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Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night
Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night
Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night
Ebook65 pages1 hour

Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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A charming novella about one of Newford’s best-loved characters: artist and dreamer Sophie Etoile. Lured by mystical Native American flute-player Kokopelli, Sophie opens a door in her dreams only to find herself in the wild Sonoran desert, her way back vanished. In her quest to return she gets sidetracked by Coyote, up to his usual mischief. A poignant tale touching on loss, hope and community.

First published in Worlds of Fantasy and Horror #2, Fall, 1994. Cover art by Stephanie Lostimolo.

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

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

De Lint is probably the finest contemporary author of fantasy
– Booklist, American Library Association
Unlike most fantasy writers who deal with battles between ultimate good and evil, de Lint concentrates on smaller, very personal conflicts. Perhaps this is what makes him accessible to the non-fantasy audience as well as the hard-core fans. Perhaps it’s just damned fine writing.
– Quill & Quire
De Lint’s evocative images, both ordinary and fantastic, jolt the imagination.
– Publishers Weekly
It is hard to imagine urban fantasy done with greater skill
– Booklist, American Library Association

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 18, 2015
ISBN9780920623466
Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night
Author

Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of storytellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sophie Etoile, is an artist and a dreamer whose dreams take her into the the otherworlds--or one particular otherworld, Mabon, where among other charms is found the bookstore run by Mr. Truepenny, and where she meets her good friend, Jeck Crow. Or at least, that's where her dreams usually take her.One night, she hears flute music, and steps out the back door of the bookstore, expecting to find herself in the alley behind the store. Instead, she's in the desert of the American southwest--and the bookstore, and the door back into it, are gone.What, or rather who, she meets here are spirits of the southwestern desert, except for Nokomis, also called Grandmother, a spirit of the Kickaha tribe that lives much further east, in the area of the city of Newford, where Sophie lives. Nokomis tells her she can't get out of this dreamworld until she finds the reason that she's here, and than only Coyote or Kokopelli, another spirit who plays the medicine flute, can help her.She goes walking through the desert, and meets Coyote, and when he can't help directly, asks him to help her find Kokopelli. This leads to walking through the desert with Coyote, who can be charming and fun, but also very frustrating. Sophie just wants out of this dreamplace, and when she wakes up in her own bed in the morning, she's relieved.The following night, she's back in the desert.Meanwhile, in the waking world, she's had a show, and met Max, a gay man grieving his recent deceased partner. They become friends, and she learns about his late partner, Peter, and about Max's own art, in the form of sculpture. She comes to suspect that one of the partners is not ready to let the other go, and she's trapped in a dreamworld meant for Max.Or maybe she's not.This is a gentle, thoughtful novella, about recognizing and embracing your own truth.Recommended.I bought this book.

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Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night - Charles de Lint

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