Tapping the Dream Tree

Tapping the Dream Tree (2002) Charles de Lint

I’ve been somewhat depressed recently, and since I got an Amazon book credit, I realized I could get some of my Charles de Lint books as eBooks. WIN.

Ten for the Devil
Wingless Angels
The Words That Remain
Many Worlds Are Born Tonight
The Buffalo Man
Second Chances
Forest or Stone
Embracing the Mystery
Masking Indian
Granny Weather
The Witching Hour
Pixel Pixies
Trading Hearts at the Half Kaffe Café
Making a Noise in This World
Freak
Big City Littles
Sign Here
Seven Wild Sisters

Ten for the Devil (1998) from Battle Magic. Staley has a blue fiddle that calls of magic. Or so she’s been told. Unfortunately, she accidentally calls up some things that are not so calm and benign. This has a lovely Robert Johnson bit.

“Long as the day is wide?” she asked.

“Well, you know. Start to finish, the day only holds so many hours, but you go sideways and it stretches on forever.”

Wingless Angels (2000) from Black Gate is one of the darker stories, and not a particular favorite.

The Words That Remain (2000) from Taps and Sighs is a short ghost story. It’s got Christy Riddle, and I quite like it.

Many Worlds Are Born Tonight (2000) from Lisa Snelling’s Strange Attractions is another story I don’t much care for. It’s about an Ferris Wheel that can take you to any of the possibilities created whenever you make a choice.

The Buffalo Man (1999) is a Meran and Cerin story with Lucius and the Crow girls and Jilly.

“You wouldn’t have any crow blood in you, would you?”

“Nary a drop.”

Lucius harrumphed and muttered, “I’d still like to see the results of a DNA test.”

“What was that?”

“I said, I wonder where they keep their nest.”

How can a smile, a laugh, a good deed, stand up against the weight of such a history?”

“I… I guess it can’t,” Jilly said. “But you still have to try.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s all you can do. If you don’t try to stand up against the darkness, it swallows you up.”

Second Chances (1998) has Meran, but it’s mostly about Joey Straw and second chances and being more than our genes and history.

There are people that need stories, that can’t exist without them. I’m one of those people, always have been. Nose in a book, ear cocked for gossip, wouldn’t go to bed without a story and that lasted for a lot longer for me than it does for most kids. I still read for an hour or so before I go to sleep.

And stories.

Forest or Stone (1999) from Merlin is a Jilly and Geordie story and keeping promises.

“Doing it like you mean it. You’d be surprised how much satisfaction you can get from the simplest task if you impart it with meaning.”

Embracing the Mystery (2000) from Spell Fantastic is a Wordwood story that also is about Sue Ash and her inherited dog Fritzie.

They work because they make us concentrate so completely that the magic has to pay attention to us. It’s like communion and singing hymns in church. People really do get closer to God because they’re focusing on these rituals and no longer listening to that constant dialogue that goes on inside their heads.”

Masking Indian (2000) from Mardi Gras Madness is set partially in Newford and in the past in New Orleans.

Granny Weather (2000) from Imagination Fully Dilated is a Sophie and Mabon story.

I can feel my anxieties lose some of their immediacy. The dark holes are still there, but I’m no longer so panicked that I think they’re going to swallow me whole.

The Witching Hour is one of the darker stories, about Christy and Geordie’s other brother, and about damnation.

Pixel Pixies (1999) is an amusing story. This has bad faeries offset by a good faerie. And a bookstore.

The pixies were truly puzzled by the book. I suppose it would be odd from any perspective, a book that old, never once having been opened or read. It defeated the whole purpose of why it had been made.

Trading Hearts at the Half Kaffe Café (2001) from Single White Vampire Seeks Same is another fun story, although it has the potential for very bad things to happen.

Making a Noise in This World (2000) from Warrior Fantastic is a story about Native Americans / First Peoples (however you want to classify them). I quite like the outcome of this story.

Freak (2001) The Mutant Files is a really depressing and upsetting story. Just so you know.

Big City Littles (2000) is another story with Meran, and about faerie.

What good were promises if you didn’t keep them? How could you respect yourself, never mind expect anyone else to respect you, if you could break them so easily?

Sign Here (2002) from Apprentice Fantastic is an interesting story, but I don’t especially care for it.

Seven Wild Sisters (2002) is one of the longer stories and I actually have an illustrated book of this story.

Sarah and her seven sisters moved to the country, and live just a few miles from the woman they eventually came to call Aunt Lillian (after determining that she was not, in actuality, a witch). As Sarah spends more time with Aunt Lillian, she eventually discovers that although the older woman’s way of life may seem crazy, but it actually has much to recommend.

“Used to live with my aunt, but she passed away some time ago, God rest her soul.”

“Without running water or TV or anything?”

“Without anything? Girl, I’ve got the whole of the Lord’s creation right at my front door.”

It’s also a story–like so many of Charles de Lint’s, where the girl gets to rescue herself.

Rating: 9.5/10

Published by Tor

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