Charles De Lint

I'm really glad to see this thread. He's one of my favorite authors, when I'm in the mood for him. A common question with de Lint's work is where to start. In case anyone here is wondering, here's my response, which I keep handy for such opportunities:

I was a member of Charles de Lint's yahoo group for several years. I originally joined it to get an answer to the question: where to start with the Newford books? After weighing many considered opinions, I prefer this order for the beginning: first, Dreams Underfoot and then, Someplace To Be Flying, and then resume de Lint's own recommended order. DU is a short story collection, but his short stories are loved by most people who hate short stories. STBF will let you meet the famous Crow Girls and most of the main shape-shifter residents of Newford.

His standalone novels, such as Moonheart and The Little Country, are memorable too.

The official answer from his website is:

The books have all been written in such a way that you should be able to pick up any one and get a full and complete story. However, characters do reoccur, off center stage as it were, and their stories do follow a sequence. The best place to start is the collection Dreams Underfoot. From there they go pretty much in this order:

The Dreaming Place
A Whisper To A Scream (originally credited to "Samuel M. Key")
I'll Be Watching You (originally credited to "Samuel M. Key")
Memory And Dream
The Ivory And The Horn
Trader
Someplace To Be Flying
Moonlight And Vines
Forests Of The Heart
The Onion Girl
Seven Wild Sisters (also available in Tapping the Dream Tree)
Tapping the Dream Tree
Spirits in the Wires
Medicine Road
The Blue Girl
Widdershins

The Dreaming Place and The Blue Girl are YA novels. A Whisper To A Scream and I'll Be Watching You are, respectively, a horror novel and a thriller; they're darker fare than the other Newford books and aren't really that integral to the underlying, ongoing backstory that takes place off center stage in so many of the books and stories.

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Also a reminder to fans to keep an eye on Sub Press's regular offerings by de Lint. Right now, they're taking pre-orders for Promises to Keep, a brand-new short novel from Jilly's past, and for Old Man Crow, a new Newford tale. "Joey Creel needs to decide which he is: a man, dreaming he’s a crow, or a crow, dreaming he’s a man. Ruby McCaulay, the young musician he’s mentoring, is sure she knows the answer, but in Newford, things are never quite as they seem."
 
Intensity - Moonheart isn't standalone as SpiritWalk is its sequel and the house turns up on conversation in Newford, and Angel too...Or have I got confused? Hmm...Too complex a web he has weaved. Thanks for the links.
 
You're right, Leiali. What I meant is that Moonheart isn't set in Newford, and is a complete story on its own.
 
I bought Widdershins a while ago because that seemed to be the most interesting one. Maybe not the best place to start but I think it'll be good. Guess I'll find out if De Lint is an author I can dig into.
 
I just finished The Little Country by De Lint. Can anyone recommend more like it? I was pretty happy with this read.
 
Little Country is a wonderful book. so wonderful in fact, that i lent my one and only copy to an aquantaince without a second thought, and never saw the book again.

If you're just getting started w/Charles deLint, give these titles a try, they are some of my favorites of his:

Greenmantle
Yarrow
Drink down the moon
Into the Green
Jack of Kinrowan (short stories)

those also have that mythology/celtic mythology feel to them. i just peeked at DeLint's Wikipage, and he's got about 20 more books i haven't even heard of!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Lint

my only beef with DeLint, is after a while his books seem to all blend together. maybe he's gotten away from that in the last 10 years, i'm not sure. but his older stuff (1995-ish and older), felt like the same story of "normal person falls into mythology world" over and over again, just with the character;s name's changed. hoepfully he's gotten away from the one-trick-pony-ness in his newer stuff.
 
Forests of the Heart and Moonheart are good follow-ups.

redhead,

Most of his books are tied in with Newford and I personally think it is to his credit that he has been able to set up such a consistent setting and tone in all these books - I see all the Newford novels to be episodes of a single saga.
 
Most of his books are tied in with Newford and I personally think it is to his credit that he has been able to set up such a consistent setting and tone in all these books - I see all the Newford novels to be episodes of a single saga.
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ah. that makes sense.

but some plot lines repeating themselves still got on my nerves. i find i can read one DeLint book per year or so. if i get on a kick with him, and read 5 or 6 books of his back to back, i tend to end up dissapointed. even if they are all connected.

Bridge of Birds, ignore everything i said, because he's a great author! his scene building and worldbuilding is wonderful, his expositions and characterization is top notch. i enjoy his works, i think i just overdose on them sometimes.
 
Someplace to be Flying and Forests of the Heart are favourites of mine. Another, is the first CDL book I ever read, The Ivory and the Horn (anthology).

I love Newford and Charles de Lint's mythic imagination. There are things I have started to dislike, though. One, he doesn't vary his storytelling style after awhile. Two, it gets way too didactic. Three, he namedrops too much. I think he's resting on his laurels and that's a bummer. Still, I'd rather read him than a great many other writers.
 
Any Charles De Lint fans?

I have been reading CDL for over 15 years now since I first picked up moonheart on a summer holiday in wales.

I have since got almost everything he has published (even his horror stories written under a different name) and I crave for his next release.

(I once even received an email from him after I mailed him a cd I thought he would like)

(that makes me sound like a right stalking nutter doesnt it? I swear I'm not!!)

Anyway, I think he is the king of urban fantasy, is there any other fans here?
 
There are a number of other de Lint threads with loads of information and other fans (more than a rew around here).
 
Several Charles de Lint threads merged including the recent "Any Charles De Lint fans?"
 
I recently finished Medicine Road - which was previously only available in limited edition and is now re-released. It was excellent - can't recommend it highly enough.
 
I got an arc of Eyes like Leaves, his new novel due from Subpress. I like it a lot sofar, very much high Fantasy, lots of nature elements, magic. Early De lint, not urban Fantasy.
 
I got one too - I plan to read in the next month or two.
 
Mithfânion said:
Leiali:



You could try Robert Holdstock or Patricia McKillip, they certainly come first to mind.
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I've only read Yarrow and Greenmantle but would agree that Robert Holdstock covers very similar themes, although in my opinion Holdstock does it better than de Lint. Probably because it's much less dreamy than de Lint's stuff.
 
Nickbjorn said:
I've only read Yarrow and Greenmantle but would agree that Robert Holdstock covers very similar themes, although in my opinion Holdstock does it better than de Lint. Probably because it's much less dreamy than de Lint's stuff.
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Holdstock is less dreamy?:eek: Holdstock kept putting me to sleep when I read Mythago Wood, lo, these many decades ago. Hate to think what De Lint would do.
 
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