Review: THE MYSTERY OF GRACE by Charles de Lint

I've long been a fan of Charles de Lint's work, going back about twenty years, when I first read GREENMANTLE. He practically invented the genre of Urban Fantasy, blending myth and magic with contemporary settings and characters, and he does it well. Many of his stories and books are set in the fictional city of Newford, and it's a pleasure to revisit familiar places and characters, learning new things about them along the way.

In this, his latest offering, he takes us far away from Newford, to a fictional city in the Southwest. New characters and landscapes take us to a whole new place, and it's quite different from his recent stories.

It's difficult to talk about the story without giving away too much, because some pretty major things happen fairly early on in the book that would spoil it if you knew they were coming. The titular character, Grace, finds herself in a mysterious place, and her path is to figure out why she is there, and how she can get out. She crosses paths with various others who have also ended up there, and together some of them try to figure out the mystery.

There's some interesting world-building, and glimpses of the world of hotrod enthusiasts, Hispanic culture, and a different magical mythology from de Lint's usual offerings. There's a sense of melancholy that pervades his stories, and here it is even more pronounced. His love of the desert and of the Southwest shows in his writing, bringing to life a region that has long intrigued me as well. As much as I love Newford, it was nice to explore a different place with a favorite author.

Book review: HAND OF ISIS by Jo Graham

Jo Graham is working her way through the ancient world, retelling tales that we've all heard before in new and intriguing ways. Her first book, BLACK SHIPS, was the story of Aeneas and his people finding a new home after the sacking of Troy. Her latest book, HAND OF ISIS, tells the story of Cleopatra and the Romans Julius Caesar and Marc Antony.

It's a story that's been told many times, in literature and on film, but Graham manages to find the humanity in such a storied character, making her surprisingly sympathetic. Told in first-person point of view by her sister Charmian, we learn about Cleopatra's life from childhood to her death. What makes Graham's books so interesting are not necessarily the main, famous characters, but rather the supporting characters, and the detail about their lives. She brings ancient Alexandria to life for us, making it as much a character as the people who inhabit it. Seeing such famous characters, such as Julius Caesar, as human beings rather than the larger-than-life figures we are used to seeing, makes for fascinating reading as well.

Graham takes a few liberties with history, but as this is a work of fiction and not a reference book, good story is what matters, and this is a good story. What makes this different from most historical fiction is Graham's grasp of ancient religion, and the role of the gods in individuals' lives. This is really what makes it shine for me, and what I liked best about her previous book. I would recommend it to anyone interested in ancient Egyptian, Greek, or Roman religion, as well as ancient history buffs.

Her next book is about the aftermath of Alexander, and I look forward to reading it.