A Red Heart of Memories - Hardcover

Hoffman, Nina Kiriki

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0441006515 ISBN 13: 9780441006519

Publisher: Ace, 1999

Synopsis

Two lonely people with extraordinary powers--Edmund Reynolds, a wandering witch who helps those in need, and Matilda Black, an empathic "witness" to the inner dreams of people--embark on a journey into the imagination together, exploring the darkest secrets of the past.

About this title

About the Author

Nina Kiriki Hoffman won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel for The Thread That Binds the Bones, and her second novel The Silent Strength of Stones was a finalist for both the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. Most of her work has been shorter length fiction, collected in the small press volumes A Legacy of Fire and Courting Disasters and Other Strange Affinities. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with four cats and a mannequin.

Reviews

It's a pleasure to see a new adult novel from Hoffman, even a lesser work like this one. Her debut novel, The Thread that Binds, won a Stoker for best first novel, but of late she has been writing for R.L. Stine's Ghosts of Fear Street series. This is an innocuous tale of three nomads who become friends and confront the problems in their past. Matt Black is not a witch, but she does have two special powers: "dream-eyes," which allow her to see others' mental landscapes, and the ability to communicate with inanimate objects. After years of wandering alone, Matt is surprised to meet another "special" person: Edmund, a witch who has been "blowing from here to there," using "spirit" to "help things fix themselves." The two quickly become companions and decide to retrace Edmund's life to find out why he is so alone. They visit his childhood friends, including Susan, who becomes part of the group. It turns out that the three all suffer from the effects of traumatic experiences: incest led to self-abusive "zoned" years for Matt; Susan has avoided friendship ever since she fled her controlling father; Edmund's self literally fragmented after he destroyed a man while protecting himself. Hoffman handles the interconnected solutions to the trio's problems with skill, as each solution leads subtly to greater understanding and compassion. At times, however, the characters' long talks skirt perilously close to pop psychology masquerading as wisdom: "He did the only thing he could, because that's what happened. The only place we can change anything is right now." Hoffman's "comfort magic" is even less successfulAEdmund's vague "spirit" and "gold" powers are ill defined, little more than ornaments in a quiet tale of three injured souls helping each other toward happiness. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Abused teenaged runaway Matilda ``Matt'' Black survived precariously on the streets until she came to terms with the magical abilities that allow her to talk to inanimate objects shaped by humansand to open ``dream eyes'' to read people's hopes and desires. On a cold winter's day she meets Edmund, a witch who's spent several months merged with a crumbling wall, and goes with him to visit his childhood friend Nathan, the ghost of a 14-year-old who committed suicide. During the visit, Edmund hazily recalls a past traumaof which Matt's dream eyes see only blazing fireconnected with another friend, Susan, who also used to visit Nathan. Since then, Edmund has grown no older. The experience, however, involved Susan's father, a violent control freak who murdered Susan's mother. So they resolve to go find Susan. At a stopover to visit Edmund's sister Abby, Matt finds the house clogged with an unruly magic gold substance that Abby summons but doesn't know how to shape. Matt talks to Gold and tells it not to hurt people, while Abby learns how to mold it into anything she desires. Matt acquires bracelets of gold magic. Moving on, Edmund and Matt find that Susan's now a high-flying executive and has blotted out the past. Can she be persuaded to help Edmund remember the events concealed by the flames? A shame that Hoffman's first hardcover, with its slasher/ripper connotations, gives entirely the wrong impression: she reworks a rather familiar outline with fresh, remarkable ideas and considerable flair. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A meeting between Matt Black, a woman with the power to communicate with objects, and Edmund, a young man gifted with spirit magic, evolves into a journey into Edmund's past to heal his broken selves. The latest novel by the author of The Thread That Binds the Bones depicts a pair of charmed (and charming) individuals whose unique talents lie not only in their magical skills but in their compassion and resourcefulness. Fans of Charles de Lint's modern-world fantasies should appreciate Hoffman's graceful storytelling and down-to-earth magic. For most fantasy collections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ace
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0441006515
• ISBN 13: 9780441006519
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 329