Past the Size of Dreaming (2001)

I like Nina Kiriki Hoffman's books, but the conflict never quite does it for me. I like that her characters are not all the good-guy vs. the all-consuming evil, but rather flawed and difficult people. I do wish the people were a little less prone to having revelatory psychological breakthroughs that solve all the problems set up in the book. People are a bit messier than that. All of that is too critical perhaps. She has a lovely way with words, and I've enjoyed everything she puts out there. ( )

"Urban" fantasy, I guess, though mostly rural. The magic systems were rather incoherent: demons, talking sidewalks, spirit guides, elemental magic, witches and old-fashioned cookbook magic. Oh, and the gold bands that were never really explained. The characters were well done, I guess, but I seemed to be missing context. Perhaps they appeared in Red Heart of Memories?It was the magic that bothered me, though. Anything could happen: at any point a character could pull out a new spell or ability, turn a house into a person or a dog, change sexes, fly, whatever the plot required. As a result none of it came to matter very much, there wasn't any wonder, any sense that the magic meant anything. I've seen the charge levelled against fantasy, that where anything can happen nothing matters (Elron?), but this was the first time I've seen it played out. I think it's more an effect of incoherency than fantasy-ness. I mean, in a mystery the author could reveal the conspirators at any time, or cripple them, or have them trip over a Plot Coupon; anything can happen that is within the scope of the book. It matters because the writer arranges things so it seems to matter, so things flow from who the characters are rather than how the author manipulates their circumstances, so if something unusual happens, it's significant and surprising, not just 'oh. The author described something unusual.'Fantasy works the same way, its just that the scope of the book is different. And this one was never clearly defined; no way to know what was within the scope of the book. I did keep reading, though. I liked the characters, especially Matt. ( )

Unfortunately for me this is book 2 for which I don't have book 1 so I'm sure there are things I'm missing in the story that would make more sense if I had read the first one. Still this story of a group of older teens who have met with magic and found themselves changed.

They now have to gather themselves together at the behest of the haunted house that sheltered them when they were children. There's a darkness rising that will need all their skills. They have to come to terms with what they can and can't do.

It's full of magic and interesting characters and I really enjoyed the read. ( )