This week I want to talk about one of my favorite authors: Charles de Lint.

In my opinion, Charles de Lint is a master of the short story. Some of my favorite books are his short story collections, and if someone wants to start reading, that’s the direction I recommend them.

Many, if not most, of his stories are set in Newford, which is a small city that may be in Canada, but may be in the northern US instead. Not that it matters, because the important border of Newford is the border with the magical realm–the world where coyote and the moon walk and talk. Newford is a city where fairies and crow girls can live and interact with us mere mortals. Newford is the place where I’d love to live, even if I couldn’t see into the magical realm that is so close there.

His world is also a place full of music and beauty, where many of the characters are artists and musicians and writers. But don’t the wrong impression, it is most definitely not all sweetness and light. His characters are runaways, recovered junkies, and abused kids. Most of the characters are damaged or outsiders, but throughout the stories there is hope. Not ‘wish upon a star’ hope, but the hope that comes from hard work and effort.

Although Charles de Lint writes many short stories, most of those stories are set in Newford, and they tend to have a recurring cast of characters: Jilly Coppercorn, Geordie, Christie Riddell , Sophie Etiole and all the others I’ve come to love. Each short story is a vignette into the lives of the people who live in Newford, and you can read any story without having read any other story before it.

He has also written several novels set in Newford (and also some novels set elsewhere as well). Although you can read any of the Newford novels at any point in time, I personally think they’re more enjoyable if you have the background of the different characters and know their histories.

If you wanted to start with a short story collection, I would highly recommend Dreams Underfoot. Moonlight and Vines is probably my second favorite collection, and you could easily pick up either collection and start reading and delve into the characters.

If you’d like to start with a novel, you may want to start with Jack of Kinrowan (which is a reissue of Jack the Giant Killer and Drink Down the Moon. The stories are not set in Newford and contain none of the usual characters, but the feel is the same–of magic just around the corner, or glimpsed out of the corner of your eye.

His books also contain a great deal of folklore and folktales. There are fairies and goblins, but also coyotes and crows and other trickster figures, who act as you would expect trickster figures to act. The earthy coyote of folklore of drinks and steals and takes advantage of women when he can. These are the characters from folklore–not the characters from the cleaned up fairy tales.

Charles de Lint also writes excellent young adult fiction. And by young adult I mean very good fantasy that has teenage characters. (I have to say that some of the young adult fantasy out there is better than much of what you find on the shelves in the SFF section of the bookstore.)

If you have even a passing interest in folk lore and folk tales, then you would almost certainly love Charles de Lint’s books. If you enjoy short stories, then you will also want to read his short story collections and then get pulled into his novels based on the characters in those short stories. ANd if you enjoy good writing and would like to see how you feel about urban fantasy, you should check out Charles de Lint. I’ll admit he’s not for everyone–Michael has never been able to get into his books and stories–but if he is your thing, you’ll end up loving him.

Wolf Moon (1988), The Harp of the Gray Rose, The Dreaming Place (1990), The Little Country (1991), Dreams Underfoot (1993), Into the Green (1993), Memory & Dream (1994), The Ivory and the Horn (1995), Moonlight & Vines (1999), Jack of Kinrowan (1999), Tapping the Dream Tree (2002), The Onion Girl (2002), Waifs and Strays (2002), Spirits in the Wires (2003), The Blue Girl (2004), Widdershins (2006), Promises to Keep (2007)

Yesterday, I meant to write about urban fantasy versus supernatural fantasy, but instead went off on a tangent about why I stopped reading epic fantasy. (I also think it’s interesting that both Erin and I have made a similar shift in reading.)

So as I’ve said, I’ve been reading much more supernatural and urban fantasy, but–for me at least–there is a distinction between the two.

When I think of urban fantasy I think first and foremost of Charles de Lint and then Nina Kiriki Hoffman. In most of his writing, there is magic in the world, and it has always been there, but most people remain unaware of the magical world, or unable to sense/interact with the magical world. And sometimes even those who do see magic don’t always believe what they’re seeing.

Supernatural fantasy (at least for my classification), tends to focus on magical creatures or individuals with magical talents living in the modern world. That world may or may not be aware of these supernatural beings, but those beings have a strong influence on the world. A big theme seems to be either supernatural beings coming out of the closet or the world at large changed by supernatural beings.

It also tends to be more open to genre bending and combining. I love mysteries, and supernatural fantasy has a lot of series that are both fantasy and mystery. (Simon R. Green, Jim Butcher, and Kat Richardson all do this extremely well.) This combination expands the traditional mystery, not only because the detective or investigator has extra abilities, but because you then get to look at the idea of what constitutes a crime when the victim is undead, or when the battle for pack leader involves a fight to the death?

However, supernatural fantasy also tends to have a fair amount of boinking. There is often a strong romantic and/or sexual element. These supernatural or magical creatures are either super sexy or use their magical powers to make themselves super sexy. That’s my least favorite part of supernatural fantasy. I just don’t care to learn the details of supernatural noogie and how much hawter it is than regular human to human boinking.

I’m not saying they’re badly written sex scenes, I’m just saying I’d rather have more world building than boinking.

And that is one thing the good supernatural fantasy books tend to do very well, they have excellent world building, and have taken our world and twisted it just enough that it’s close to our world, but not quite the same, but those small differences are very well done.

But both types of fantasy are very good, and I’ve been enjoying reading both kinds, although supernatural fantasy is way more common right now. Will you find these distinctions in a book store? Unlikely. I’ve seen the term paranormal fantasy bandied about, but it seems to be used primarily for fantasy books with a lot of boinking. What if you want one and not the other? My recommendation is to check the covers. Sexy women (or men) on the cover tend to designate a fair amount of boinking. But it’s not a hard and fast rule (Charlaine Harris‘ Sookie Stackhouse books are an exception, although I’ve noticed that the reissues are going for the sexy covers).

And you can always check my reviews. I do try to note if there is a large amount of boinking in a book.

I’ve been reading a lot of supernatural and urban fantasy recently.

There are several reasons for this. First and foremost seems to be because unlike other types of fantasy, supernatural fantasy seems to be written more like mysteries. There is often an overarching story, but each book has a plot that begins and ends within the book. We may learn more about the character’s past or talents or secret or whatever, but the story arc is concluded.

Additionally, most supernatural and urban fantasy books are written so that you can start at any book in the series. Sure, there’s a past, and it’s nice to know the past, but you aren’t doomed to be lost if you miss the first (or second or third) book in the series. And when a new book comes out, you don’t have to reread every other book in the series.

Which is why I have all but stopped reading epic fantasy.

I like being able to pick up a book, read that book, and then go onto something else. I am not in the mood to pick up an eight hundred page tome that is the first book in what was supposed to be a trilogy but has stretched out to to five… seven… ten… whatever books. The idea of having to read hundreds of thousands of pages is just overwhelming right now. Not that I haven’t read hundreds of thousands of pages of supernatural fantasy and mystery, I just don’t have to read them all at once. I can read some Carrie Vaughn and then switch to Andrea Camilleri and then read something completely different.

So sorry epic fantasy.

I am over you.

Of course this wasn’t at all what I meant to write about when I started. What I wanted to write about was the difference between urban fantasy and supernatural fantasy.

Maybe next time.