Memory and Dream by Charles De Lint

Memory and Dream - 5 stars

All right all right... we already know that I am partial toward De Lint's novels. I just love his stories. I love how he mixes myth, legend and the real to make a beautiful story. You can't help but fall in love with the characters, the story...

Imagine you're an artist, oils are your medium. You are taken under the wing of one of the most celebrated artists of your time. Under his tutelage, you learn that your art can be a gateway to bring across whatever your subject in the painting is, whether its a Native American, a reading woman or a wild girl. You love each one that crosses over, they aren't just figments of your imagination... they are real people.

This is where Izzy finds herself. She's so excited to be learning from one of, if not the best and most celebrated artist of her time. Everything is going just fine until she starts to have nightmares of her work being destroyed, burned. The people she has been bringing over are being killed, they are connected to the paintings. If the paintings are destroyed then the person dies too. But is Izzy just dreaming, or are her dreams real?

I was up late last night reading, I just had to finish the story and see what happened. As always, I wasn't disappointed.

Promises To Keep by Charles De Lint

Promises To Keep --5 Stars

All right, so I'm partial. I love Charles De Lint!! His novels always take me to a new place, a new adventure. In this case, my favourite character, Jilly Coopercorn, is in her early twenties. She has only just cleaned up her life and is attending Butler University, studying Fine Art. Jilly is given an invitation to see a band preform and so walks through a doorway to an afterlife.

I say "an afterlife" because, as the book says, there could be several. Jilly is given everything she was denied in her life. She is safe, has money, no one is wanting to pimp her out for cash... In short its the perfect life. The only problem is that she feels she's in the wrong place. She is making a life in Newford and wants to earn her happiness, not have it simply handed to her.

Problems really start when Jilly is told she can't home to the "World As It Is". Since she accepted the wealth offered, she has to stay. Jilly wants to go home. But how?

Beautifully written. This is a recent novel, but tells the early history of a character that I have grown to care very much about. I have loved Jilly since I first read of her in The Ivory and The Horn. Of course that was the De Lint novel that started this whole Newford obsession. When compared to the other book I finished that day, this one was a joy! And yes, I read all 192 pages in a single day. I couldn't stop myself. 

Someplace To Be Flying by Charles DeLint

Someplace To Be Flying
5 Stars-

All right, so I'm partial, but who can blame me? I love DeLint's work and must say that his mixture of urban fantasy and traditional folklore has burrowed its way into my heart with no intent of leaving anytime soon.

In this story, we don't really see any of the usual characters. They are mentioned, but never introduced. Instead there is a focus on a lesser known pair of characters, Lilly and Hank. When she goes in search of the animal people from Jack's stories, Lilly finds more then she bargained for. One of these people try to kill her, but Hank turns up just in time to lend a hand with some serious help from the Crow Girls. This first encounter with a world neither of them understand bring downtown Hank and uptown Lilly together, in ways that neither of them would have ever expected.

I think the great take away from this novel is family. Sometimes we make mistakes with our kin and we have to atone for them, sometimes our family resembles a pack of wolves out for blood and there is no atonement. Sometimes when we introduce a member of the family we add that they are the ones we chose, not the ones we born into. Hank had a rough life, his family is odd and a little damaged, but good.

I could  not put this story down, I am always ready to dive headlong into a DeLint novel and only coming up for coffee. 

Forests Of The Heart by Charles De Lint

Forests of the Heart

Rated-- *****
All right, so this was a "fluff" book, one that you read purely for the entertainment, for the joy of the story itself, not because you expect to receive anything of wisdom in the pages. De Lint is among my favourite authors and his Newford stories are always on my reading shelf. I truly never tire of reading his tales.

Charles De Lint manages to mix ancient folklore, spiritism, and Christianity in a way that never comes off as anything other then a beautiful story. In this one, De Lint doesn't follow the characters that his fans have grown to love so dearly, but introduces us to all new people! A singular treat.

The story opens in the deserts of the American Southwest with a young woman who has powerful medicine in her. She travels to Newford because she was called, by something or someone she isn't sure. She gets dragged into an ancient battle between the spirits, a place that no one wants to be. You never try to attract the attention of spirits as old as creation itself. The list of characters is numerous and wonderful. We are all taken on an adventure to find a way to lock an ancient spirit away before he can destroy anyone in his bloodlust. Where will you stand?

De Lint again gives us, not only a story of people and fantastic possibilities, but a story of loves won and lost. Of fear and hope, of dreams and nightmares. Truly, this is a wonderful novel of pain and beauty, one I am pleased to have spent the night reading.