Why is there no title here? Did I forget?

I just finished Charles de Lint's Mulengro. I liked, but then I like just about everything de Lint writes.

Mulengro is story about gypsies in Canada. There's a supernatural killer called Mulengro on the loose who targets them. He captures the mule of his victims--that's a sort of gypsy ghost not a donkey/horse hybrid--and uses them to kill. All in all, it's very creepy.

This novel features all the regular de Lint elements: an underdog hero (the gypsy Janfri Yayal), a writer or other artist (Ola & Jeff), Magic (Mulengro and the mule), and a talking cat (ok, that's not a standard de Lint Element, I just wanted to see if you're paying attention).

From reading this book, you can learn something about the Rom, that is the Gypsies. I would assume that de Lint actually did research to provide the bits of their culture peppered throughout the book, and this book interests me enough that I might do a little of that same sort of research. The bits of Gypsy folklore sound interesting, though I admit, I've always been interested in folklore.

The only real complaint I have about de Lint's stuff is that it's so damn hard to find and expensive. It seems like most of his more recent books aren't released in mass market paperbacks. Most of them seem to be small press type books that sell for a bundle. This one is at least from a major publisher and in paperback--probably because it's a reprint from 1985--though, it's one of those larger, more expensive paperbacks (it cost me $15).

Anyway, even though this book is darker than de Lint normal rare, it's still an excellent read. I give it 5 yo-yos.



I'm not exactly sure what I'll be reading next; I'm going to Borders later on today, so if I pick up anything really interesting I'll read that next. Otherwise, I'll probably read Trudi Canavan's The Last of the Wilds, unless I get the copy of Robert Jordan's The Knife of Dreams that I ordered from Zooba.