The Wild Wood

Charles de Lint is a master of magic in stories — an alchemist of prose — and a gentle weaver of worlds.

Originally published back in 1994 as part of a planned Faerielands series of books by Bantam Spectra, where authors would create a novel based on a favorite piece of Brian Froud Fairie art. In the end due to publishing issues only this one and 'Something Rich and Strange' by Patricia A. Mckillip made it out at the time. This Tor/Orb paperback reprint does not contain the original interior illustrations, or the original Brian Froud cover art. This is the third 'De Lint' book that I have read, the previous two being 'Yarrow' and 'Greenmantle'. I am fond of forest/woodland themes. Appropriately the book reads like a painting, and art is central to the book. The language here is way more advanced I think than either Greenmantle or Yarrow, this is 6 years further into his career, with an improvement that time can bring in a writer. It is a short novel (only 200 Pages), focused primarily around one character and her interaction with the forest world of Faerie. I come into this book not normally being an Urban Fantasy (or in this case Rural Fantasy) reader. It does read like viewing a fine oil painting of a forest scene. A lovely character focused book where the language is a joy. Someone referred to this as not one of his stronger books, I disagree, in the context of the novel is supposed to be it is just fine. While I'm glad I started with Greenmantle, this is De Lint moving forward with his writing art. For information the other two books that were supposed to be issued as the Brian Froud's Faerieland series were 'The Woodwife' by Terri Windling, and 'Hannah's Garden' by Midori Synder.

Charles de Lint's books always transport me to a magical place. This book was no exception and makes me long to be in the woods capturing some of that magic that he sees so clearly.

One of the things Charles de Lint does well is cogitate on the nature of reality. Parallel universes of different cultures overlapping human and faerie create complex tensions. Since de Lint's faerie is barely visible to the human sensibilities, it requires layers of physical, mental and spirit energies described in the awkward medium of vocabulary. Spirit infuses every cell of life luminously throughout de Lint's ouvre. Fortunately he is a prolific writer, which means there is a library of past work and much to look forward to, filling "Newford" Canada with stick men, hobs, Crow sisters, antlered royalty and bewildered humans. I can't recommend Charles deLint enough.

His characters are terrific. They find ways to overcome bad deals in life and become successful as artists, musicians and writers and form their own families and community. His stories are full of wonder and magic. This one was created 30 some years ago but is absolutely fresh today. I’m a longtime fan.

I read this book for the first time many years ago. It was one of the strangest and most magical books I'd ever read. Have read many of his books since then. Was never able to get a copy until recently. Have several of my favorites in my permanent library. Worth having, to revisit his magical world in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee.

I read this long ago. It means more to me now. Delint’s writing is beautiful, and his message about environmental destruction was way ahead of its time. I have almost all Delint’s books on my shelves, and this is a reminder to wander through them again. Pretty much all his books deserve 5+ stars.

I have only just started the book, so won’t be commenting on the story.The formatting, however, I will. There are a number of mistakes the I’ve encountered, with words out of order, or spelled incorrectly, or words missing entirely.For example, page 62 has two errors: ‘a combination of the all the small,’ and ‘that I never out took my camera’. These are just two examples. There’s many more I didn’t take note of.

Takes you to a fantastic place, from which you won’t want to leave - even when the bad things come!

Apart from the fact that he’s my favourite author; if you’re a fan of urban fantasy you can’t go wrong with this author.

Not bad at all. Quite an unusual and very interesting storyline. Unlike his other works in a number of respects and I wish he would pursue this line of storytelling rather than seeming to concentrate on his Newford novels. Failing that, this tale could have been improved by being longer.

Really liked this one

Das erste Mal, dass ich ein Buch von Charles de Lint nach einer Weile nur noch im Schnellverfahren durchgeblättert habe.