De Lint, Charles

The Blue Girl (Firebird)

Imogene Yeck, former gang member and current fairy butt-kicker, is the cool "blue girl" at the center of Charles de Lint's latest urban fantasy novel. Seventeen-year-old Imogene jumps at the chance to lose her bad girl reputation when her family moves to a new town. She purposely lays low at Redding High, only making friends with Maxine, a shy, studious girl who is Imogene's opposite in every way. Despite a few run-ins with the ruling football jock and his cheerleader girlfriend, Imogene keeps her temper in check and even lends some of her bravado to Maxine, who begins to come out of her straight-A shell. Things are going well for the new friends--until the day Imogene meets Adrian, the benign ghost of a boy who died in the school's parking lot. Adrian and Imogene's unusual connection attracts the unwelcome attention of Redding High's resident Little People, or fairies. Affronted by streetwise Imogene's lack of belief in them, the fairies set into motion a malevolent prank that will not only turn Imogene completely blue from head to toe, but pit her, Adrian and Maxine against some of the most frightening beings of the Otherworld--the soul-sucking Anamithims. de Lint's Blue Girl reads like a really well-executed episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer--smart and thought provoking, without taking itself too seriously. Although the action builds slowly, the final scene, involving a bucket of blue paint, a knife fight, and green monster blood, is absolutely worth it. Buffy fans who enjoy meeting Imogene and Co. will also want to check out Holly Black's dark fairy tale, Tithe, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's modern ghost story, A Stir of Bones --Jennifer Hubert

Seventeen-year-old Imogene's rebellious nature has caused her more harm than good—so when her family moves to Newford, she decides to reinvent herself. She won't lose her punk/thrift-shop look, but she'll try to avoid the gangs, work a little harder at school, and maybe even stay out of trouble for a change. But trouble shows up anyway. Imogene quickly catches the eye of Redding High's bullies, as well as the school's resident teenage ghost. Then she gets on the wrong side of a gang of malicious fairies. When her old imaginary childhood friend, Pelly, actually manifests, Imogene realizes that the impossible is all too real. And it's dangerous. If she wants to survive high school—not to mention stay alive—she has to fall back on the skills she picked up in her hometown, running with a gang. Even with her new friend Maxine and some unexpected allies by her side, will she be able to make it?

Hellboy: Odder Jobs

As part of the ongoing Dark Horse celebration of Hellboy in 2004, Christopher Golden (author of the Hellboy novels The Lost Army and The Bones of Giants) has brought together a stellar array of talents to further the Hellboy canon. Included in this illustrious group are filmmakers Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Majestic), Mick Garris, Guillermo del Toro (Blade 2, The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy), and novelists Charles de Lint, Graham Joyce, Kim Newman, and Sharyn McCrumb, as well as many others. Lavishly illustrated by creator Mike Mignola!

Wolf Moon

His name when he was human was Kern. Now he is the most feared of beings: a werewolf. When the change first came upon him, his parents drove him away with silver daggers. Later, he sought human companionship, but he could not hide the truth for long. And so he kept running until he ran headlong into the deadliest pursuer of all—a harper bent on stealing his life away. By chance Kern was able to find refuge at the Inn of the Yellow Tinker, and the woman he was destined to love. But can he risk both human and harper vengeance to keep her?

The Ferryman

“A powerful and haunting tale” (Clive Barker) from the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Strangewood.

Janine Hartschorn left David Bairstow for a man who abandoned her once he discovered she was pregnant with his child. A miscarriage almost ended her life. Now she and David are reaching for a second chance.

But something is determined to keep them apart. Something with the power to conjure up ghosts from DavidÂ’s past and make them real. Something Janine knows from her near-death experience.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifth Annual Collection

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror annuals are always a treat; read this one and The Year's Best Science Fiction Sixteenth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois and you'll have a fairly complete overview of speculative fiction from 1998 as well as hours of great reading.

Datlow and Windling, renowned for crossing genre boundaries, gather stories and poems from mainstream magazines, literary journals, and Internet zines. There are vampires, a Lovecraft homage, enchanted birds and animals, shapeshifters, adult fairy tales, ghosts, and even a hunted muse. The best are Byatt's sensuous, enchanting "Cold"--about an ice princess who marries a glass-blowing desert prince--and Straub's novella, "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff" (which won the Stoker award for Best Long Fiction in 1999), a black comedy of revenge gone awry. The reference material includes each editor's review of the year's best novels, collections and anthologies, magazines, related nonfiction, children's books, and art. There's also a roundup of 1998's film, television, and dramatic offerings by Ed Bryant, a brief essay on comics by Seth Johnson, and obituaries by James Frenkel.

It's an invaluable source of introductions to authors you might not otherwise try, plus thought-provoking observations on fantasy in all its guises. You may not get to a convention this year, but if you've read Datlow and Windling, you'll know what a good one is like. --Nona Vero

Old Man Crow

Joey Creel needs to decide which he is: a man, dreaming he's a crow, or a crow, dreaming he's a man. Ruby McCaulay, the young musician he's mentoring, is sure she knows the answer, but in Newford, things are never quite as they seem.

Mulengro

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection

The 10th volume of this excellent annual anthology series not only collects 39 stories and 4 poems in these overlapping genres, but reports on the year's best in books, movies, and other media. The horror and dark fantasy tales are by Jay Russell (family ghost), Angela Carter (fairy tale ghost), Edward Bryant (aliens), Robert Silverberg (dark goddess), Yxta Maya Murray (Southwestern folklore ghost), Thomas Ligotti (secret society), Graham Masterton (macabre recipe book), Douglas Clegg (anguished love), Stephen Dedman (child lamia who knew Lewis Carroll), Terry Lamsley (monster "pet"), Isobelle Carmody (phoenix), Delia Sherman (witches and wolves), Lisa Russ Spaar (Rapunzel), Neil Gaiman (queen bee), Philip Graham (oppressive angel), Terry Dowling (monomania), Dennis Etchison (L.A. paranoia), Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg (ravaging bears), A. R. Morlan (rock 'n' roll sleaze), Michael Marshall Smith (entrapping relationship), and Ron Hansen (magic realism). All the dark tales are high quality, and a few are among the best in the series so far.

Angel of Darkness (Key Books)

Chad Baker was a rock star once, a real '60s hitmaker. Now he serves as benevolent angel of the Ottawa music scene, helping new bands make demos--and sometimes, secretly, helping a young beauty into his second, hidden recording studio. This is where Baker, a serial killer, records his victims' dying screams. When he combines the agonized vocalizations, he creates a hellish new music. Music that summons a different sort of angel--an unearthly and brutally vengeful Angel of Darkness.

Originally published in 1990 under the pen name Samuel M. Key, fantasy master Charles de Lint's Angel of Darkness betrays its early-novel status. The pacing is uneven. The Stephen King influence is occasionally too strong. And there are more characters involved than the younger, less experienced author was capable of juggling. --Cynthia Ward

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourth Annual Collection