Someplace To Be Flying: A Review Liberally Sprinkled with Random Quotes
When we understand each other's stories, we understand everything a little better--even ourselves. (66)
Someplace To Be Flying by Charles de Lint was a mixed bag for me. I liked some of the characters quite a bit (particularly Jack, Katy, and Kerry), I liked the premise, and there are several passages where I particularly liked the writing and the ideas, but I just could not get into the plot and I had a hard time keeping track of who all the very, very many characters were. It took me more than twice as long as it should have to read the book because I just kept finding myself not caring about what happened. If you don't believe in magic, then it won't happen for you. If you don't believe that the world has a heart, then you won't hear it beating, you won't think it's alive and you won't consider what you're doing to it. . . . But just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it's not real. Sometimes it just sneaks up on you all the same. Like love. (492)
Really, I felt like this would be a better book if it were focused on fewer characters and on a more localized set of events. It works best when focused on individuals and family relations rather than on world-shaking cosmic events. I guess what it comes down to in the end . . . is that I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't try to look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anyone who needs a helping hand. I can't change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit. . . . I know there's crap out there, waiting to fall down on me. I know there are people looking to take advantage of me, who'd rob me blind and leave me to die in an alleyway. I just don't want to be like them. (530)
Someplace To Be Flying by Charles de Lint was a mixed bag for me. I liked some of the characters quite a bit (particularly Jack, Katy, and Kerry), I liked the premise, and there are several passages where I particularly liked the writing and the ideas, but I just could not get into the plot and I had a hard time keeping track of who all the very, very many characters were. It took me more than twice as long as it should have to read the book because I just kept finding myself not caring about what happened. If you don't believe in magic, then it won't happen for you. If you don't believe that the world has a heart, then you won't hear it beating, you won't think it's alive and you won't consider what you're doing to it. . . . But just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it's not real. Sometimes it just sneaks up on you all the same. Like love. (492)
Really, I felt like this would be a better book if it were focused on fewer characters and on a more localized set of events. It works best when focused on individuals and family relations rather than on world-shaking cosmic events. I guess what it comes down to in the end . . . is that I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't try to look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anyone who needs a helping hand. I can't change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit. . . . I know there's crap out there, waiting to fall down on me. I know there are people looking to take advantage of me, who'd rob me blind and leave me to die in an alleyway. I just don't want to be like them. (530)