Rating: 
Summary: This is a SHORT story people
Review: This is a delightful SHORT story by CDL. Full of interesting characters with the same sort of style we expect of CDL.
This book, originally printed in 1990 with Brian Froud's illustrations, was part of a special project I beleive conceived by Froud and CDL with others. I am very fond of this book and do not agree with folks that this isn't as good as his later work.
CDL had already written many novels by the time this book was released it was never intended to be a novel but just a short excusion into the world of Newford.
In all honesty I have been more disapointed with his more recent work, it all seems rushed contrived and almost boring in some cases. In fact, much of his new writing is too predictable now whereas this and his other older work is still amazing and new something to truly savor and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven early work
Review: This was one of Charles de Lint's earlier fantasy works, and unfortunately it shows. The reprinting of this all-too-short novella will, however, probably delight fans of his Newford series and other "urban fantasies." I confess to not being a huge fan of either, but I did find "Dreaming Place" a moderately enjoyable fantasy story.Ashley's mother was recently murdered, and her father doesn't want her around. She ends up being shrugged off on her kindly but hippieish aunt and uncle, and her nervous cousin Nina. There, Ashley buys occult books, plays heavy metal, alarms Nina into thinking that she is a witch, and cultivates a core of anger at her life in general. Her only real friends are a street tarot reader and a slightly eccentric shaman (who is, for some reason, called "Bones"). But soon Bones whisks Ashley off to the mystical Otherworld, a place of legends and spirits. A bloodthirsty spirit called a manitou is stalking Nina, who was accidently dedicated to her as a baby. In the real world, Nina struggles to escape strange specters and a homicidal stranger who knows about the manitou's pursuit of her. Ashley must try to save her cousin -- and will learn a few things about herself in the process. "The Dreaming Place" is not a bad novella, it's just not a particularly good one. While de Lint is now experienced and has written many books, it becomes evident when reading this that it was written early in his career. The pacing essentially alternates between being sluglike and fast, with high-activity stuff with Nina in the real life in one chapter and more agonizing soul-searching by Ashley in the next. It's somewhat too short for the wealth of potential material, zipping through in just over a hundred pages, zipping straight into the action without much buildup. The writing is often very poetic, but hints that it could be more. And de Lint displays a lack of subtlety, as he is inclined to spell things out rather than allowing readers to pick up on their own. Unfortunately Ashley is perhaps the least interesting character in the book. Her in-depth soul-searching with a spirit is dull to the point of page flipping, and her cliched "righteous anger" that needs to be unkinked is her sole distinguishing characteristic. She reminded me of the worse heroines by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I found the nervous but pleasant Nina to be a nice character, one who tries to regain some control over her destiny as it supernaturally spirals out of control. Native American shaman Bones will also appeal to fans of the Obi-Wan Kenobi wise-old-mentor archetype. If you are a de Lint fan or a fan of urban fantasy, you may enjoy this book. But be sure to make allowances for the fact that he wasn't quite as polished as he undoubtedly is now.
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