Wed
Mar 11 2009 6:30pm
Free e-book: Charles de Lint’s Spiritwalk

Charles de Lint’s Spiritwalk (1992) is the sequel to Moonheart, his groundbreaking novel about the people in and around a house in modern Ottawa that straddles this world and another one. Here is the same cast of characters, as they deal with a pair of very different threats to the ancient house. As in Moonheart, de Lint skilfully combines a contemporary sensibility, a great sensitivity to the rhythms and patterns of myth and folktale, and a set of simply likeable characters whose lives you find yourself wanting to hang out in.

Spiritwalk is currently technically out of print; there are copies in retail pipelines, but they’re increasingly scarce. Tor has a trade paperback reissue scheduled for mid-2010. Meanwhile, and in celebration of Read an Ebook Week, we’re happy to present (with the author’s enthusiastic permission!) this electronic edition for you to immediately enjoy.

Spiritwalk

PDF

HTML

Mobi

ePub

30 comments
- -
1. heresiarch
So it's a sequel, but is it a sequel that mostly stands on on its own, or is it a sequel that needs the first book for context?
Michael Ikeda
2. mikeda
heresiarch@1

Personally, I think that Spiritwalk mostly stands on its own. There are a lot of characters in common, but I think the context that you need to know is included in Spiritwalk.

Although I should point out that I did read Moonheart before I read Spiritwalk so I could be overlooking something.
Laurel Lyon
3. laurellyon
I read Moonheart last year and liked it, so I'll be very interested to read this. Thanks!
Paul Howard
4. DrakBibliophile
For what it is worth, Moonheart is available in eReader format on Fictionwise.

Drak
Tara Chang
5. tlchang
Thank you tordotcom and Charles de Lint! I read Moonheart and Spiritwalk years ago and really enjoyed them. It will be fun to revisit them again.
Pablo Defendini
6. pablodefendini
According to the author's note in Spiritwalk:
"Spiritwalk is related to another book of mine, Moonheart.
A familiarity with the events in that previous novel is recommended,
though not, I hope, altogether necessary."
Estara Swanberg
7. Estara
Aww thanks. I have the trade paperback in my de Lint collection but am thinking about buying an ebook reader and more books for that are always welcome.
Gopakumar Sethuraman
8. gopakumar.sethuraman
I hope Tor does more e-releases. Getting hold of out of print books is one of the best things about ebooks now that I have a Kindle.
Arachne Jericho
9. arachnejericho
gopakumar.sethuraman #8 -

Agreed. HarperCollins just put out the Kindle version of the extremely long out of print How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire, and I see a lot of OOPs showing up in the newly released Kindle store lists.

No Moonheart in the Kindle store.

The Fictionwise version has DRM on it and it's in eReader. So you'd need to (a) crack it and (b) decompile it because so few e-ink reader things read eReader, as it's an obtuse format that doesn't hold to Open EBook standards* or even BBeB standards**, and (c) recompile its non-HTML source into HTML/XML for ePub, Mobipocket, or LRF, all of which are hard to do.

Le sigh.

The funny part is that it's more the format rather than the DRM that keeps it from being readable.

* Even the Mobipocket and Microsoft Reader formats are based on OEB.
** A little obtuse but at least well structured.
barbara trumpinski-roberts
11. kittent
I have Moonheart in dead tree but I think I will get it in ebook form, as well.

Thanks, Tor, for providing your readers access to ebooks.
Aaron DeMott
12. Yoda47
I'm very happy to see the return of free books. I've found some wonderful titles this way that I never knew existed before.

Also, I'm very happy to see the book available in ePub format! Thanks Tor, for supporting open standards and accessibility for all!
John Novak
13. jmnovak
While I'm always happy for more free e-books, I'm more eagerly awaiting (if DRM-free!) a Tor e-book store... I keep hearing rumblings about Tor returning to Webscriptions, which would be a real win... but anything that's DRM free will work for me.

Since most of my library is packed at the moment, e-books are mostly what I'm getting now!
Darko Cvijanovic
14. cvijaxo
Moonheart and Spiritwalk are my favorit DeLint books and as I remember you can read them independently of each other. Thanks Tor!
John Wilkes
15. logicprobe
I too love the free books and have discovered many new (to me) authors through Tor's non-DRM e-releases. I'd happily purchase more, but my ebook reader is a Nokia Internet Tablet, and it doesn't support any of the DRM formats, which leaves most of the Fictionwise catalog unavailable to me.

C'mon, Tor, open up an online ebook store with at least some titles available in non-DRM formats. I'll be a regular customer.
Pablo Defendini
16. pablodefendini
Patience, tribe, patience. There be rumblings....
pericat
17. pericat
I picked up Moonheart from Fictionwise and it does not appear to have DRM, even though the site said it did. I bought another book at the same time, and perhaps when I unlocked it, Moonheart also unlocked?

Thanks for all the books, Patrick!
Gopakumar Sethuraman
18. gopakumar.sethuraman
arachnejericho #9 -

I think the issue of differing and competing formats will be resolved soon-ish. Ebooks being a nascent and evolving market and hopefully having learned from DVD region locks purveyors of ebooks will start releasing them (and already have) in multiple formats to meet the demands of their increasingly raucous customers. When Tor started with their freebies during the watch the skies campaign didn't they start with only PDFs and only by the second or third book start offering them in multiple formats? (Tor: Please bring those freebies back. I only got the PDF's the first time around. :) )

The DRM issue unfortunately is a shifting line in the sand. As seen by Amazon's quick bow down to the ruckus created by the Author's Guild, purveyors of ebooks want to remain in the good graces of content producers and suppliers by easing worries of piracy and copyright infringement in return for access. In having to meet the demands of two customers: the content producers (and their suppliers) versus the paying content consumers, the customers get the short shrift. DRM is slapped on as the one patch solution to meet differing needs by different authors. And I know I'm preaching to the choir here but DRM needs to go.
pericat
19. margaretIM
I want to read moonheart on line. Is this possible?
pericat
20. mythrus
DeLint is one of the best fanasy authors out there and is in my opinion the "father" of Urban Fantasy.
I have enjoyed all of his works, with Moonheart as one of my personal "top Ten"

Thanks TOR for allowing me to re-experience this excellent book. I also agree about more e-books I prefer them and look forward to more.
Norm Hartnett
21. NormHart
@margaretIM

Sure, download the html file, unzip it to a folder and open the html file with your browser.

Thanks for the ebook Tor! I hope your ebook store is linked with or through WebScriptions, one stop shopping for the best in Sci Fi would be excellent.
Paul Howard
22. DrakBibliophile
Pericat, I've seen that happen as well with eReader ebooks. You unlock one and the others get unlocked as well. I suspect that the eReader program remembers the 'key' so the next book is automatically unlocked.

Drak
Maiane Bakroeva
23. Isilel
Thanks for the book! I wonder if any of the formats is iTouch Stanza-friendly? It would be nice if Tor offered an iTouch-friendly download, like Randomhouse does. Kindle program is only available in the US, remember, and from what I have heard it isn't as good as Stanza anyway.

And yes, the DRM problem. I have been reading e-books on various PDAs for 7 or so years and DRM, along with crazy pricing (higher than retail books in many cases, not ever cheaper as logic would suggest) are the reasons why I have yet to _buy_ one. Thank god for Gutenberg, Baen and giveaways!
Arachne Jericho
24. arachnejericho
@Isilel #23 -

The ePub file is readable by Stanza, and is in fact Stanza's preferred format, though it can also read Mobipocket as well.

Webscriptions offers DRM-free books for sale.
pericat
25. LeeLowe
Yes, thanks. As someone who publishes first and foremost in e-book format (my YA novel MORTAL GHOST and my very-soon-to-be serialised F/SF novel CORVUS), I appreciate that conventional publishers are following us groundbreaking indies!
Tigre McMullan
26. Tigredagaff
I am not sure how to get this on my Kindle. does anyone have suggestions. I am a mac user, and a little behind the curve on the kindle/eReader formats and such.
pericat
27. R. Edman
This giveaway caused me to read (and therefore first buy) a goodly number of M. de Lint's books. He is an author of whom I had not previously heard, so it was the giveaway that did it. So, thank you for the introduction to a new and good author, and kudos on the successful marketing.
MC Z
29. Hapalochlaena
Thanks, Tor!

BTW when you start selling ebooks, please do away with the geographical restrictions as well as the DRM. Fictionwise and the Sony Bookstore refuse to accept my money. How stupid is that?
pericat
30. itlnoor
Well it is a good work. I simply liked both spiritwalk and moonheart. Both had some great storyline. Looking to read it in my Kindle again
[Spam deleted]
Camy Sussex
31. CamySussex
Oh, wow! How lucky am I? I've just re-read Moonheart and, after hunting high and low, can't find my copy of Spirit Walk. :D

Subscribe to this thread

Receive notification by email when a new comment is added. You must be a registered user to subscribe to threads.
Post a comment