Muse and Reverie by Charles de Lint

"Muse and Reverie" is another anthology of short stories by one of my favorite authors - Charles de Lint. It's one of his newest books, published just last year, and it's set in the town we all know and love, Newford. I was kind of sad reading the forward though, he tells us that he's taking a break from writing about Newford, and I love his stories set there! But he's not taking a break from writing, he's going to move on to explore new things, so I can still be excited about that. Also, he tells us in the forward that he has a folder of stories about Newford left that can fill another anthology, so even if he never goes back to writing about Newford we might still get some more stories!

"Muse and Reverie" contains 13 stories. All of them have originally appeared in other places, and that meant that one of them was familiar to me. I didn't mind though, because "Somewhere in my Mind Their Is a Painting Box" is part of a series of short stories that I love! So I was more than happy to reread it.

All of the stories were great, but there were a couple that stuck out at me in particular. I really enjoyed "Refinerytown" because it toyed with the idea that our imagination can bring fairy tale creatures into being, but that doesn't mean they will do what we expect once they are "real!" It's an idea that de Lint has used before, but while the last one I read was haunting, this one had me laughing!

"That Was Radio Clash," is a sweet and yet complicated story about a man who gives others the chance to go back and change their big mistakes. What made the story so interesting was the complex weave of alternating realities, and how magic tied them all together. I like the idea of second chances because we all mess up at one point or another in our lives, and magical second chances are even better!

"The Newford Spook Squad," amused me because he borrowed from other writers! In this story the police force in Newford has decided to create a "spook squad" to investigate some of the odder occurrences in their town, and guess who helps them? None other than Hellboy himself! Having seen the Hellboy movies I was entertained by the marriage between his story and the Newford story. This story first appeared in an anthology called "Hellboy: Odder Jobs."

Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint

"Tapping the Dream Tree" is a compilation of stories by Charles de Lint set in and around Newford. Newford is a town, somewhere in North America, that de Lint created and populated years ago. While he does write fantasy in other locations and stories that are entirely unrelated, he is known for coming back to Newford and developing the characters there that he loves so much.

I have read quite a few of de Lints books set in Newford, so I always enjoy reading a new one (new to me at least), and getting to know more about these characters I love so much! One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was learning some more of the connections between characters, and finding out more of the back story on other characters. I completely enjoyed the entire book, but as usual, there were a few stories that stick out in my memory.

"The Words that Remain" is a haunting ghost story staring Christy Riddell. I've always identified with Christy's character in that he is both a writer, and a believer in the fantastic (although I don't take it anywhere near as seriously as he does). As such, he often uncovers interesting stories because he's both open to them, and because people bring them to him knowing he is a writer and collects these stories. The story he collects this time is about a ghost in the hotel he's staying in while at a writers conference.

"Masking Indian" fascinated me because it combines the fantastic and ghostly, and crafting! Anything that involves creativity and art catches my eye. This story tells of loss and healing in a beautiful way.

"Pixel Pixies" goes back and tells the beginning of the friendship between two of my favorite characters, Holly the book store owner, and Dick, the Hob who eventually becomes her business partner. Holly isn't usually one of de Lints main characters, but she pops up a lot in talking about the Word Wood and other characters often visit her briefly for advice or when doing research. I've always thought it would be fun to own a bookstore, so I think I live a little vicariously through her whenever she pops up in a story!

"Seven Wild Sisters" is the lasts story in the book, and it's a short novel in its own right since it takes up the last 240 some pages of this book! Many of the characters are familiar, the sisters mentioned show up in a variety of his other stories, but the reason I loved it is that it concludes the tale of Lily. Lily is now an old woman, but when we first meet her in "A Circle of Cats," she's a young girl. This is the third story I know of with her in it, and it fascinates me to see how de Lint develops her character over the course of her life! The magic and mystery in the story are quite compelling as well.

The Dreaming Place by Charles De Lint

Charles De Lint is one of my favorite authors. His work is almost entirely modern fantasy, but even with in that realm, he covers a wonderfully huge scope of stories! "The Dreaming Place" is one of his stories written for young adults. In the back of the book he tells us that he had always been a bit leery about writing for a teen audience, until he realized the biggest difference is that your writing with teen characters and using them in your stories!

"The Dreaming Place," tells the story of two girls, teenage cousins who live together and share a room. Ash has been fascinated with magic since her parents death, so when Nina starts to have strange dreams, she assumes that Ash has cursed her, she's never really trusted Ash anyway. The two girls are as different as night and day!

Nina's dreams begin to scare her more and more, even as she begins to learn to adjust to them. In her dreams she finds herself in the body of an animal and struggles to function in the world around her. The frightening part is that she often finds herself prey to predators she can't escape because of her poor control over her unfamiliar body.

Meanwhile Ash learns that one of her friends has a closer tie to magic than Ash was ever aware of, and this friend actually takes Ash into Magical Realms. There Ash learns what's really happening to Nina, and what must be done to protect her. Now the question is, what is she going to do? Will Ash save the cousin who's she's always resented for her invasion into her life?

The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

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The Blue Girl

This was my second time reading through "The Blue Girl" by Charles de Lint, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time as I did the first! This is one of his books geared more for young adults, and it is also the winner of the World Fantasy Award.

In this book we meet two very different girls, Imogene and Maxine. Imogene isn't afraid to be different, and she has a past to prove it. You can generally find her dressed in punkish clothes, often with her tattoo's showing, and doing who knows what else to look fun and funky! Maxine lives an extremely sheltered life because of an overprotective mother and her clothes can only be described as "proper" which equates to "boring."

These unlikely pair of girls become best friends after Imogene moves into the area. Slowly they begin to influence each other. Imogene helps Maxine to loosen up a little bit, and to eventually break free from some of her mother's restraints. Maxine, in turn, teaches Imogene the value of studying, and helps to teach her some other values as well.

There's a twist though, the school is haunted by a boy named Adrian, and he becomes friends with Imogene. The school also holds a handful of fairies, and Imogene refuses to believe Adrian that their real. So the fairies set off to prove their existence to Imogene, and in the process accidentally bring her into the focus of some extremely nasty other world characters!

The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest

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The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest

Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Decorations by Charles Vess

In "The Green Man: Tale from the Mythic Forest" we find a collection of stories all surrounding the legendary figure of the Green Man. The Green Man is a figure that has been seen through out mythic history in one form or another. He has been seen across many cultures, and there is even an appearance of a Green Woman from time to time. The authors in this anthology were challenged to write their own Green Men stories, stories rooted deep in the woods, and they rose to the challenge magnificently.

Some of these stories (and there are a few poems as well) feature a more traditional representation of the Green Man. Others take the concept, and dream it in an entirely different direction! I certainly found my imagination stimulated as read this variety of stories.

One thing that I found pretty interesting was the story by Charles de Lint called "Somewhere in My Mind There is a Painting Box." It continues the story of a girl named Lily that I first met in his children's book, "A Circle of Cats." It's sheer coincidence that I read the other book first, but it was a lot of fun to explore more of her character in a longer story!

A Circle of Cats by Charles de Lint and illustrated by Charles Vess

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Circle of Cats

I was excited to see a children's book by Charles de Lint! He's one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to see him write something in this arena. One more book to add to my "if I ever have kids" list!

"A Circle of Cats" is a fairy story about a little girl who lives in wonder and awe of the world around her, and who always looks for fairies. One day she wanders off and gets lost, and the process, gets bit by a snake. She's dying, and the many cats she's befriend over the years decide to save her in their own way.

This is a very cute story! The illustrations are adorable as well. I highly recommend it!

The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint

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The Mystery of Grace

This was one I honestly wasn't sure I was going to keep reading, because it starts out with a one night stand. Normally de Lint's books don't have that much sex in them and it kinda startled me to have it be the opener of the book! I kept going though, and ended up very intrigued by the concept behind the book.

Grace is a hard core girl, she is covered in tattoos, but it's because they each have personal meaning not simply because it's trendy. She also discovered at an early age that she loved cars, and more specifically, restoring and working on classic cars. So instead of wearing makeup and doing all the things her mother would expect, she took shop, and grew up to become a mechanic.

Now Grace has died, but instead of going on to whatever reward awaits her, she's stuck in a limbo world that's centered around the apartment complex she lived in. She's not the only one stuck in this world, and each person is dealing with it differently. Some simply sink into apathy and sleep, other's find ways to occupy themselves, and still others are convinced there is a way out if they only look hard enough.

Grace and one of her new friends become convinced that there is a way out of their predicament. The story takes a lot of twists and turns, and oh did I mention? There's a heart breaking love story as well!

The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm

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The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm

I found this book quite by accident while I was ordering things on the libraries web-site, not even really sure HoW I did that since I rarely do anything other than order what I'm planning and move on, but I'm really glad I did!

"The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm" is a fascinating collection of fantasy from some of the top authors in the genre. Including two of my favorites, Charles de Lint and Neil Gaimen. The stories range from the more traditional, to set in modern cities, to adaptations of stories from places like Japan where you might not be accustomed to hearing stories from!

While I didn't fall in love with every story in the book, I did fall in love with quite a few of them, and I've found some new authors to read! I made a nice long list of authors, books, and other anthologies to read. I'll be ordering them one by one and sharing them with you!

It's hard to pick favorites among so many great stories, but here's a little bit about a few of them that stood out in my mind.

"CATNYP" by Delia Sherman tells the story of the fairies that live on the fringes of New York City. There's a fascinating adventure in the library that got my mind racing with ideas and possibilities! I have a fantasy story to tell about books of my own now. We'll see if it develops into anything readable.

"The Feary Handbag" by Kelly Link fascinated me because it wove together stories of the old world and the new.

"Never Never" by Burce Glassco takes a fun new look at the old story of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, this time from Hook's point of view!

"The Faery Reel" by Neil Gaiman is a poem that will make you want to get up and dance!

Woods and Waters Wild by Charles de Lint

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Woods and Waters Wild: Collected Early Stories

"Woods and Waters Wild" is a compilation of short stories by Charles de Lint - many of them from earlier in his writing career. I found it really interesting to read for many reasons. For one, it brought me back to my "roots" so to speak with De Lint because I was introduced to his work when a friend loaned me another one his compilations!

One thing that was different about this compilation than other works by de Lint that I've read is that he has a number of "high fantasy" stories included in here. While they were very interesting, the language was much more formal than I'm used to seeing from de Lint. It kind of threw me at first, but I enjoyed them as I got used to it!

I think my favorite part of the book was the section titled "Thomas the Rhymer." It contains three stories about Thomas, a simple story teller with Fey sight, that is given the gift of speaking the truth. Since this is all he speaks, his stories have incredible power to them. I love the testament to the power of truth and the spoken word!

Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint

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Little (Grrl) Lost

In this "Little (Grrl) Lost" by Charles de Lint we enter another modern fantasy world. This story focuses on T.J., a normal teenage girl, and Elizabeth, a not so normal teenage girl. You see Elizabeth is a Little, a race of human-like beings that only reach 6 inches high. The Little's refer to normal humans as Bigs, and normally do everything they can to hide from them.

Well, Elizabeth is accidentally "seen" by T.J., and two slowly become friends. Then Elizabeth gets lost, and T.J. becomes frantic trying to find her. Along the way they both make some new friends, and get into some sticky situations! Both girls learn a lot and grow up a lot in this book.

Most of Charles de Lint is meant for adults, but this is actually written for young adults. If the plot sounds similar to Mary Norton's Borrowers series, it's because it is. He even mentions her books! It's a totally unique story though, and the only thing it has in common with the Borrower's series is the size of the characters and their mistrust of the bigger humans. Well worth the read and great for any younger readers in your house. 

The Little Country by Charles de Lint

THE LITTLE COUNTRY [A FANTASY NOVEL]

If you've been reading my book reviews (or, even better, his books) than you know that Charles de Lint has his own little corner of the world that he sets quite a few of his books in. "The Little Country" is not one of those books. Instead it's set in the Cornwall region of England.

"The Little Country" is two stories woven together. In one, we follow the adventures of Janey Little. Janey is a musician living with her beloved Grandfather who's known to one and all as the Gaffer. Earlier in his life one of the Gaffers closest friends had been William Dunthorn, a man with a bit of the fey about him, who wrote some incredible books. Janey's always loved Dunthorn's books, and loved the connection she has to him through the Gaffer.

One day Janey discovers a previously unknown book by Dunthorn hidden in the Gaffers attic. Inside the book it says that it was printed in an edition of one, and there's a letter from Dunthorn to the Gaffer asking him to safe guard the book. Janey quickly learns from the Gaffer that there is magic in the book, and that every time it's taken from hiding strange things begin to happen, including a bunch of strangers trying to get their hands on it.

In the second story we meet Jodi, a young woman who's insatiably curious, and who's always been fascinated by the concept of little people. Well, she soon gets her fascination sated beyond what she ever would have imagined because a witch turns her into a little person!

The rest of Jodi's story is full of her desperate attempts to regain her normal size, and the attempts of her friends to help her. They have to be careful of the witch, and the many creatures she throws their way! Jodi stays brave through it all though. I'll let you find out for yourself whether or not she makes it back to her "normal" self or not.

Now these two stories might seem to have little to do with each other, but they are connected! How? Well, go get the book and find out!

Interested in the other books by Charles de Lint that I've reviewed? Click here.

Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint

Have I mentioned before that Charles de Lint is one of my favorite authors? I'm sure I have. I seem to be on a de Lint run right now, but I don't think I would have noticed how much I'm reading his work if I wasn't doing these book reviews! Ah well, their good books, and maybe I'll get someone else addicted right?

In "Forests of the Heart" we meet Bettina, a young woman who's part Indian, part Mexican, and who was raised to have a close connection to the magic of this world. We also meet Ellie, a young woman who has a powerful connection to magic, but is unaware of it. Their life paths cross as they both are faced with the Gentry (some vengeful Irish spirits) and what they are about to unleash on the world.

There are many other wonderful characters in this book and you'll find yourself caught up in the twists and turns of this fast paced story!

Check out my other reviews on books by de Lint :)

Spirits in the Wires by Charles De Lint

The good writers are able to take old concepts, and find new ways to apply them, or adapt and twist them to fit into today's world. Charles De Lint, one of my favorite authors, does a good job of that on a regular basis, and I think he's out done himself on this book! In "Spirits in the Wires" De Lint addresses the concept of the fairy world becoming integrated with our modern technological age. This isn't the first time De Lint has explored this concept, but out of his books I've read, this is definitely the most focused on technology so far.

What happens when a major internet site develops it's own consciousness? Taking that a step farther, what happens when that site gets infected with a virus? Chaos is what happens! Now we find some familiar characters from Newford struggling to pick up the pieces, and find a way to "heal" the spirits of the internet.

While exploring the fantasy world's place in today's technology, De Lint also has his characters wrestling with the concept of identity. After all, are you a real person if you were "born" on the internet? What makes a person a person? How do we find our importance and worth? I really enjoyed watching some of these characters explore their own personalities!

Medicine Road - A Book Review

"Medicine Road" is by one of my favorite authors - Charles de Lint. While many of his fantasy books are based in the world of Newford, this one is based in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. I must admit I'm biased and I tend to prefer his books based in Newford, but this book was well worth the read even though it wasn't in my favorite setting!

In "Medicine Road" de Lint explores his own twist on Native American folklore. It's a story of true love, destiny, choices, and learning to be true to who you are. With, of course, a lot of laughs along the way!

In this story we meet Changing Dog and Corn Hair, two people with the ability to change between human form and their original animal form. Yes, that's right, I said "original." The only reason they joined the world of those who walk on two legs was due to the meddling of Coyote Woman. Now they've roamed the world for almost 100 years, and they are facing a dead-line.

The only condition Coyote Woman had put on her gift of walking on two legs was that they must find true love before 100 years had passed. The dead-line was approaching fast, and Changing Dog had never been able to settle down. In fact, many thought he was incapable of anything other than playing around.

Will Changing Dog find his true love? Well - you'll have to read the book to find out!

Widdershins

I love to read! So one of the things I'm going to do in this blog is share with you the books I'm reading.  I read a wide variety of books, so if this one isn't your style, check back, the next one might be!

Charles de Lint is one of my favorite fantasy authors. I first stumbled on his work a year ago when a friend of mine, who I called Grizzly Bear, loaned me one of de Lints collections of short stories.  I've read many of his books since then, and I honestly don't remember right now which one I read first!

De Lint writes his fantasy in a modern New England setting, but in towns that he's created.  I love how he blends traditional fantasy elements and twists them into his own stories!

"Widdershins" simply means "to walk counterclockwise or backwards around something.  It's a classic pathway into the fairy realm." (Taken from the book jacket)

In this book De Lint combines elements of Old World fairy traditions with Native American traditions, and he does so beautifully! If you've read his work before you'll recognize many of the characters as he develops the stories of Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell.  But don't worry, if you've never read a single word of his, you'll still be swept up in the story and you won't get lost!  He does a good job of telling enough of the backstory that that new readers don't get lost, and those who've read his other works don't get bored.

One thing I admire about Charles De Lint's work is that he's more than willing to tackle tough issues in his writting.  He recognizes that this can be a dark, dark world, and he faces it head on.  Yet, you never find yourself with out hope at the end of the story.  De Lint finds a way to bring hope, cheer, and a reason to go on, no matter how dark the story gets.

If your interested in checking out this book (or others!) click on the picture at the top of the post to be redirected to Amazon.com.