# So who wants to talk about the stories of Charles de Lint? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274 "2011-04-21T19:58:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/1 "2011-04-21T19:58:48Z")
Other than me, obviously. I don’t know I’m bothering, but here’s a link to the Wikipedia article about him–no, wait, sorry, I can’t force myself to cite Wikipedia right now, I hate it too much at the moment. [Here’s a shorter bio that won’t give me hives](http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/bio01.). I’m a de Lint Fan in manay ways, though I prefer his short stories to his novels. He’s very good at creating engaging protagonists and getting the reader (this reader, anyway) passionately interested in their fate. Unfortunately he sometimes gets so drawn into his world-building and myth-making that he loses the narrative thrust of his stories for long periods. This isn’t a problem in his short stories (which is to say, it WOULD be a problem it happened, but he usually manages to restrain himself), but in his novels it can be quite frustrating. The best example I can think of is in [The Onion Girl](http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/onion-desc01.htm). The scenes with the main character, Jilly, and her estranged sister Raylene, were absolutely grippnig, but his repeated digressions into the nature of consensus reality and the Crow girls and earth-spirits were madness-making. I’ll stop here to see if anyone else has de Lint opinions to share. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/2 "2011-04-21T20:08:12Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > [Here’s a shorter bio that won’t give me hives](http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/bio01.htm). Fixed link, I think. I don’t have much of an opinion on him. I started reading one of his books and fell asleep so many times in the first two chapters that I just gave up. I don’t even remember the story, unfortunately so I don’t know if it was just that book or if he doesn’t appeal to me entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/3 "2011-04-21T20:11:05Z")
I’ve read several of his novels and short story collections, but he’s never quite clicked with me. There’s something oddly clinical about his style that I find off-putting. His characters are always analyzing themselves in a very “tell and not show” sort of way. This tendency seems most pronounced in his later works – I couldn’t even finish “Spirits in the Wires”. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/4 "2011-04-21T20:32:18Z")
I used to love his books when I was a fey teenager. **Moonheart** and its sequel **Spiritwalk** , and **Jack the Giant-killer** and its sequel, **Drink Down the Moon** were particular favorites of mine, plus his short story collections. And then after a while I started noticing he basically writes the same stories and/or characters (always artists who mysteriously are able to support themselves) nearly every time. He’s still great for a wonderful escapist read, though. I used to positively _ache_ to live in his worlds. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/5 "2011-04-21T20:42:44Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > I’ve read several of his novels and short story collections, but he’s never quite clicked with me. There’s something oddly clinical about his style that I find off-putting. His characters are always analyzing themselves in a very “tell and not show” sort of way. This tendency seems most pronounced in his later works – I couldn’t even finish “Spirits in the Wires”. I won’t argue with the oddly clinical style; it’s what I meant when I said he spends too much time talking about, say, Mabon, trying to convince us that we should think it’s marvelous. The thing is, he’s already done that without all the academic stuff, and he diverts our attention from the story in the process. That said, he’s about a hundred times the writer Piers Anthony is. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/6 "2011-04-21T21:00:41Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I won’t argue with the oddly clinical style; it’s what I meant when I said he spends too much time talking about, say, Mabon, trying to convince us that we should think it’s marvelous. The thing is, he’s already done that without all the academic stuff, and he diverts our attention from the story in the process. > > That said, he’s about a hundred times the writer Piers Anthony is. A 12-year-old kid with a Sharpie in the men’s room at Grand Central Terminal is a hundred times the writer Piers Anthony is. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/7 "2011-04-21T21:07:07Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > A 12-year-old kid with a Sharpie in the men’s room at Grand Central Terminal is a hundred times the writer Piers Anthony is. That is a filthy lie. Such kids can rarely spell, which Anthony is gifted at. I didn’t 't bring up Anthony for no reason, by the way. The most fllagrant way he sucks eggs is his terrible dialogue, and while de Lint does not approach his level of crapitude, he’s less than gifted in the area, particularly when it comes to characters who are uneducated or given to speak ungrammatically. He’ll have a character who regularly drops _ain’t_s and never uses any verb form but the infinitive suddenly use words like _mordant_, and it always takes me out of the moment. No ear for dialogue there. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/8 "2011-04-21T21:08:29Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > A 12-year-old kid with a Sharpie in the men’s room at Grand Central Terminal is a hundred times the writer Piers Anthony is. The functionally illiterate are better writers than Piers Anthony. ---
**Author:** ![Parenchyma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Parenchyma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parenchyma)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/9 "2011-04-22T04:22:18Z")
I’ve read several of his novels but I have to really be in just the right mood. Usually I end up getting the book out of the library multiple times, taking it out of the stack and thinking, “No, not interested right now” until one day it finally it clicks and I can read it in the proper frame of mind. I like the idea of European and American spirits competing for the hearts and minds of the current human residents. The artsy/mystical/slacker community has its appeal at times too. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/10 "2011-04-22T12:26:57Z")
I believe I have read several of de Lint’s works. In fact, I am sure of it, but I cannot recall a single thing about any of them. Which is odd because I really like modern “urban” fantasy where “things are not as they seem on the surface” and wonder is overlooked by the busy masses. Does Bigfoot live in the bad part of town in one of his books? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-wants-to-talk-about-the-stories-of-charles-de-lint/579274/11 "2011-04-22T19:02:17Z")
I read his stuff. I liked most of it, even if it is a bit touchy-feely new-age-y for me. What was his most recent book? The one about the ghost girl?