Spirits in the Wires

Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint

Spirits in the Wires is the story of the Wordwood, the literary internet site set up by Holly and others that has taken on a life of its own. Saskia Madding is an independent being, created by the Wordwood, and sent out into the World As We Know It, where she has fallen in love with Christy Riddle, and he with her. All of this is past history as we start Spirits in the Wires.

In Spirits in the Wires, Saskia meets up with Christiana Tree, Christy Riddle’s shadow, who is, although a resident of the Borderlands, a frequent visitor to the World As We Know It, and in sometimes contact with Christie.

Because the Wordwood has taken on a life of its own, and taken up residence in the Borderlands, its fall is a threat not just to those involved with the site, but to the Borderlands as well.

One of my favorite parts of Spirits in the Wires is the passage describing the healthy Wordwood.

“The grass and wildflowers are narrow phrases, swaying in the wind, punctuated with blossoms whose wordy petals radiate from clusters of vowels. The trees are thick paragraphs, dense with description, that lighten into shorter sentences and finally simply words as they follow the natural progression of trunk to branch to twig to leaf. Small verbs and nouns scamper along the branches, trilling sweet wordsongs, or soar by on wings of poetry.”

Woods and a library combined. What more could one want?

Although most of the characters exist in previous stories and books, this book should easily be able to stand on its own, for someone who knows nothing about Newford of any of its population, more so I think than The Onion Girl.

Now that I’ve read two de Lint’s in a short period of time, I desperately want to go back and reread the rest of his books, especially his short story collections. I want to go back and read the first story in which Jilly appears. I want to read about Mabon, Sophie Etiole’s domain. I want to read about the Borderlands and the Hob that lives in the bookstore.

I want Charles de Lint to write more books about Newford.

And soon.

Rating: 9/10

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