Moonlight & Vines

Moonlight & Vines (1999) Charles de Lint

The third Charles de Lint short story collection, Moonlight & Vines returns again to Newford. Although it starts and ends with a Christie Riddell story, and there are plenty of appearances by the characters with whom we’ve become familiar, there are also new characters, some we’ll meet again, and some who seem to appear only this once.

I am particularly fond of several of the stories in this collection. In “Saskia,” Christie first meets Saskia, we learn a small piece of Geordie and Christie’s past, and most importantly, we learn about the Wordwood. I love the Wordwood.

“In the Pines” is another favorite, because Darlene seems as if she’d stepped out of Southern West Virginia or anywhere in Appalachia, and I love the idea of a ghost with good intentions. I’m also inordinately fond of this bit: “I don’t lead an exciting life, but I’m partial to a lack of excitement. Gets to a point where excitement’s more trouble than it’s worth…”

“If I Close My Eyes Forever” is a rather strange story that, for all I like it, seems somehow out of place in this collection. For all it’s fantastic elements, has the tone of hard boiled detective novel, so it’s a bit of a jolt, being so different from what comes before and after. Although I have to admit that perhaps the tone is a bit like “China Doll,” another story I really like. Both of main characters who appear and then disappear.

I love the stories within the story of “Heartfires” and I love “Crow Girls,” both the story and the characters. I love their trickster nature combined with the fact that they’re something more.

But I love most how these stories make you stop and think. Even when he’s talking about the horrors that exist in real life–the horrors that his characters confront–there’ still hope.

There are also bits in this collection that remind me of other things I’ve read and seen. “The Invisibles” shared elements of a Buffy episode, and I was reminded of Neil Gaiman’s Death in the story “Shining Nowhere but in the Dark.” Just a odd feeling.

As always, the writing and characters are excellent. The only flaw is that at one point the discussion of the horror of the real world changes from an element of the story, to preaching. I understand that the cause is important, but it steps outside the flow of the story.

It was reading this collection that I came to the realization that most of his best characters are female. Not that I have a problem with a male writer writing female characters, it’s just odd to find one who does it well so consistently. And in general he writes more about women. There’s Geordie and Christie, and Jack Crow and a couple of other men, but the majorities of these stories have female characters. Strange that I never noticed that until now.

As with all of Charles de Lint’s short story collections, you don’t have to have read any of his previous works to understand and enjoy this book. Each story stands on its own, and the past history of the characters, like Jilly, adds more depth to the stories, but the stories are fully understandable without that history.
Rating: 8/10

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