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Collected Early Stories of Charles de Lint #2
Quicksilver & Shadow: Collected Early Stories, Vol. 2: Contempory, Dark Fantasy, and Science Fiction Stories.
Book by Charles de Lint
357 pages, Hardcover
First published March 11, 2005
368 people want to read
About the author
Charles de Lint
470Ìýbooks3,944ÌýfollowersCharles de Lint is the much beloved author of more than seventy adult, young adult, and children's books. Renowned as one of the trailblazers of the modern fantasy genre, he is the recipient of the World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century poll, conducted by Random House and voted on by readers, put eight of de Lint's books among the top 100.
De Lint is a poet, folklorist, artist, songwriter and performer. He has written critical essays, music reviews, opinion columns and entries to encyclopedias, and he's been the main book reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1987. De Lint served as Writer-in-residence for two public libraries in Ottawa and has taught creative writing workshops for adults and children in Canada and the United States. He's been a judge for several prominent awards, including the Nebula, World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon and Bram Stoker.
Born in the Netherlands in 1951, de Lint immigrated to Canada with his family as an infant. The family moved often during de Lint's childhood because of his father's job with an international surveying company, but by the time Charles was twelve—having lived in Western Canada, Turkey and Lebanon—they had settled in Lucerne, Quebec, not far from where he now resides in Ottawa, Ontario.
In 1980, de Lint married the love of his life, MaryAnn Harris, who works closely with him as his first editor, business manager and creative partner. They share their love and home with a cheery little dog named Johnny Cash.
Charles de Lint is best described as a romantic: a believer in compassion, hope and human potential. His skilled portrayal of character and settings has earned him a loyal readership and glowing praise from peers, reviewers and readers.
Charles de Lint writes like a magician. He draws out the strange inside our own world, weaving stories that feel more real than we are when we read them. He is, simply put, the best.
—Holly Black (bestselling author)
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 (bestselling author)
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
His Newford books, which make up most of de Lint's body of work between 1993 and 2009, confirmed his reputation for bringing a vivid setting and repertory cast of characters to life on the page. Though not a consecutive series, the twenty-five standalone books set in (or connected to) Newford give readers a feeling of visiting a favourite city and seeing old friends.
More recently, his young adult Wildlings trilogy—Under My Skin, Over My Head, and Out of This World—came out from Penguin Canada and Triskell Press in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Under My Skin won 2013 Aurora Award. A novel for middle-grade readers, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, published by Little Brown in 2013, won the Sunburst Award, earned starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Quill & Quire, and was chosen by the New York Times Editors as one of the top six children's books for 2013. His most recent adult novel, The Mystery of Grace (2009), is a fascinating ghost story about love, passion and faith. It was a finalist for both the Sunburst and Evergreen awards.
De Lint is presently writing a new adult novel. His storytelling skills also shine in his original songs. He and MaryAnn (also a musician) recently released companion CDs of their original songs, samples of which can be heard on de Lin
De Lint is a poet, folklorist, artist, songwriter and performer. He has written critical essays, music reviews, opinion columns and entries to encyclopedias, and he's been the main book reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1987. De Lint served as Writer-in-residence for two public libraries in Ottawa and has taught creative writing workshops for adults and children in Canada and the United States. He's been a judge for several prominent awards, including the Nebula, World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon and Bram Stoker.
Born in the Netherlands in 1951, de Lint immigrated to Canada with his family as an infant. The family moved often during de Lint's childhood because of his father's job with an international surveying company, but by the time Charles was twelve—having lived in Western Canada, Turkey and Lebanon—they had settled in Lucerne, Quebec, not far from where he now resides in Ottawa, Ontario.
In 1980, de Lint married the love of his life, MaryAnn Harris, who works closely with him as his first editor, business manager and creative partner. They share their love and home with a cheery little dog named Johnny Cash.
Charles de Lint is best described as a romantic: a believer in compassion, hope and human potential. His skilled portrayal of character and settings has earned him a loyal readership and glowing praise from peers, reviewers and readers.
Charles de Lint writes like a magician. He draws out the strange inside our own world, weaving stories that feel more real than we are when we read them. He is, simply put, the best.
—Holly Black (bestselling author)
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 (bestselling author)
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
His Newford books, which make up most of de Lint's body of work between 1993 and 2009, confirmed his reputation for bringing a vivid setting and repertory cast of characters to life on the page. Though not a consecutive series, the twenty-five standalone books set in (or connected to) Newford give readers a feeling of visiting a favourite city and seeing old friends.
More recently, his young adult Wildlings trilogy—Under My Skin, Over My Head, and Out of This World—came out from Penguin Canada and Triskell Press in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Under My Skin won 2013 Aurora Award. A novel for middle-grade readers, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, published by Little Brown in 2013, won the Sunburst Award, earned starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Quill & Quire, and was chosen by the New York Times Editors as one of the top six children's books for 2013. His most recent adult novel, The Mystery of Grace (2009), is a fascinating ghost story about love, passion and faith. It was a finalist for both the Sunburst and Evergreen awards.
De Lint is presently writing a new adult novel. His storytelling skills also shine in his original songs. He and MaryAnn (also a musician) recently released companion CDs of their original songs, samples of which can be heard on de Lin
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 5, 2014
As the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ description notes, this volume was one of a projected three that were to gather up all of de Lint's early short fiction. I read it soon after reading the companion volume, , which I really liked (my review of that one is here: ); I don't know if the projected third one was ever published. Although the individual stories aren't dated here, they would come from the same time period as those in the earlier book, roughly 1979-1986; the two collections are differentiated from each other by story type, not by publication or writing dates. (And like the earlier volume, this one includes a few that de Lint wrote with a co-author.) The author himself provides a short introduction (about five pages), leavened with becoming modesty, in which he briefly discusses the stories and their influences. Since his subsequent writing has moved away from the "sword-and-sorcery" settings of the first volume and more towards contemporary and urban fantasy settings like these, he likes the selections in this collection better. My own reaction was the opposite; I think A Handful of Coppers is the stronger of the two collections. That volume, IMO, doesn't have any "clunkers;" by de Lint's own admission, this one does. (He and I sometimes agree in identifying them, as with one that was never published until now; I concur with his assessment: "There's a reason no one bought 'From a 24" Screen".... Let's face it, this story misses the mark on all the things that make...any story work.") The writing quality here is not as high overall; there are also more stories here that have bad language, including the f-word, in a way that often comes off as gratuitous. (Though, in fairness to de Lint, there's less of it here than I've encountered in some other works.) However, there are several selections here that are fully up to his standard for quality!
The 17 stories are divided into three sections: "Contemporary and Dark Fantasy," "Bordertown" (which has its own short introduction) and "Science Fiction." My personal favorite of the three was the middle one, containing the three stories de Lint contributed to the shared-world Bordertown anthologies created by Terri Windling. Her premise (which she then invited some other authors to explore) was that some 50 years into the then future, an inter-dimensional link was somehow opened in a major North American city, allowing our world and Elfland to interact. At the link, the concentration of Elven magic rendered most high technology inoperable; and the intermixture and sometimes intermarriage of immigrating elves and a cultural salad of humans created a unique environment. (Not always a nice environment --like humans, individual elves could be good or evil; the latter sort adapted to the ways of evil humans with great facility, and in many neighborhoods law and order was limited or nonexistent. Despite some bad language, I liked all three of these stories ("Berlin" in particular has a good anti-drug message). As de Lint himself indicates, his own invented setting of Newford later supplanted Bordertown in his interest; but I'm still quite intrigued by Windling's world, and would love to read some of the anthologies!
Some writers write science fiction and fantasy with equal facility; but I don't think de Lint is one of them, and on the whole I wouldn't say the former is his forte. Six stories (two of them co-written with Roger Camm) are classified here as SF, though in one case the label strikes me as dubious. None of these were memorably bad, but none were outstanding.
Of the other stories, I recall that "His City" (co-written with Robert Tzopa) and "Death Leaves an Echo" didn't impress me at all. But five of the tales in the first section (all of which I would classify as supernatural fiction) are quite well-done, with good characterization and effective prose, emotional power, and often serious underlying messages. The occasional profane use of Divine names can be off-putting, but the stories are still rewarding. It's hard to pick favorites among these, and sometimes hard to describe the stories without spoilers. I will say that on the whole, I don't get into stories premised on the idea of vampires having taken over the world; but "We Are Dead Together" is an exception to that rule. That tale is enriched by de Lint's knowledge of Rom (Gypsy) culture; several others in the book as a whole draw on Native American mythology and folklore. ("Raven Sings a medicine Way, Coyote Steals the Pollen," for instance, is a retelling of a traditional Blackfoot Trickster story.)
All in all, possibly not de Lint's best work, but worth a read; and several of the stories have improved in my estimation over time. (If I could give half stars, my rating would be three and a half; and I might have given four, but for wanting to give the earlier book a higher rating.) Note: I didn't write the review entirely from memory; I got a copy by interlibrary loan to skim and refer to, so as to supplement my recollection!
The 17 stories are divided into three sections: "Contemporary and Dark Fantasy," "Bordertown" (which has its own short introduction) and "Science Fiction." My personal favorite of the three was the middle one, containing the three stories de Lint contributed to the shared-world Bordertown anthologies created by Terri Windling. Her premise (which she then invited some other authors to explore) was that some 50 years into the then future, an inter-dimensional link was somehow opened in a major North American city, allowing our world and Elfland to interact. At the link, the concentration of Elven magic rendered most high technology inoperable; and the intermixture and sometimes intermarriage of immigrating elves and a cultural salad of humans created a unique environment. (Not always a nice environment --like humans, individual elves could be good or evil; the latter sort adapted to the ways of evil humans with great facility, and in many neighborhoods law and order was limited or nonexistent. Despite some bad language, I liked all three of these stories ("Berlin" in particular has a good anti-drug message). As de Lint himself indicates, his own invented setting of Newford later supplanted Bordertown in his interest; but I'm still quite intrigued by Windling's world, and would love to read some of the anthologies!
Some writers write science fiction and fantasy with equal facility; but I don't think de Lint is one of them, and on the whole I wouldn't say the former is his forte. Six stories (two of them co-written with Roger Camm) are classified here as SF, though in one case the label strikes me as dubious. None of these were memorably bad, but none were outstanding.
Of the other stories, I recall that "His City" (co-written with Robert Tzopa) and "Death Leaves an Echo" didn't impress me at all. But five of the tales in the first section (all of which I would classify as supernatural fiction) are quite well-done, with good characterization and effective prose, emotional power, and often serious underlying messages. The occasional profane use of Divine names can be off-putting, but the stories are still rewarding. It's hard to pick favorites among these, and sometimes hard to describe the stories without spoilers. I will say that on the whole, I don't get into stories premised on the idea of vampires having taken over the world; but "We Are Dead Together" is an exception to that rule. That tale is enriched by de Lint's knowledge of Rom (Gypsy) culture; several others in the book as a whole draw on Native American mythology and folklore. ("Raven Sings a medicine Way, Coyote Steals the Pollen," for instance, is a retelling of a traditional Blackfoot Trickster story.)
All in all, possibly not de Lint's best work, but worth a read; and several of the stories have improved in my estimation over time. (If I could give half stars, my rating would be three and a half; and I might have given four, but for wanting to give the earlier book a higher rating.) Note: I didn't write the review entirely from memory; I got a copy by interlibrary loan to skim and refer to, so as to supplement my recollection!
July 31, 2017
As with most short story collections, this is a mixed bag. However this one is both from one of my favorite writers as well as some his earliest works - which by his admission are not as good as his later works. Some horror. Some bad sf. Some great Borderlands stories. Definitely the flavor of what became Newford is here as well. 3.5 of 5.
March 3, 2016
The Soft Whisper of Midnight Snow RE-read 7/8/2015
Scars RE-read 7/8/2015
We Are Dead Together RE-read 7/8/2015
Death Leaves an Echo
The Face in the Flames
L'Esprit de la Belle Mariette
♦His City (with Robert Tzopa) re-read 6/16/2015
From a 24" Screen
♦Stick re-rad 6/23/2015
Berlin RE-read 7/10/2015
May This Be Your Last Sorrow
A Tattoo on Her Heart
♦Raven Sings a Medicine Way, Coyote Steals the Pollen RE-read 6/23/2015
The Lantern Is the Moon
Songwalking the Hunter's Road
The Dralan (with Roger Camm)
The Cost of Shadows (with Roger Camm)
Scars RE-read 7/8/2015
We Are Dead Together RE-read 7/8/2015
Death Leaves an Echo
The Face in the Flames
L'Esprit de la Belle Mariette
♦His City (with Robert Tzopa) re-read 6/16/2015
From a 24" Screen
♦Stick re-rad 6/23/2015
Berlin RE-read 7/10/2015
May This Be Your Last Sorrow
A Tattoo on Her Heart
♦Raven Sings a Medicine Way, Coyote Steals the Pollen RE-read 6/23/2015
The Lantern Is the Moon
Songwalking the Hunter's Road
The Dralan (with Roger Camm)
The Cost of Shadows (with Roger Camm)
August 13, 2018
A lot of the stories in this collection are not de Lint's strongest (as he readily admits in the introduction), but it was still a good read. Having read the first collection of de Lint's early short stories I can definitely see his evolution and improvement as a writer, as we get a handful more of his published stories (Borderlands mostly, which are always a charm) but it's still very clear that he hasn't quite found his voice yet. I skipped over most of the science fiction stories at the end (not because they were weak, but because sic-fi isn't really my jam), but many of the urban fantasy and "real" world-based stories were starting to sound like the Charles de Lint that I know and love. There's one final volume of the early short sotries that I have yet to read, and I'm quite looking forward to seeing the final bridge between the developing and more mature author.
May 2, 2023
I love de Lint's newer books, and these stories show how he evolved into the writer he was. The first section is stories that are horror-ish, and none of them did anything for me; I don't like that genre. The second section is Bordertown stories, and the spark of his later style comes through in those. The third and last section is nominally science fiction, but the telepathy made them more fantasy-like. Mostly in the Bordertown stories did I feel some of the empathy, the sense of connecting with the characters, that characterizes all his later writing. His ethos, of stuff like peace, love, and understanding, is there; apparently lot of writing honed his skills to make it resonate with readers. And of course, not-the-best de Lint is still better than tons of other stuff I've read.
January 6, 2017
This is a second in a series of early stories from Charles de Lint. The first section is based on horror stories, the second section based on a world called 'Bordertown', which is a cyber-punk setting, and the third and last setting is science fiction stories. It's quite a mix of oddities for de Lint, and it was interesting to read stories, that were not his usual Celtic or Native American type sorcery mixed in an urban setting. This was a fairly large collection of stories, and I breezed right through them, as it was an enjoyable read. I liked the setting of 'Bordertown' the best, but in reality they were all good.
March 1, 2008
This is the second collection of shorts from his earlier days. It is hard for me to find authors who write short stories I actually enjoy... (which is odd since I write them). I enjoy this collection for the borderland stories. If you are familiar with Charles de Lint outside of his Newford tales, I would recommend adding this to your collection. It will be a cherished favorite of mine for years to come.
March 30, 2014
This is a collection of some of Charles De Lint's early work, specifically his short stories. I enjoyed this book for the most part. It is mostly dark fantasy and science fiction. And I can say that de Lint has improved a great deal as a writer over the years. Overall, a few disapointments, but overall well worth the reading.
July 1, 2012
Not a bad collection, some of the stories were hit and miss, but overall it kept my attention and many of the stories were very imaginative. Sometimes overly descriptive, though, I found myself scanning over descriptions that weren't vital to the story.
January 7, 2017
Short stories, including some of Charles de Lint's early sci-fi and some Bordertown ones.
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