Tachyon Publications: The Very Best of Charles de Lint, Charles de Lint


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			Charles de Lint

			Visit the Charles de Lint website.

	Charles de Lint is the bestselling author of over sixty adult, YA, and children's books, including Moonheart, The Blue Girl, Widdershins, and The Onion Girl. He is a poet, songwriter, performer, and folklorist, and is best known for his contemporary fantasies set in the mythical city of Newford. Highly respected for his criticism as well as his fiction, de Lint is the longtime fiction reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He is the recipient of the World Fantasy, YALSA, Crawford, and Aurora Awards. He lives in Ottawa, Canada.

The Very Best of Charles de Lint

by Charles de Lint

Also by Charles de Lint
Medicine Road
Eyes Like Leaves
Promises to Keep

$15.95/ trade paperback/ 432 pp./ 978-1-892391-96-4
August 2010
Cover Art by Charles Vess
Cover and Interior Design by John Coulthart

Table of Contents

Introduction
In Which We Meet Jilly Coppercorn
Coyote Stories
Laughter in the Leaves
The Badger in the Bag
And the Rafters Were Ringing
Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood
The Stone Drum
Timeskip
Freewheeling
A Wish Named Arnold
Into the Green
The Graceless Child
Winter Was Hard
The Conjure Man
We Are Dead Together
Mr. Truepenny's Book Emporium and Gallery
In the House of My Enemy
The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep
Crow Girls
Birds
Held Safe by Moonlight and Vines
In the Pines
Pixel Pixies
Many Worlds Are Born Tonight
Sisters
Pal o' Mine
That Was Radio Clash
Old Man Crow
The Fields Beyond the Fields

"It's hard not to feel encouraged to be a better person after reading a book by Ottawa's Charles de Lint."
-The Halifax Chronicle Herald

"Charles de Lint is the modern master of urban fantasy. Folktale, myth, fairy tale, dreams, urban legend--all of it adds up to pure magic in de Lint's vivid, original world. No one does it better."
-Alice Hoffman

The finest stories of this popular pioneer of urban fantasy and creator of the mythical city of Newford have been chosen by the author - and his fans - and gathered in this extraordinary collection. Asked to suggest their own favorite stories for inclusion, de Lint's fans have been instrumental in creating a treasury that will spark the imaginations of readers of all ages. These are retold fairy tales and new modern myths that thoroughly redefine the boundaries of magic.

Between these pages are all manner of enchanted characters in unusual places: playful Crow Girls who sneak into the homes of their sleeping neighbors, a graffiti artist who risks his life to expose a deadly conspiracy, and an unrepentant trickster who throws one last party to reveal a lost folkloric tradition.

At turns unexpected, whimsical, dark, and mystical, this is an essential compendium of timeless tales to be revisited as often as the heart desires.

"An outstanding and widely varied collection of 29 tales... Longtime fans and newcomers alike will fall in love with de Lint's graceful, poetic language and characters."
-Publishers Weekly

"[de Lint] is a master storyteller....in every story — and I do mean every — he manages to pack an emotional wallop, and a sense that the fantastical could be very, very possible if only we choose to believe it so."
-Bookgasm

"More than 400 pages of the finest urban fantasy fiction of the past three decades."
-The Ottawa Citizen

"The Very Best of Charles de Lint truly is Charles de Lint at his very best."
-FantasyLiterature.com

"Lovely and quite diverse...This is a collection definitely worth picking up."
-San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review

"These are stories for those who love reading."
-Locus

"De Lint is prolific, and if you’ve resisted picking him up because you’re not sure where to start, this is an excellent way to get a feel for his polished prose, his deep empathy for his own characters, and a wondrous world that may be filled with danger but is no less beautiful because of that."
-Bookgasm

Praise for Charles de Lint

"A master storyteller, he blends Celtic, Native American, and other cultures into a seamless mythology that resonates with magic and truth."
-Library Journal

De Lint's greatest skill is his human focus--the mythic elements never overshadow his intimate study of character. To read de Lint is to fall under the spell of a master storyteller, to be reminded of the greatness of life, of the beauty and majesty lurking in shadows and empty doorways.
-Quill & Quire

"Newford is sometimes more real to me than any other place I've been. The city itself possesses character, spirit, and an identity."
-Rambles

"Part of the beauty of Newford is the sense that it has always been there, that de Lint is a reporter who occasionally files stories from a reality stranger and more beautiful than ours. De Lint also manages to keep each new Newford story fresh and captivating because he is so generous and loving in his depiction of the characters. Yes, there is group of core characters whose stories recur most often, but a city like Newford has so many intriguing people in it, so many diverse stories to tell, so much pain and triumph to chronicle."
-Challenging Destiny