Svaha

By Charles de Lint

Book Overview

Out beyond the Enclaves, in the desolation between the cities, an Indian flyer has been downed. A chip encoded with vital secrets is missing. Only Gahzee can venture forth to find it--walking the line... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812534093
• Release Date: November 1994
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 1.0" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Older de Lint work, standing the test of time.

Before they began reprinting "Svaha" I managed to find a first printing copy in a used book store - yay! This is one of his older publications, and I've found that some of de Lint's earlier works are a little more quirky, a little less formula than his newer ones. In many ways, that's quite desireable, and I find "Svaha" to be a great read.

A great book! Get it before it disappears again!

I really like de Lint's urban fantasy for its grittiness and despair which exists alongside its hope and beauty. I would call this book science fiction-- it takes place in the future and deals with technology we clearly don't have. It also deals with Native American/ Aboriginal spirituality and Dreamtime. It's a beautiful quest book about creating community in an awful time and place between people who are not terrible and not immediately identifiable as 'community.' I am very glad to see this book is now in print again, it deserves a large audience. I had to wait for years to find a copy, you won't have to.

A mystical sf adventure that works

As the twenty-first century is half way through its final decade, the world is a terrible place to live except for the Enclaves. Most of the residents of the planet live in polluted communities ruled totally by money and greed with things turning worse all the time as the world nears collapse under the weight of destruction and devastation and dissolution. On the other hand, the Enclave is a clean environment where the tribes thrive in peace. The powers of the disease ridden environs outside the Enclave blame the problems on the Tribes as a means of diverting accountability by using a convenient scapegoat to silent the masses. A flyer containing an Enclave technological chip that could help cleanse the world crashes in the outside. Afraid that it will be misused, the Enclavers send Gahzee into the precarious mess to retrieve the chip before the outside world begins encroachment on the Enclaves. SVAHA is a reprint of the classic tale of Native American magic mingling in a world on the eve of destruction caused by self-interests polluting the environment and the minds of the people. The story line is fast-paced, filled with action, and loaded with fully developed characters representing different sides of the conflict. This novel shows why Charles de Lint has been so highly regarded by fans of science fiction and fantasy for well over a decade. Readers of HIERO'S JOURNEY will fully relish this great tale.Harriet Klausner

An adventure novel with deeper truths

I just finished reading Svaha for perhaps the 6th time. Each time I read it, I get more from the book. While it is a super book to read if you want to experience a post-apocalyptic adventure story, if you read it for that alone, you're missing so much. The mixture of Native American and Japanese cultures, the struggle between honor, duty and the need for change, all of these combine to create a world of teaching.

Wonderful!

A great book...kinda like Swann's "Moreau" trilogy if you were to subtract the furries and add myths and metaphysics. Outstanding post-apocalyptic fantasy.