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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
I think de lint plays his hand too far, when he should be mysterious. If he had a kid with lovecraft, she would be the best author of the millennium.
Collections of stories are always a mixed bag, this one avoids most of the major pitfalls, the stories are independent of another major work, they have a proper structure etc. but still have a number of small niggly problems.
1) de Lint writes some stories in 1st and some in 3rd. The stories written in 3rd are so much better than those written in 1st. None of the 1st POV characters have a sufficiently interesting voice to carry a story. Most of them dissipate their impact with long tell sections about personality. This exacerbates the normal variance you expect from story collections
2) You can clearly tell what de Lint's political beliefs are. Definitely a bleeding heart liberal. Almost all of the characters are artists and socialists in some way, and this homogeneity leads me to believe that de Lint's view, at the time he wrote this, was extremely partisan. That's not to say I'm a conservative, but I resent the implication that only liberal artists are good people, it lacks nuance.
I'm going to continue on to read this next book, I suspect I'll enjoy a novel, and this was a fairly early set of stories, so room for improvement.
1) de Lint writes some stories in 1st and some in 3rd. The stories written in 3rd are so much better than those written in 1st. None of the 1st POV characters have a sufficiently interesting voice to carry a story. Most of them dissipate their impact with long tell sections about personality. This exacerbates the normal variance you expect from story collections
2) You can clearly tell what de Lint's political beliefs are. Definitely a bleeding heart liberal. Almost all of the characters are artists and socialists in some way, and this homogeneity leads me to believe that de Lint's view, at the time he wrote this, was extremely partisan. That's not to say I'm a conservative, but I resent the implication that only liberal artists are good people, it lacks nuance.
I'm going to continue on to read this next book, I suspect I'll enjoy a novel, and this was a fairly early set of stories, so room for improvement.
I like urban fantasy. I like short story collections. I like things that bring the feeling of the mythic into the modern world. I should love this book, but for some reason, I only like it well enough. Maybe it's a product of its era. There's something about most fantasy written in the early 90s that never quite lets me get pulled in the way I want stories to. There are plenty of quality components to these stories, but for me, they never cohered into more than the sum of their parts.
I don't read a lot of short stories but I have to say that this was an excellent introduction to the Newford series by Charles de Lint. They were short stories in the sense that each was its own entity but they were also the stories that painted the picture that is Newford. My favourite story that stood out for me was "Pity the Monsters" but that was only because it really creeped me out. This was obviously a well-written book and I'm giving it 5 stars because the writing was too good not to but I don't think it's a book I'll re-read again. I don't need to. This book is going to stay with me for a long while, I think.
More like a 3.5 but not quite a 4. Some of these stories really hurt in the good ways, some are ones that I've already forgotten. I had no problem putting down the book, and sometimes the content actually rubbed me the wrong way. But Charles de Lint does have a way with words to make everything seem a little bit like a dream.
I first read these stories in high school & fell deeply in love with Jilly Coppercorn, the city of Newford, and the magical denizens who call it home. These interconnected stories have become a part of my personal mythology & are integral to how I understand myself & my worldview. Charlea De Lint is a masterful storyteller, one who can create characters who jump off the page straight into your heart, well...my heart at least.
There's stories and then there's stories. The ones with any worth change your life forever, perhaps only in a small way, but once you've heard them, they are forever a part of you. You nurture them and pass them on, and the giving only makes you feel better. The others are just words on a page.
A charming collection of short stories falling firmly in that urban fantasy / myth / horror category I so enjoy. All are featured around the fictional town of Newford and the otherworldly occurrences and residences within, all written between the late 80s and early 90s. It's a diverting enough read (reminding me astoundingly of the early Welcome to Nightvale podcast episodes) though certain stories have not aged well AT ALL.
Update - losing a star 8 months on because this collection has not stuck in my mind in the slightest.
A charming collection of short stories falling firmly in that urban fantasy / myth / horror category I so enjoy. All are featured around the fictional town of Newford and the otherworldly occurrences and residences within, all written between the late 80s and early 90s. It's a diverting enough read (reminding me astoundingly of the early Welcome to Nightvale podcast episodes) though certain stories have not aged well AT ALL.
Update - losing a star 8 months on because this collection has not stuck in my mind in the slightest.
My first de Lint since I was a kid. Just as in tune as I remembered with the magic inherent in cityscapes, but with WAY more well-intentioned racism than I picked up on back then.
Rather than Urban Fantasy, it might make more sense to call this Urban Mythology. The world of Dreams Underfoot is one where the city is a living ecosystem of magical creatures.
I had read that ‘Nathan Burgoine was inspired by Charles de Lint, and I can absolutely see the connection. Both tell stories of urban magic and found family, and of people that have historically been outsiders coming together to form a new community within a city environment. Both also make magic of art.
There is rape and child abuse in Dreams Underfoot, which is something I really don’t enjoy. However, I did like that de Lint usually used these stories in the victims own character arc, with her being the protagonist of her own story, rather than using it to motivate someone else. Not only that, but victimhood is one part of these characters, not a backstory used in place of a personality. One story, that doesn’t end particularly well, has five (and then six) victims coming together to support each other, to create art, and to help others in similar situations. It’s an exploration of victimhood that does a lot more justice to its characters than I normally see, and I appreciate that.
I had read that ‘Nathan Burgoine was inspired by Charles de Lint, and I can absolutely see the connection. Both tell stories of urban magic and found family, and of people that have historically been outsiders coming together to form a new community within a city environment. Both also make magic of art.
There is rape and child abuse in Dreams Underfoot, which is something I really don’t enjoy. However, I did like that de Lint usually used these stories in the victims own character arc, with her being the protagonist of her own story, rather than using it to motivate someone else. Not only that, but victimhood is one part of these characters, not a backstory used in place of a personality. One story, that doesn’t end particularly well, has five (and then six) victims coming together to support each other, to create art, and to help others in similar situations. It’s an exploration of victimhood that does a lot more justice to its characters than I normally see, and I appreciate that.