R- Someplace to be Flying (some x,v,b), The Little Country (v,some x,b)
PG16- Trader (mild x,b), Svaha (x,v), Jack the Giant-Killer (v), Drink Down the Moon (v,some b), Dreams Underfoot (some v,slight x) Moonlight and Vines (v,slight x,some b)
Charles de Lint writes urban fantasy, with varying degrees of emphasis on either or both of those words depending on the book or story. He has an impressive ability to make you believe that there really are places out there that look just like your home, only with a little touch of faerie for added interest, and who's to say your home isn't like that too? I also like the way he portrays the initial disbelief of those of his characters who encounter the more magical side of life. After all, even if you halfway believe it's possible hobs and goblins and pookas and such are out there, your first encounter with their reality is much more likely to be denial than immediate acceptance. It's just one of the things that makes his characters seem very plausible and someone you'd like to meet. De Lint draws on Celtic and British legends as well as Native American ones, and skillfully blends them all into a fabric of modern North American otherworldliness. If you're at all interested in exploring the possibilities of the magical in everday life, you should definitely read some of his books.
Svaha is a little harder to label than some of his other stories, since it's the usual mixture of urban and fantastical but set in the future rather than now. And the fantasy part is less definitive, composed mostly of Native American religious beliefs and spirits which may or may not be obvious to the different characters. For background, native peoples around the world got fed up with the way Western corporate society was messing up the earth, so they retreated to sealed Enclaves where they could live in harmony with the earth and not have to deal with the downward slide of the rest of humanity. They have access to extremely high technology (for example, the barriers that seal the Enclaves) but choose to live more traditionally at the same time. But something has gone wrong with one of the Enclaves in North America, so they send out Gahzee to discover what's wrong. And in the process of this journey, he discovers what constitutes humanity and belonging may not be as simple as he thought. The atmosphere of this story is reminiscent of that in the Shadowrun gaming system, and I'd recommend it for those who are familiar with and enjoy that sort of world (and anyone else who likes to see their science fiction and fantasy well-blended).
Inside each of us is a tune, a rhyme, a phrase, an image, or something that has haunted us since our childhood, but something whose name we do not know. Perhaps it makes us laugh or cry, cringe in fear or swell with love. Reading The Little Country is like humming that tune, only to have someone name it for you, give it a context, a history, even fill in the missing notes. One feels both relief at finally knowing, and sadness at the death of a mystery. For me, the memory was of the way the sun shines through the clouds so that you can actually see the sunbeams. Someone once told me they were angel's staircases, and I have believed it ever since. To see them on the cover of this book evoked the first in a long series of powerfully mixed emotions I was to feel in the company of this masterpiece. This is the kind of book that becomes a classic slowly, converting almost everyone who reads it, but rarely prosteletizing because each reader finds it so personal. While on face it contains only two interwoven stories, in reality it expands to include the reader's life as well, binding together three worlds, three dancers making up a jig on the spot and dancing 'til dawn. If you love magic, music, the old tales, or if you've lost any of these and want to remember them again, read this book. Set in a small village in Cornwall (a land of magic all of itself), this is the story of a Janey, a pipe player who opened a book.... Alternately, it could be the story of Jodi, who decided to brave a witch's wrath to see if magic was real... Or of the sailor Felix returning to his old girlfriend Janey in her time of need, or crippled Clare doing her best to put everyone else's lives back together, or Janey's grandfather the Gaffer, protecting the secret of his dead friend, or you....
Morris players and other traditional musicians may be interested in the original fiddle tunes transcribed in the appendix. ^_^
The classic book to begin your Newford experience is Dreams Underfoot, a collection of short stories that introduce most of de Lint's main characters in this setting. The stories are in a perfect order, taking you slowly from quiet city streets to a magical world living side by side with the normal one. Jilly, Geordie, and the other main characters are wonderfully alive with a human magic all their own. The stories progress like a painting, beginning with rough strokes in pencil line as Ellen describes the balloon men, that little spark of magic she can still see. Then it fleshes out into a full sketch with Jilly Coppercorn's reluctant adventure underground in skookin territory. From then on, it adds color, describing the strange Old City, full of decaying buildings and beings both wonderful and frightening. Then there are the street kids, the ones with who know everything except how to get out of the slums. The University is full of professors who talk about the oddest things. Running through most of this like a ribbon, Jilly pulls the stories together and weaves them into a tapestry that describes all sides of Newford, where dreams are lying everywhere just waiting to be discovered. One of the best (possibly the best) short story collections I have ever read.
What would you do if you woke up one morning and no one knew who you were? No, Trader isn't one of those stories that looks at what the world would be like if you'd never lived in it. Or, not exactly, although it does explore what we live for and how we choose to use what gifts we've been given. Max Trader wakes up one morning to discover he's in someone else's body, and he's not at all pleased. In the process of figuring out just what happened, and how to put things back the way they were, he meets some of the more unusual residents of town (I love Bones, aka Crazy Dog, the Kickaha fortune-teller in the park who may or may not be as crazy as he appears) and finds out just what's important in life. This is one of the books which draws on some of De Lint's repeating characters found in Dreams Underfoot and other stories of Newford, although they're supporting rather than starring roles in this case. While you don't need to have read those first, you might get a kick out of their presence if you've already met them.
Someplace to Be Flying is another Newford-set novel, although most of the characters are new (there's brief mention of a few from other books, but not much overlap). Its version of urban fantasy deals with the animal people, the first people in all creation, who can take on a human or an animal "skin". The portrayals of the various versions of corbae (crows, ravens, rooks, you name it) and canidae (coyote, fox...) are wonderful, with a mix of human and animal-people sensibilities. It's a complex story, as regular humans get caught up in the lives and battles of the animal people - only, it's hard to tell just how "regular" everyone really is, which is part of the fun. De Lint's talent for portraying the reactions of humanity to the realization that we're not living in the simple world we're used to shines through again, as more and more people get drawn into the animosity between the corbae and the canidae. And it's a fine story about assumptions and how we should live our lives, whoever we are.
Moonlight and Vines is DeLint's third collection of short stories about Newford. Although the stories are all different, with ghosts and enchantments and mysteries of all kinds, both believed and disbelieved, they share a moral theme. They remind us how we need to reach out to others, remind us of what makes life worth living for ourselves and everyone around us, including the sense of mystery and magic that so many people are afraid to look for. The stories have his usual gift of lyrical prose and poetry outlining a world where anything can happen and a world that just possibly could be our own. Christie and Geordie Riddell, Jilly Coppercorn, Bones and Cassie, the crow girls, and other familiar faces from other books are all here, along with new ones just as well-described. Although you don't have to have read any of DeLint's other work to appreciate these stories, if you have read some and liked any of it, you should make a point of reading this one too. It's an example of DeLint at his best.
Two books follow the calm and commonplace Jacky Rowan as she stumbles across the line between mortal and faerie realms: Jack the Giant-Killer and Drink Down the Moon. In the old names, there still is power, and Jack has always been the name of giant-killers. And now giants threaten faerie by kidnapping the High-Elf heir. Treachery on all sides makes everyone suspicious, and it is in this atmosphere that Jacky and her best friend Kate find themselves followed, harrassed, and even chased by the Wild Hunt itself. The result is that Jacky Rowan is no longer calm, or commonplace, and she has found herself a quest.
In the second book, Jacky and Kate have become fixtures in the faeries realm, and protectors of the Seelie court. But the two courts are not the only powers in the land. The Wild Magic still flows, and the pook of puxill, Jenna, wants to lead those who live off of it on a traditional luck rade to restore their power. But all the luck is draining out of the fiaina, and only Jenna's sister and a mortal fiddler can put the pieces together with Jacky to find out why before every immortal in town dies.
These are not the best books of de Lint's, but they do have a certain charm, and they would probably be easier for younger readers to try instead of the more complicated Newford novels.
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