Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint

Tapping the Dream Tree is a collection of short stories that take place in de Lint's fictional town of Newford. The stories include several recurring characters from other Newford novels, such as Jilly and Geordie; Holly, the bookstore owner; the Kelledys, a couple that play music in town and happen to know a lot about the faerie world; Christie Riddel, who records real stories of magic he comes accross; and others.

There were stories I really liked and others that I could have skipped, but over all, its a good introduction to Newford and the magic that lives there. De Lint has created a wonderful city in Newford (based on his hometown of Ottawa) and has peopled it with realistic characters that you can care about. Dealing with a realistic city with people who live on after a story is told, its only natural that certain people would return in other stories. Sometimes its just a cameo, sometimes its as a central figure.

I would really recommend this collection to anyone who likes urban fantasy. For anyone who may shy away from the genre, they should know that a lot of the stories are simply stories about people and only have a slight supernatural bent.

For my part, de Lint has done an excellent job drawing me in as a fan of his work. I started with the YA novel, The Blue Girl (which I still love), and now Tapping the Dream Tree has secured me as a fan. I'll be looking forward to the next book I read.

But for now I'm moving on to the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. It seems to be a children's magic story somewhere along the lines of the first Harry Potter novel. I hope to finish it by the end of the year.