Memory and Dream (1994) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 3 stars

“Charles de Lint is quickly becoming the master of romantic urban fantasy. I'm not talking about the hack and slash detective or sparkly vampire stuff that is popular today. It is more like gothic romance of yesteryear with a mixture of Shojo manga meets Native American Spirituality meets the Grim Brothers all wrapped up in 21st century attire. While the tale and the literary tricks employed in Memory and Dream are simplistic the character development and the weave of the tale is like a warm cup of cocoa on a winter night. It begins with a famous mysterious painter offering his services to mentor an up and coming painter who happens to have the gift of creating numena, beings brought forth from another place taking form from her paintings. From here the adventure begins.”

• Rated 5 stars

“All right all right... we already know that I am partial toward De Lint's novels. I just love his stories. I love how he mixes myth, legend and the real to make a beautiful story. You can't help but fall in love with the characters, the story...

Imagine you're an artist, oils are your medium. You are taken under the wing of one of the most celebrated artists of your time. Under his tutelage, you learn that your art can be a gateway to bring across whatever your subject in the painting is, whether its a Native American, a reading woman or a wild girl. You love each one that crosses over, they aren't just figments of your imagination... they are real people.

This is where Izzy finds herself. She's so excited to be learning from one of, if not the best and most celebrated artist of her time. Everything is going just fine until she starts to have nightmares of her work being destroyed, burned. The people she has been bringing over are being killed, they are connected to the paintings. If the paintings are destroyed then the person dies too. But is Izzy just dreaming, or are her dreams real?

I was up late last night reading, I just had to finish the story and see what happened. As always, I wasn't disappointed. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Another very fine collection of short stories in fictional Newford by De Lint. ”

• Rated 2 stars

“2 1/2 stars”

• Rated 4 stars

“Isabelle, an artist, and Kathy, a writer, are best friends in university in the early 1970s. Izzy is studying under a well-renowned artist, Rushkin. What she's learning is that her painting, as do Rushkin's, can bring the characters to life. 20 years later, Kathy has been dead for 5 years, but always wanted Izzy to illustrate one of her books. When Izzy agrees, some of those characters begin to reappear, along with their evil doppelgangers.

The book alternates back and forth between the 70s and the 90s, and it's done very well, the way the story interweaves between the two time periods. I really liked them both and was kept wanting to keep reading. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“This is a brilliant book. One of my favourite of Charles de Lint's book. Superb.”

• Rated 0 stars

“Loved it, but then I am a painter.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I love reading art and magic stories”

• Rated 3 stars

“The book was interesting; I loved the fantasy elements, particularly, and the fact that this is one book with gay content that I wasn't expecting made me squee. But the plot was rather slow; I almost gave up halfway through.”

• Rated 5 stars

“I really love this book for what it says about art, and consensual reality and youth versus your adult life. It's one of my favorites of his. ”