These stories with their often grim urban setting folded lightly with a whip of fantasy do bear up under repeated readings. Charles de Lint can almost make one feel that even when all real hope is gone, say after death, a step in a positive direction is still possible. ( )

I don't know if you do this or not, but sometimes seeing all the books I have yet to read and long to read again (who's lucky enough to have the time for that?) the only thing that comforts me is to get up and run my fingers along the bookcase. As passionate book lovers, we can't possibly read everything we want to, but sometimes knowing it just exists is enough.

Tonight I pulled my Charles de Lint books down off the shelf and experienced the giddiness I first felt upon discovering his wonderful work years ago.

All of his writing is heartfelt, magical and Mr. de Lint is so in tune with the human spirit he seems both masculine and feminine. His Newford stories, in particular, touch the soul. After his novel Memory and Dream (I can't possibly sing its praises enough) Moonlight & Vines is my next favorite of his.

This is the kind of fiction that makes you wish it were real and the characters inside your very best friends. ( )

A remarkable collection of stories by this master and leader in the urban fantasy genre. This book is my first set of de Lint's short stories and I was suitably impressed. Several of them delve into the lives of the gay and lesbian culture in Newford, several of the main characters repeat (such as Jilly), and the final short story seems a bit, um, autobiographical? Maybe? Maybe that's one of his gifts to us, his fans, to reveal a little bit about what makes Charles de Lint who he is. And if so, thank you.

There is such a range of characters here: artists, journalists, musicians, and guns for hire. And such an exploration of the magic that is in our world if we only look at it: the amoral Fae, the gift of death, the afterlife, and small people who only want to receive the gift that will release them from their burden. Each story in its own way, however brief, brings every day closer to magic. Let us take that as a sign. ( )

For some reason, I didn't much care for this collection of short stories which was disappointing as I have loved some of the other Newford collections (such as Dreams Underfoot, the first one). I guess that I found them all a bit too similar to each other in the gritty & bleak lives of the main characters even though the magic bits were varied. Oh well, I am not giving up on the series but I hope that the next one I read I like better... ( )

De Lint's short story collections always feel like good visits with old friends and new. Urban fantasy for thinking readers who want a bit more depth than the latest ab-worthy cover model vs. [insert monster here]. ( )