Spirits in the Wires (Hardcover)

~ Charles de Lint (Author) "I feel as if I should know you," Saskia Madding says as she approaches my chair..." (more)
Key Phrases: consensual world, gateway spirit, black goop, Mother Crone, Jackson Hart, Mistress Holly (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Canadian author De Lint follows up 2001's triumphant The Onion Girl with another fine novel dually based in the fictitious city of Newford and a magical otherworld, where spirits of faerie and folklore occupy modern technology and cyberspace is a fantasy realm in which imagination fuels artificial intelligence. When a virus crashes Wordwood, a Web site existing in an "impossible limbo in between computers," a lot of people disappear, including Saskia Madding, girlfriend of perennial Newfordian character Christy Riddell. Saskia literally sprang full-grown from a computer and was already suffering an identity crisis when sucked into oblivion. She escapes by taking up residence in the same body as Christiana Tree. The heroic Christiana, Christy's "shadow," must restore Saskia to her own body, sort out what happened to Wordwood, and figure out what can be done to save it and the rest of the spirit world from chaos. Meanwhile, Christy and a band of companions leave consensual reality and enter the Internet spirit world, seeking to save Wordwood and those who have gone missing. De Lint makes the binary tangible and handles his concept of technological voodoo with intelligence, verve and wit while introducing fascinating new characters and expanding on old ones. Not surprisingly, everyone eventually discovers that it doesn't matter where we come from but who we are that counts-but their journeys to that conclusion will please previous fans and find new ones for this master of the modern fantastic.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

With great enthusiasm, de Lint spins another tale of Newford, a twenty-first-century city that has access--sometimes very disturbing access--to what lies beyond the lands we know. The story is told by several narrators, including Saskia, who isn't sure where she came from but thinks she was born in a Web site, and Christiana Tree. Those two are linked to writer and Newport resident Christy Riddell, who has appeared in previous Newford books. Indeed, Christiana is Christy's shadow self, made up of personality traits he discarded at age seven. A strange crash occurs on the popular research site Wordwood, and everyone visiting the site at that moment disappears from in front of their screens. Christy and his comrades must then enter Newford's otherworld, in which Wordwood is physical, to rescue their friends and defeat the culpable virus. De Lint explores the notion that erstwhile spirits of forests and fields now inhabit the cables and other links of modern technology without slighting his customary superb characterization and plot development skills. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1St Edition edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312873980
• ISBN-13: 978-0312873981
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #972,155 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This One Just Didn't Grab Me, October 25, 2003

By	wysewomon "wysewomon" (Paonia, CO United States) - See all my reviews

In his latest novel featuring an ensemble cast of Newford-ites, Charles DeLint attempts to explore the idea that Cyberspace is the modern equivalent of the Hollow Hills -- an otherworld that can be physically accessed -- and that some of the older denizens of the spirit world may have already become interested in this psychic real estate. Or, at least, that's what he says he's doing in his introduction.

When a virus disrupts the Wordwood site and a whole lot of people disappear into virtual reality, a disparate group of magic users and mundanes must use whatever means they can come up with to go to the rescue. Christy Riddell is one of the central characters, as his partner Saskia is one of the ones who has disappeared. We also get to see Holly Rue, Robert Lonnie, Geordie and a supporting cast of Newford's literary citizens (as opposed to Newford's painting citizens) as well as the usual faeries, sprites and elemental spirits.

And that's what kind of bothered me about this book. We had the usual suspects doing the usual things in pretty much the usual way; only the setting was somewhat altered, and that not by much. I think the question of spirits in cyberspace, so much a part of a lot of cyberpunk fiction, is a really interesting one. But I didn't find it addressed here in any interesting way. Rather, the idea seemed taken for granted and from there the novel read like a Michael Crichton action piece, with lots of fireworks and explosions, told from so many points of view that it was hard to care about any of them.

I'm also disappointed that DeLint's books seem to have lost the edginess that grabbed me in many of his earlier works. There aren't any great villains here, so the conflict is a little pale. There isn't any real sense of danger. Although the characters constantly must remember that "The otherworld is dangerous place," we don't see any real danger. Nothing really bad happens to anyone. It's all a walk in the park and the ending no surprise. We're told anything can happen, but it rings false. In reality "anything" CAN'T happen, because the heroes always come through safe and sound with very few scars. Call me bloodthirsty, but I think at this point DeLint's work could benefit from killing someone dead -- someone major.

This is another book that will probably be lost on anyone who hasn't read several of DeLint's short story collections. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone new to this writer or this genre. Although it's always interesting to see what's going on in Newford with these characters, I considered this one of their less thrilling adventures. Get it out of the library or wait for paper.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magic on the Internet, September 18, 2003

By	Craig Clarke (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I don't generally read fantasy, as most of it tends to fall under the "sword and sorcery" style that does nothing for me. Then I read a few stories Charles de Lint wrote in Tapping the Dream Tree. Two of them in particular struck a chord with me. "Pixel Pixies" and "Embracing the Mystery" both concern magic and computers. This was the kind of "urban fantasy" I was looking for. Not Emma Bull's War for the Oaks that spends half its time in Fairy Land, but de Lint's vision that brings the magic into the modern world, even to the internet.

When I could tell that de Lint's new novel Spirits in the Wires was going to build on these two stories, I got excited. Was I finally going to get to immerse myself in a fantasy world that I could enjoy?

Spirits in the Wires concerns a Web site called the Wordwood, which is like a search engine but you can ask it any question and it will answer you in a style familiar to you, such as a beloved family member. It also concerns two of the women in the life of writer Christy Riddell: his girlfriend Saskia Madding, who believes she was born from the Wordwood; and his "shadow self," whom he calls "Mystery" but who has given herself the name Christiana Tree (Miss Tree=Mystery). Christiana is made up of aspects of Christy that he threw off himself when he was seven years old, but she has made herself over the years into her own person.

When a man spurned by Saskia wants revenge, he has a virus sent into the Wordwood, which causes everyone logged on to the site at that moment to disappear--including Saskia, who disappears right in front of Christy, who is helpless to do anything about it. This leads to a pursuit of those disappeared, a trip into the website, and teamwork from people who variously love and hate each other.

Once I got past de Lint's strange naming convention ("Christy" for a man, "Aaran" with no "o," in addition to just an uncommon selection of names in general), I realized that this made it easier to keep characters separated, as opposed to some writers who don't take that into consideration and have characters named Fred and Frank (or Jo and Joy) in the same book. Probably the most interesting aspect of the book is that the characters carry over from other books. I met most of the people in Spirits in the Wires somewhere in Tapping the Dream Tree. So, it's like a series book where you already know the characters and can just get on with the story. But on the other hand, some of the characters I didn't know were introduced fully with the plot so I didn't feel left out. I feel sure that a newcomer could pick up Spirits in the Wires and not feel lost.

De Lint has quite a story here to tell and writes with apparent ease. He is familiar with the technology (one aspect of the book that could have been done badly) enough to give enough information to understand the plot, but not bog his audience (already tech-savvy, to judge by his vast internet following) down with unnecessary details. But the details of the land inside the Wordwood are perfection. The idea that a fantasy land could, at its core, be run by a computer program is ingenious and I was swept up in the plot and the characters' relationships with each other in spite of myself. I couldn't wait to get back to the book after having to handle my daily responsibilities.

The ending was a little talky and took a while to wrap everything up, but in general, this is a solid novel that I enjoyed a lot. I don't believe that de Lint's other books are this well geared toward me but, hopefully, wanting to revisit these characters will carry me through any stories that aren't quite my cup of chai.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh, charles, I thought I knew you. . . ., June 15, 2006

By	J. Saltsman "Optimistic Pragmat" (Spain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Spirits in the Wires (Newford) (Paperback)

So, this almost-latest addition to the deLint collection is daring. . .but somewhat disappointing. It seems the accumulation of invisible knowledge throughout the internet has become an increasingly popular sifi/fantasy topic, but not one I can say I appreciate. It comes across as contrived. Rather than dealing with the issues that plague man or the possibility of things from the corner of your eye, they give a meaning to the internet that just isn't there. The internet is far too cold to be a place of wonder, it's like trying to convince me that the metal shelves in my freezer are filled with personality.

In his defense, Charles deLint was capable of cleverly weaving this internet magic in with his already existing otherworld, and by the end of the book this alternate existence was acceptable, but only because he stopped referring to any detailed connection to the lifeless and cold that I feel from the internet.

For review, the entrance to this novel begs a leap of faith and trust in the author, but by the last quarter of the book, you're riding familiarly in the pleasing territory that only Charles deLint can create. Incidentally, you also get a very healthy and exciting dose of the life of Robert, the blues man who sold is soul to the devil along with an interesting array of new newford characters and a seamless continuation of Newford life. For these, it's still a 4, but please avoid the bandwagon internet, chuck, and stick with your own innovation.