Book Review: The Harp Of The Grey Rose

This is another one of those books that I've looked at for several years, tried to start more than once and always ended up putting down for one reason or another. After several people, who don't know each other and have no way of ever meeting, tell you that you should check out an author, you will probably do it, right? Well, Charles de Lint is that author for me. I like fantasy novels usually, and I sometimes enjoy lush characterizations with richly inventive worlds, but there is just something about the first 30 pages of this novel that put me off. Every. Single. Time.

Well, this time I stuck it out. And by that I mean, I was bored at work and this was the only book I had with me to pass the time. I made it past the first 30 pages and let me tell you that they are the only draggy part of this novel. The introduction of this novel has nothing on the rest of the book. This book was good. It felt a little Lord of the Rings-y at times to me, but the action flowed without seeming too forced. If anything, I thought some of the things happened a little too fast and too close together. It is a short book and with the amount of stuff that happens to the characters, it could have easily been another hundred pages if the descriptions and characterizations were fleshed out a little more. But they shouldn't be. It would just be an easy thing to do, that is all.

This was my first foray into the world of Charles de Lint, and I'm not sure if I want to go back there anytime soon. Oh, I will go back eventually, but I don't think I could handle it right now. He's very lush in his word choices. He feels like the fantasy version of Anne Rice sometimes, with less actual words, whereas Anne Rice is verbose to me. Florid is another word I use to describe her at times.

Which is actually where I am now, still attempting to read through the thousand page historical tome that is The Witching Hour. This book is neverending. I think after this I won't be reading any fantasy for quite some time.

Unless I revisit the world of Harry Potter. Now that's something I could stand to do again.