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A review of Yarrow: An Autumn Tale

by Charles de Lint

A delightful tale of Urban Fantasy about dreamers in the real world.

Reviewed by: April Dawn Duncan
About April Dawn Duncan

Yarrow: An Autumn Tale Imagine you live in two worlds. One is our waking world; the other only exists while you sleep. Now imagine that all of your inspiration in the waking world comes from your dreams. There is nothing in the waking world that you need, nothing that you don't already have in the world of your dreams. Your waking friends are few and distant, more like acquaintances than anything else. You like it that way, because they cannot compare to the ones you've met while traveling in the world of your dreams, the Otherworld. Then one inconceivable night, the doors to the Otherworld slam shut, and you are left with night after night of dreamless sleep. How will you face the waking world alone? And, will you ever be able to open the doors to the Otherworld again?

Those are the questions that the protagonist--new popular fantasy author Caitlin Midhir--is asking herself because her livelihood depends upon their answers. The sudden loss of support leaves her dazed as she struggles to find a way to fully function in the waking world. What she doesn't know, but will soon discover, is that it isn't just her career on the line, in fact, it's her very life and the lives of her friends both from the waking world and her dreams.

In "Yarrow", Charles de Lint takes a light-hearted, yet candid look at the need for balance between reality and fantasy in our existence. Through Caitlin's journey of self-discovery, de Lint reveals that remaining distant from reality all of the time could mean missing out on a whole lot of wonderful things. Inspiration can come from many sources. But at the same time, he also reminds us of how beautiful it is to dream.

Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres because it assumes that modern-day-reality and fantasy can in fact co-exist. De Lint's refreshing writing style reflects this genre, mixing everyday language with otherworldly terms that can reach out and touch readers from any background or lifestyle. His characters could be any one of us. We can relate with them because in their lives they struggle with the same things we do. What I love the most is that de Lint treats the fanciful with reverent belief and melds it right into his characters' everyday lives. He leads the reader to stop thinking of such things as fairy tales and start believing them as the possible.

"Yarrow" is profound truth clothed in a delightful tale.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Yarrow: An Autumn Tale

Copyright © by April Dawn Duncan, 2002

Reviewed by April Dawn Duncan:
--Threshold: A Novel of Deep Time - by Caitlin R. Kiernan
--Yarrow: An Autumn Tale - by Charles de Lint
--The Morgaine Saga - by C. J. Cherryh
--Tigana - by Guy Gavriel Kay
--Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card
--Foreigner: A Novel of First Contact - by C.J. Cherryh
--Guilty Pleasures - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Laughing Corpse - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Circus of the Damned - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Lunatic Cafe - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Bloody Bones - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Killing Dance - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Burnt Offerings - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Blue Moon - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Obsidian Butterfly - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Narcissus in Chains - by Laurell K. Hamilton









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