I am an avid fan of the work of Charles de lint, having read the Moonheart and Newford series, The Little Country and Into the Green. I read Greenmantle after reading de lints previous highly acclaimed works, but I found it hard to finish. It seemed as though de lint had two unfinished stories to start with: Valenti and his mob relations, and the mystery of Greenmantle and Mally, and simply combined the two together in an attempt to let each story carry the other along. It works, but not as well as it should have. Both stories contained enough conflict and subplotting within eachother, that I began to get the feeling if I read every other chapter, I'd be walking away with just as much as if I read it straight through. If Greenmantle put it's focus on _one_ of the two stories, it would have been, in my opinion, more enjoyable to read. Towards the end of the book, I felt no ties with any of the characters that I'd had with Izzy of Mem&Dream, or Sara and Pukwudji in Moonheart.(try as I might have with Mally, one of the most intriguing and enjoyable characters of GM, that deserved more of a story behind her) This is not to say I was completely disenchanted with Greenmantle. There were parts of the book I really liked, particularly the focus it put around the mythological Pan, and the final fight Ally makes for the Green Man. However, I don't regard this book as one of de lint's best. I think if you're a hard core de lint fan, then you'll probably cherish the spot on your bookshelf where it stands (if not hunt me down first for disagreeing), but personally I've read far better from him.

...well, this and Yarrow, really. While de Lint's Newford books are BY FAR his best, they are a little confusing to jump into headfirst. Greenmantle and Yarrow provide the reader with a great way to understand the modern master of urban fantasy. The characters are warm, vivid, and funny. The settings are lush, and eerily familiar at times (as though you really LIVE the tale).

The order that I would personally recommend reading de Lint books: Yarrow, Greenmantle, Memory and Dream, Dreams Underfoot, Trader (this one is a little hard to find, but it's totally worth it) , The Ivory and The Horn, Someplace to be Flying (my own favorite), Moonlight and Vines, Forests of the Heart, anf finally The Onion Girl (which is basically the all-star Newford book, so make sure you read the others first, or you won't know ANY of the characters). There are other books of his, that I have never been so enamored of; The Moonheart books, Svaha, The Little Country, etc.

If you are an aspiring writer, and are prepared to drop a few bucks, get Triskell Tales. It's a wonderful way to see the way a witer can develop in terms of style and story. Also, check out his new collaboration with Charles Vess, Seven Wild Sisters.

The Story: Frankie Treasure wins the Wintario lottery, packs up her daughter, Alice ("Ali"), and moves into the home where she grew up, after renovating it, even though her deceased father made her childhood there miserable. Unfortunately, Frankie's ex-husband, Earl, hears about Frankie's good fortune. Earl has developed into a first-class thug, with mob connections, and he decides that he can kidnap his daughter and get the lottery money from his ex-wife, which he can then use to finance a big-time drug deal. Meanwhile, Tony Valenti, a fratellanza (Mafia) hit-man, ends up on the wrong side of an internal power struggle in his Family, and goes into hiding, one block away from the old/new home of Frankie and Ali Treasure. What none of them knows is that, not far away, back in the woods, there is a hidden village of people who reject the modern world and modern religions, in favor of a worship of nature and the Horned God of the Forest.

Technical: This is one of de Lint's earlier novels, and it's the fastest-paced one that I've read so far. It still features the de Lint trademark of introducing a diverse cast of characters, rich with cultural elements, and bringing them together so that beliefs and cultures clash and mesh. There are a few more typographical errors than one expects in a novel of this caliber, but not enough to detract from the story.

First Commentary: Charles de Lint likes to study different cultures and introduce them into his stories. In "Greenmantle", we have the Mafia, we have Celtic nature-worshippers, and we have a Horned God who is a modern-day version of the Roman god Pan. The clash of cultures often highlights belief systems; in this story, concepts like honor, violence as a means, exploitation, and self-image get put in the spotlight. The book has good character development, a coherent, fast-paced story, and intriguing ideas.

Second Commentary: Some have commented that a story featuring a Mafia element is outdated. The story was written in 1984, I believe, which puts it before many of the Mafia movies made since then. That also puts it before the government did much to disable the Mafia in North America.

Warning: This is an R-rated book, with sexual scenes, profanity, and considerable violence (more than usual, of all three, for a de Lint book).