xmiyux

Someone had mentioned to me that if i enjoyed the modern urban fantasy stories like War For the Oaks, Anita Blake series, and the Harry Dresden series that i should check out de Lint. However he has a huge amount of books. So i'm wondering, is it one continuous series or does he write a couple different series set in different worlds/timelines? Also, what is the first book in his urban mythology timeline?

Josh-da-man

Charles de Lint's stories don't take place in series or anything like that.

Most of them are standalone works that explore similar themes and settings.

The one exception would probably be his Newford stories. Newford is de Lint's fictional North American city that serves as a backdrop for a number of his novels and short stories. This provides a shared geography and a cast of recurring characters. It's more like Stephen King's Castle Rock, and even though most of King's stories take place in a shared universe, it doesn't really matter where you start.

I'd say the best place to start, to get a feel for his works, would be "Dreams Underfoot." It's the first collection of his Newford short stories, the first of three so far. And if you like his style, go from there.

WillieTheShakes

I agree with Josh - start with Dreams Underfoot for the Newford stories. If you like that, move on to Memory and Dream, a beautiful novel about art and love, creation and death - fantastic. From there, take them in the order they were writ...
And for something completely different, try The Little Country, a fun book about music and the wee folk. Or, for a pure shot of urban fantasy, try Moonheart, the book that turned me on to de Lint about a decade ago.
Whichever way you go, you can't go wrong (unless you try to start with The Onion Girl - that's for Newford die-hards...) and I really, truly envy you for getting to read this fabulous writer for the first time. I hope that, even just once more in my life, I get to discover a new writer who has the same sort of impact on me that de Lint has had...

xmiyux

Well i was at a used bookstore today and they had a copy of The Little Country for 2$ so i picked it up. However, is it not a good one to start with?

WillieTheShakes

It's a great stand-alone novel that features such common de Lint factors as the power of music, strong young female lead (he writes great women) and the way magic touches on the real world... Good, good stuff.

DeeKay

Try "Jack the Giant Killer" and then the sequel, "Drink Down the Moon".

xmiyux

I know, a big necro of the thread. I had read most of that copy of Little Country and wasn't really enjoying it that much. I ended up not giving de Lint another look for a while.

I stumbled across Jack the Giant Killer at a library and thought it was a pretty good book, but it still didn't hook me like Emma Bull and War For the Oaks did.

Then just last week I snagged Dreams Underfoot from the library and holy hell is it good. I'm really really enjoying the setting and the stories that range from sweet to a little spooky. I'll probably end up running to Borders this week to just buy myself a copy as well as get the next one.

However, it is in the Newford line and nowhere in the books does it list any kind of order for the series (at least that i could find). Whether the series is sequential or not I'm just OCD enough that it will just annoy me if i read them out of order. Any idea on their order? I tried looking on Amazon some to see if they had any lists that put them in sequential order but most of the lists didn't limit themselves to the Newford line.

Blade

http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/faq01.htm#newford2

Great author. I really should start reading some of his books I have but haven't gotten to yet.