Tag: Subterranean Press (Page 1 of 2)

Back in the 1990s, a good friend of mine who also was into genre fiction recommended the writer, Charles de Lint. I was more into science fiction books at the time, and not so much fantasy (unless it was books by Jack Vance). Still, under pressure I bought a couple of de Lint’s books. After reading these, I was hooked. I mostly bought paperbacks back then, but in short order I had a baker’s dozen of his books. Most were in great shape, but for a pair of hard-to-find titles I had to set aside my distaste for battered books with broken spines; my copies of Mulengro and The Riddle of the Wren have yet to be replaced by better versions.

Charles de Lint’s books, although marketed as fantasy, aren’t your typical fantasy books. I’ve heard his fiction mentioned as “urban fantasy,” which means you don’t see any swords, dragons, or princesses waiting to be rescued. Yet, there’s magic in his books, shape-shifting, a sense of wonder, a definite mythology, and a strong feeling that you want it to be real.

Not content with just paperbacks, I started buying any de Lint book that I could find. Over time, I’ve acquired 34 of his books, and read almost all of them at least once. He’s seen success with major publishers, and has a loyal fan base. Several of his books have been published by small press publishers, often at a premium. This is especially true of Subterranean Press, which has published almost two dozen of his books. In some cases these books are quite limited (Moonheart comes to mind). In others, they’re published in editions between 1,000 and 2,000 copies. That should be enough to satisfy any de Lint fan.

While the majority of de Lint’s urban fantasy stories take place in his native Canada, blending in Northern-American folklore and European folklore (especially the Celtic variety), he occasionally ventures into south-west regions of America. Medicine Road, published in 2004, moves a pair of characters from his novel, Seven Wild Sisters (Subterranean Press, 2002) into Arizona. Two of the seven sisters from Seven Wild Sisters, Laurel and Bess Dillard, are musicians. As the novel opens they’re in Tucson, as part of their current tour. Where it goes from there, I have yet to discover, as I just acquired the book a few days ago.

Medicine Road was published in two states: a trade hardcover edition, and a signed, leatherbound edition. My trade edition is signed by both de Lint and illustrator, Charles Vess. I like the cover of this edition, and the illustrations from Vess are quite captivating. Vess has illustrated several of de Lint’s books, bringing to life many of de Lint’s characters.

Starting around 2000, I mostly stopped buying a lot of SF and fantasy books, even by authors that I liked, such as de Lint. I’ve started reading some SF and fantasy books again, and de Lint is high on my list. There’s still a dozen Subterranean Press editions of de Lint’s books that I don’t have. Even though many of them were published nearly two decades ago, to me these are “new” books. Some of them are just harder to find than others.

I recently missed out on a bid for a set of nearly a dozen of Charles de Lint’s Subterranean Press books. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing, since I already owned five out of the books in that lot. Still, I’ll admit that it was somewhat disappointing, as the rest were ones that I really wanted.

I always have a hard limit on auctions, which means that I lose out on quite a few of them. I guess that now I need to acquire those books one by one instead. However, looking at de Lint’s bibliography, I doubt that I’ll ever be able to acquire all his books, so I’ll take them as I find them. Then again, I did find a pair recently at decent prices, so here goes…

First up, The Onion Girl. Published in 2009 by Subterranean Press, and limited to 500 signed/numbered copies plus 26 lettered copies. It’s a hefty book, clocking in at just over 500 pages. The cover is gorgeous, yet the story hits at darkness. I recently read another book that featured the same main character, so at some point I know I’ll be drawn into this book.

Next, Seven Sisters Wild. Another Subterranean Press book, this one published in 2002. This is the signed hardcover edition, with signatures from both de Lint and illustrator, Charles Vess. It’s a novella, only 152 pages long, and beautifully illustrated by Vess.

All in all, this still leaves at least 20 of de Lint’s books that I don’t have, compared to the 32 that I have. That first number’s probably fuzzy, based on an old bibliography. Still, 20 seems like a massive number. Many of these books are hard to find, or when listed somewhere, fetch premium prices. A few of the so-called “missing” books I have in beat up paperback editions. I do want better copies, though. Others, I don’t have, and want to read.

Sometimes, though, I think you have to be in the right mindset, or the right age or the right timeframe, to read certain books. I recently re-read Moonheart and liked it, but when I tried to read Eyes Like Leaves, written around the same time as Moonheart, I struggled and gave up—at least, for now. Maybe Eyes was too similar to Moonheart. Maybe it jumped around too much for me to fasten onto the plot and characters. Maybe I’m just a different person from back when this book was published Still, I hope de Lint keep writing fiction, despite his recent personal tragedies. Then again, maybe he’s said all that he wants to say, at least when it comes to fiction. It won’t be the first time that’s happened to an author.

In 2000, Subterranean Press published Triskell Tales – 22 Years of Chapbooks, by noted fantasy author Charles de Lint. This book collected together for the first time a series of chapbooks that de Lint had self-published, many as Christmas letters, from 1974 to 1999. It was a hefty book—over 500 pages— published as a signed, limited edition of 2,000 copies, at a cover price of $40.

In 2006, Subterranean Press published the “sequel,” Triskell Tales 2, containing six more years of chapbooks. The trade hardcover edition was listed at $40, and a deluxe limited edition at $125, all for a much slimmer book. In retrospect this seems like a money-grab, but I’ve never been too fond of the multiple state business plan for small press books. Either publish them without signatures in a moderate number of copies, like Arkham House or Golden Gryphon (usually around 2,000 copies), or a smaller set that’s signed by the author. The idea of “numbered, lettered, limited” variations just comes across as annoying. Do they need the more expensive books to subsidize the lower priced ones? Is it just a way to bump up profits? Don’t know, but I still find it annoying.

For many years I owned a copy of the first volume of Triskell Tales. When copies of the second book appeared for sale, they were usually well above my price point. A few weeks ago I came across a copy of the trade edition of Triskell Tales 2 at a reasonable price. There are seven tales in the book, along with an introduction. Two of the stories have brief “author’s notes” at the end.

Looking back, 2006 seems a long time ago now. Much has changed in the world since then, in real life as well as in publishing. Are there other “triskell tales?” Perhaps. Will they appear in collected form like these two books? Perhaps not. The past few years de Lint has experienced some personal issues, with his wife falling ill in 2021, then passing away in 2024 after many years battling the Powassan virus.

There’s been a vast gap of almost two decades since I last read any of my many de Lint books, and while I believe I possess more than half of his books, there’s still a vast number of them yet to find. Maybe his stories belong to a different time, a happier age, both in terms of fiction and reality. They are hopeful stories, serious stories, a type of fantasy unique to the late twentieth century.