A Red Heart of Memories, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Ace Books, 1999
Matilda (Matt) Black spends her time traveling from place to place alone; she's never really alone because she has the ability to see other people's dreams and converse with inanimate objects like cars and trees. One day, she meets Edmund, a witch on a quest to help mankind, walking out of a wall (literally). He left his hometown rather abruptly, so Matt goes with him as he returns to take care of things.
They first visit a childhood friend named Nathan, who lives in an abandoned house. Actually, Nathan doesn't so much live there as haunt the place; he's a ghost. Later, they visit Abby, Edmund's sister, now married, and with a family. Abby is an artist who has always felt this "force" around her, but was never able to describe it or touch it. Matt is able to talk to it, and introduces it to Abby. Matt names it Gold; it is able to manifest itself as anything from a gold bracelet to a living, breathing person indistinguishable from a real human. Abby accepted Edmund's powers when they were younger, but she has a hard time with this.
Edmund feels compelled to make amends with Matt's father, a mean, sadistic type who has spent the past several years in a coma, courtesy of Edmund.
This is a better-than-first-rate piece of writing. It's an original work of genius, on the level of novels that come along only once every several years.
No comments:
Post a Comment