Rating: 
Summary: My chest is tight and my breath has quickened.
Review: After reading this collection coming back to the 'real' world is like waking from the most beautiful and elaborate dream to the sound of a merciless alarm clock. 'Our Lady of the Harbor' and 'The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep' are so vivid and gorgeous in the telling, that the memory of the tale haunts me even now years after I first read it. This book and Moonheart are the literary equivalent of the teddy bear you've had since you were two. These are faery tales for the jaded members of the modern world who need to look for magic in the mundane.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL !
Review: Chares deLint is one of the best writers ever. The people in his stories are so familiar they feel like old friends. I would like to go to Ottowa and visit them. His stories are not all happily ever after, but they have an optimistic view of life. He makes the magic real and writes about the world the way I would like it to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Impossible Possibilities
Review: Charles de Lint is a creator of unique stories that mix fantasy with urban legends; featuring the outcasts, oddballs, eccentrics, and the unfortunate of the fictitious city of Newford, which curiously has familiar aspects of both New England and the Pacific Northwest (in my somewhat well-traveled opinion). Thus, engagingly human characters and settings interact with the whimsical spirits and creatures of classic fantasy writing, with the running theme being that only those who truly believe can see the other side of reality. A nice gimmick is that some of these stories are supposedly from the mind of fictitious writer Christy Riddell, who is constructed as de Lint's fantasy world alter-ego, so you are sometimes transported into the imaginations of both the author and the characters.
The stories range from the whimsical, such as a street kid setting the spirits of bicycles free, to several tales of abused and unloved children turning to other realms of belief for support (offering some unexpectedly chilling or shocking moments from de Lint), to tales of lost loves and quests to find one's inner strengths. This collection of inter-related short stories centered on the mystically-minded residents of Newford does suffer from some inconsistency. Some stories such as "Romano Drom" or "The Sacred Fire" (among others) suffer from poor plot development, with a lot of all-of-a-sudden's and from-out-of-nowhere's. Some of the characters are so whimsical, eccentric, and kind-hearted that they stretch the bounds of believability; while the recurring themes of hope and belief get a bit heavy-handed. However, de Lint has created his own very unique world(s) of fantasy, for readers looking for creative and offbeat mysticism. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating:
Summary: Three Compliments and a Rant
Review: De Lint is a god. Discuss:1. Newford feels like a real place, no matter where you live. It reminds me of Vancouver, Philly, and Portland--three of my favorite cities, all rolled into one. There's grit and decay and parks like little oases. There's rain and snow and bright sunny days. There are Birkenstocks and combat boots and nicely pressed suits. In short, there's everything, and then some. And then, every so often, de Lint takes us to a quieter place, like the desert or the countryside...it's like really "getting out of the city" and going on vacation. 2. THE CHARACTERS. De Lint is famous for his brilliant characters--a constantly shifting, yet interconnected cast of artists, singers, and other assorted dreamers. There are animal people, an Oak Princess, a mediaeval sorcerer, and half-faerie, and an angel. And they all seem like the same sort of people that you might bump into on any street corner on ny given day. The overall feeling is that all of this myth and enchantment exists in your own hometown, and in every other place on earth, and that if you just pay attention, you'll see all of them. 3. The mood--it ranges from charming to chilling, and often in the very same story. For example, "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Faire," which you can read here on Amazon. There's giddy romance and profound sadness...generally, the entire range of human emotion. And now, what you've all been waiting for! The Rant: John Jude Palencar, get your damn dirty paws off my series! The new Newford cover art is (if any of the publishers happen to be reading this) not only ugly when compared to the gorgeous Terri Windling art of the earlier editions, but hideous by ANYONE'S standards! What *were* you thinking? Folks, the old covers for this book and its companion, "The Ivory And The Horn," is SO much better than this s***-brown MONSTROSITY, which doesn't even remotely capture the spirit of the series. Go to a library book sale or a used book store and buy a copy of the old edition. I'm serious...I am a fanatic for trade-paperbacks and textured covers, and I don't even like LOOKING at this. Get the mass market edition. It's pretty and blue and has an absolutely lovely cover.
Rating:
Summary: Three Compliments and a Rant
Review: De Lint is a god. Discuss: 1. Newford feels like a real place, no matter where you live. It reminds me of Vancouver, Philly, and Portland--three of my favorite cities, all rolled into one. There's grit and decay and parks like little oases. There's rain and snow and bright sunny days. There are Birkenstocks and combat boots and nicely pressed suits. In short, there's everything, and then some. And then, every so often, de Lint takes us to a quieter place, like the desert or the countryside...it's like really "getting out of the city" and going on vacation. 2. THE CHARACTERS. De Lint is famous for his brilliant characters--a constantly shifting, yet interconnected cast of artists, singers, and other assorted dreamers. There are animal people, an Oak Princess, a mediaeval sorcerer, and half-faerie, and an angel. And they all seem like the same sort of people that you might bump into on any street corner on ny given day. The overall feeling is that all of this myth and enchantment exists in your own hometown, and in every other place on earth, and that if you just pay attention, you'll see all of them. 3. The mood--it ranges from charming to chilling, and often in the very same story. For example, "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Faire," which you can read here on Amazon. There's giddy romance and profound sadness...generally, the entire range of human emotion. And now, what you've all been waiting for! The Rant: John Jude Palencar, get your damn dirty paws off my series! The new Newford cover art is (if any of the publishers happen to be reading this) not only ugly when compared to the gorgeous Terri Windling art of the earlier editions, but hideous by ANYONE'S standards! What *were* you thinking? Folks, the old covers for this book and its companion, "The Ivory And The Horn," is SO much better than this s***-brown MONSTROSITY, which doesn't even remotely capture the spirit of the series. Go to a library book sale or a used book store and buy a copy of the old edition. I'm serious...I am a fanatic for trade-paperbacks and textured covers, and I don't even like LOOKING at this. Get the mass market edition. It's pretty and blue and has an absolutely lovely cover.
Rating: 
Summary: not as groundbreaking as it thinks it is
Review: Good Lord, this book was awful. De Lint seems to be enamoured with three things: his romanticized view of the homeless and disenfranchised, his exaltation of all things Celtic (occasionally to the derision of other cultures), and his own "wild" and "far-out" postmodernist fantasy vision. Most of his stories deal with the adventures of Jilly Coppercorn, who is (of course) gifted with gamine good looks and artistic ability. Like most of the sympathetic characters, she flits about nattering on about all the things that one suspects De Lint himself likes, name-dropping artists and writers in the most annoying way. The dialogue is stilted, unnatural, melodramatic, and downright laughable in places. There were moments where the plotlines or premises piqued my interest, but for the most part De Lint's self-satisfied, smug tone made short work of any hopes for a decent story among the bunch. Perhaps I was unimpressed by his faerie-within-the-urban-world schtick because I take that kind of thing for granted, but the characters didn't grip me at all and in fact actively annoyed me with their snooty artsy attitudes or "noble savage" antics. If you've got time while you're dying your hair or waiting for the potatoes to boil, go ahead and give this book a whack. And then whack it against the wall, over and over until the binding snaps and it flies into a million pieces.
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Summary: Lyrical, beautiful urban fantasy
Review: I love Charles de Lint's brand of urban fantasy, the lyricism of his writing, the way he takes the ordinary and banal and adds just a touch of magic and enchantment, transforming it. This short story collection is a good introduction to his fictional town of Newford, where many of his stories and novels take place. These stories range from the beautiful to the horrific; and, unlike most story collections, I didn't feel like they were disjointed or unconnected. There was some kind of unifying force behind them all, so that, together like this, their collective force tells some kind of greater, larger story than any of them do seperately. I was entranced. Give this book a shot; I doubt you'll regret it.
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Summary: so beautiful I could weep honey
Review: I picked up this book on a whim several years ago, and my life has been changed ever since. Mr.De Lint has become my favorite author, able to paint with his words images as vivid as fresh oil paintings. His characters seem like old friends I expect to meet in late night coffee shops and between the aisles of used bookstores. This is a book that draws you in, and never lets go.
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Summary: The simple and uninspired truth...
Review: I read this book about six months ago and the characters still seem alive in my mind. That is how great this book is. When I was done reading and set the book aside I felt like I was giving up old friends and pleasant company. That is not all however, de Lint has a way of telling the stories so that life seems to breathe forth from the page. So that you think the faerie are just behind you peeking at what you read. This is definitely one to get in hard back, if just to let it survive longer... My poor paperback is falling apart from people borrowing it!!!
Rating:
Summary: one of the best i have ever read
Review: i thought this book was wonderful, charles de lint has such a rich imagination and feeds it with his wide vocabulary and descriptive talent. i love his way of writing urban fantasy, and i love the idea of faerie and the way he puts it into his books. i am reading 'the little country' at the moment, and it is a classic but dreams underfoot still resides in my heart and mind as the best book he has written that i have read. <giggles> i sound so learned to myself, and i am only 16 ;) anyways, this is an extremely good book, read it and see!
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