Eric Gauthier

I bought this book back in 2017 at La Foire du Livre in Brussels, Belgium. As I had never read Canadian SFF, the presence of Éditions Alire was an ideal opportunity to discover the market. Trying to avoid series (duologies, trilogies, ...), I was looking for a stand-alone novel. Mr Gabriel Sauvé, assistant of the commercial department. He was very enthusiastic about 'Montréel'. Then again, it's his job to promote the books he publishes. But anyway...

It's a thick, 608 pages counting tome, yet reads very fluently. Mr Gauthier seems to not have cut to much out of it. The story unfolds very slowly, as if the author wanted to show as much of what was going on as possible. I do agree with someone else here, who wrote that the story could have done with a bit less pages. I wouldn't say 150 pages, but, yes, some things could have been dealt with a little faster/sooner. Still, it's not that much of a problem, all in all.

What's it about? If my memory doesn't fail me...

A huge building block in the Grandvilliers district has vanished, including its inhabitants. No one knows how it happened. As a result, this zone is blocked for all other people, as a strange form of magic lingers where the building used to stand.

You follow mainly three characters: Clovis Thériaud, a janitor/concierge, who's hired by his uncle. His job is to make sure everything is alright with the building, that the stabilisers are still in place and if anything goes wrong, intervene immediately and rectify the problem. Next to that, he's a musician (guitarist) in a band. One of his missions, if not his most important, is delivering a message to a certain Corinne, a girl he has never met. The patron is the girl's father, or at least, the spirit/ghost of the girl's father. She was never informed of his death, despite it being several years ago. Since then, Corinne has been living with foster parents, who took care of her upbringing.

Then there's Oscar Martel, one of the several mages and new president of the Urbanism Commission of Montréel, whose recently deceased predecessor Alasdair McPhie, a mage and anxitecte (someone who erects / arranges buildings or façades to make the construction look more beautiful, one way or another), had created a scale model of the city, so he could have a more precise view to work out his projects. However, he linked the model with the city's grid, which means that any change on the model has a direct impact on the real version of Montréel. However, as the disaster is to be solved as soon as possible (also to sooth the masses), Oscar has to turn to "evil measures" to obtain the required info on what caused the disappearance and how life can return to normal. He too is on the lookout for Corinne. Oscar inherited some of McPhie's artefacts, but McPhie also kept many of his secrets to himself, save for some that he passed on to Corinne.

Last but not least, Léopold Sanschagrin (play on words, sans chagrin ;-)), a mage without sorrow/grief. He lives in the Clovis's building block and wants to help him solve the mystery of the block and its inhabitants that have gone missing. Fearless as he is, he ventures where the law prohibits it and encounters different spectres, who don't always want to help him, rather (ab)use him for their own cause(s). He will later find out that the markings on the model referred to the triangle Montréel, London, and Paris, the cities where several members of the secret mage-club hail from. Through their powers, they can quickly travel from one city to the other. One day, as Léopold searches the house of Martel, he arrives, through a magic door, in the house of another mage. When he wants to flee - and it's only because he used his walking stick to discover a glass window behind the illusory inner wall -, he ends up in London, where his life takes a totally different turn. As he could obtain an important artefact whilst searching the other mage's house, it would actually help him survive and pass on the information to Clovis, who would then provide that info to Martel in return for a safe hiding. Yes, Clovis is wanted, because of his involvements in the case.

Around the mount Réel, there's a large neutral zone, where magic has no power. This is important information for those being chased and haunted by the spectres, for example. Especially Corinne, as she is McPhie's niece and has magic powers, which were never put into practice until the disaster that struck Montréel.

As you can imagine, all's well that ends well, thanks to magic, a touch of humanity and keen insight. However, political characters and a secret club of mages (of which Oscar Martel is a member) remain vigilant to take the power when the circumstances allow for it.

'Montréel' is a mix of urban fantasy, magical realism, and mystery. The story takes some time to develop, but once you're in, you're in for the entire ride. It's a real page-turner, although it has its slow moments. I found this a very original story and very much worth the investment and time spent reading it. You even get to learn about the city of Montréal, as Mr Gauthier added descriptions of various areas. I'm not sure how many of the characters' names are based on real persons (not referring to our three aforementioned main characters), but there's a probably a link there, too.

In short: heavily recommended. I wonder if his first book, [b:Une fêlure au flanc du monde|7267881|Une fêlure au flanc du monde|Éric Gauthier|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327374012s/7267881.jpg|8378735], is equally good. I bought this one earlier this month, also at La Foire du Livre. This year, however, there was no one from Éditions Alire.… (altro)