memory. Edmund, a passable witch, and Matt go back to House, a living entity, to see their old friend Nathan the ghost. Obtaining House's blessing, Edmund also brings his childhood friends there for a visit.

Most people on intimate terms with House have been transformed into beings with magical abilities that ultimately attract the attention of an evil sorcerer. He wants to bind this group to him. While the witches fight off the magical attack, Houses confesses that it purposely brought them together to defeat for reasons of its' own.

PAST THE SIZE OF DREAMING, the sequel to A RED HEART OF MEMORIES, is a beautiful story where evil tries to triumph over good. Nina Kiriki Hoffman is a wonderful storyteller who makes the written word sing. The characters, including House, drive the story as the motley crew wins the hearts of readers who will anxiously await the next installment in this fabulous series.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Filled with imagery and strong characters, July 3, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Past the Size of Dreaming (Hardcover)

When a house of witches is threatened by a greater power, the group must call in reinforcements from the past and form an even tighter band in order to survive. While familiarity with Hoffman's past titles on the theme will lend a quicker appreciation for the setting here, her fine story will engross even newcomers, filled with imagery and strong characters.