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Dreams Underfoot
- The Newford Collection
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
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Publisher's summary
Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Dreams Underfoot is a must-read book not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life.
Critic reviews
"Charles de Lint shows that, far from being escapism, contemporary fantasy can be the deep mythic literature of our time." (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
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- Unabridged
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2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. 1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.
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Beautiful, Heart-wrenching, and Unbelievably Engaging
- By Brad&Britney on 01-10-18
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Secondhand Spirits
- A Witchcraft Mystery, Book 1
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Lily Ivory hopes for a normal life when she opens Aunt Cora's Closet. With her magical knack for vintage fashion - she can sense vibrations of the past from clothing and jewelry - her store becomes a big hit. But when a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area, Lily may be the only one who can unravel the crime.
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Needs a different narrator
- By A on 10-15-12
By: Juliet Blackwell
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Dead Set
- A Novel
- By: Richard Kadrey
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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After her father's funeral, Zoe moved to the big city with her mother to start over. But change always brings trials, and life in the city is not so easy. Money is tight, and Zoe's only escape, as has always been the case, is in her dreams - a world apart from her troubled real life where she can spend time with her closest companion: her lost brother, Valentine.
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Cool idea that wanders around.
- By Caseym on 04-03-16
By: Richard Kadrey
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The Hum and the Shiver
- The Tufa Novels, Book 1
- By: Alex Bledsoe
- Narrated by: Emily Janice Card, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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No one knows where the Tufa came from or how they ended up in the mountains of east Tennessee. When the first Europeans came to the Smoky Mountains, the Tufa were already there. Dark-haired and enigmatic, they live quietly in the hills and valleys of Cloud County, their origins lost to history. But there are clues in their music, hidden in the songs they have passed down for generations.
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Excellent story that combines music and folklore
- By T. L. Walker on 10-01-15
By: Alex Bledsoe
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The Raven Boys
- By: Maggie Stiefvater
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them - not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain.
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Predictable Prep Boy Meets Witchy Girl
- By FanB14 on 01-29-13
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Fragile Things
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Marvelous creations, including a short story set in the world of The Matrix and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction, can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his entertaining (and dark) sense of humor.
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Perhaps a different format?
- By Karen on 11-03-10
By: Neil Gaiman
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The Beach Trees
- By: Karen White
- Narrated by: Ki Gottberg, Gin Hammond
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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For Julie Holt, travelling to the beautiful but ravaged coast of Biloxi, Mississippi, is a journey into a secret past, and a life she never expected.... Julie first knew loss at the age of 12, when her sister disappeared, never to be found. As her once close-knit family grew apart, Julie's mother obsessively searched for the girl, and when her mother died, Julie took up the search, never letting go of the hope. Then, at an art exhibition in New York, she meets Monica....
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The ending was very weak
- By Missi Boyd on 10-31-16
By: Karen White
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Witches of East End
- By: Melissa de la Cruz
- Narrated by: Katie Schorr
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The three Beauchamp women—Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid—live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. Their beautiful, mist-shrouded town seems almost stuck in time, and all three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret—they are powerful witches banned from using their magic. Joanna can resurrect people from the dead and heal the most serious of injuries....
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Actually a nice, light listen
- By Theodore on 03-15-12
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Haunted Nights
- A Horror Writers Association Anthology
- By: Ellen Datlow - editor, Garth Nix, Kelley Armstrong, and others
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Erin Spencer, James Patrick Cronin, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Here are 16 chilling, never-before-published tales that explore every aspect of our darkest holiday, Halloween, coedited by Ellen Datlow, one of the most successful and respected genre editors, and Lisa Morton, a leading authority on Halloween. Included are stories about scheming jack-o'-lanterns, vengeful ghosts, otherworldly changelings, disturbingly realistic haunted attractions, masks that cover terrifying faces, murderous urban legends, parties gone bad, cult Halloween movies, and trick-or-treating in the future.
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Slow burn stories
- By Alex Sumner on 03-05-22
By: Ellen Datlow - editor, and others
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The Singing Bone
- By: Beth Hahn
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Alice and her three closest friends meet the enigmatic Jack Wyck. Enticed by his philosophy and the promise of a constant party, Alice and her friends join Mr. Wyck's small group of devoted followers. Their idyll takes an increasingly sinister turn. Mr. Wyck's grand scheme goes wrong, culminating in a night of horrific murders.
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Mixed feelings - you may love it - or not!
- By C. Vincent on 04-19-16
By: Beth Hahn
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Wonders of the Invisible World
- By: Christopher Barzak
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventeen-year-old Aidan Lockwood lives in the sleepy farming community of Temperance, Ohio - known for its cattle ranches and not much else. That is, until Jarrod, a friend he hasn't seen in five years, moves back to town and opens Aidan's eyes in startling ways: to Aidan's ability to see the spirit world; to the red-bearded specter of Death; to a family curse that has claimed the lives of the Lockwood men one by one...and to the new feelings he has developed for Jarrod.
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Sugar coating of L.G.B.T. sprinkles, of all things
- By Eli on 01-19-16
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What listeners say about Dreams Underfoot
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Steph
- 05-01-13
Liked it but I didn't love it
I read this out of order and it may have had some effect on my review. I read The Onion Girl recently and it was my first De Lint novel. I love Newford and the characters. His faerie world he has built is fascinating and is a non juvenile take on urban fantasy. Don't get me wrong, I read and enjoy YA novels, but its also nice to read a more complex and fleshed out version of fantasy/urban fantasy as well.
This book introduces you to many of the characters I learned of in The Onion Girl and I was expecting to get a little bit more history. It actually had an entire section that I swear was word for word in the Onion Girl and as others have mentioned the description of characters are a bit repetitive if you have read another De Lint book. This is something I both love and is a bit irritating. I love it because you do not have to read the Newford books in order. They stand on their own.
What I liked is it still has fleshed out characters and you learn more about Newford. It is clearly an introduction to Newford, however. It felt like a collection of stories rather than one story, and I prefer to have a main storyline. The Onion Girl took a bit to getting all its storylines to fit together but it did.
This feels like a first effort and when you look at how many books in his reperatoire are related to Newford this is clearly an earlier work. It's good, but I probably won't re read/relisten to it. I will definitely reread/relisten to The Onion Girl.
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- Kirk
- 03-01-23
A magic place
I love Newford and enjoy every visit! I’m going back through the stories and this is the first time I’ve done it on audio. I get lost in the words better when I read but it’s nice listening on the road.
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- Cai
- 05-21-19
Delightful
Great narrator paired with a wonderful writer.
One of the first writers of "urban fantasy," DeLint presents speculative fiction in a way that begs to be believed.
You can't go wrong with narration by Kate Reading--always a delight!
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- Jim
- 11-07-10
DeLint well realized
I've been reading Charles DeLint for many years, but this is the first audio book of his that I've listened to. I found the stories entertaining and thought provoking. Some have happy endings, while some do not. Overall, I felt as good about this as I have of his work that I've read. I like the way the narrator voiced the different characters, especially Jilly.
My one suggestion for the producers of this audio book would be to put some gap, or marker, between the stories so that the listener could tell one story has ended and the next is about to start. There was hardly any pause between the end of one sentence of one story and the start of the next. It took several stories before I began to recognize the clues that I was in a new story. I'd prefer to not have to wonder where I am.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Michael Utz
- 04-28-15
Phenomenal read
I loved it! It was so easy to enter into the worlds he created! A great escape. I'm listening again. :)
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- Jim
- 05-29-13
urban fantasy, well performed
I'm a deLint fan and this audio version is like living with his Newford people all around. Totally loved it!
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- Eric P
- 09-17-22
A wonderful vacation
19 trips into Newford. Each trip an exploration of the quiet everyday magic of a bohemian world I've come to love. All the tales whether joyful, or heartbreaking, bittersweet, or sinister, or quietly hopeful interweaves with aspects of others to create a world so vivid you feel you've been there.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-22-23
magical
magical, saddening, beautiful and very present today and real.maybe that's why so many bulk at the genre.this story is lots of stories and narrators.all the characters are the narrators.thats what confused me and I get lost in feeling sad for them when things are so real and unfair for them.keep reading.keep listening.
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- Deborah
- 08-08-13
naration makes stories hard to folllow
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Probably not. The stories seem to run together, making them predictable. I found that the narrator can make or break an audible book. I could not thru one story without the narrator putting me to sleep.
Has Dreams Underfoot turned you off from other books in this genre?
No, as I still like urban fiction, just inot n this style.
Would you be willing to try another one of Kate Reading’s performances?
No.
Do you think Dreams Underfoot needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
No. This book is like one novel: I do not think there is more to tell.
Any additional comments?
The narrator is very droning.
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- Jefferson
- 06-15-13
Too Much Urban Fantasy Wears Thin
Terri Windling's Introduction to Charles de Lint's Dreams Underfoot (1993) accurately describes the “urban magic” infusing the collection of nineteen short stories as using “the tools of myth, folklore and fantasy” to “record dreams,” mixing “ancient folklore motifs and contemporary urban characters.” Most of the nineteen stories in the collection are set in Newford, de Lint's fictional American city of subway and alleys, parks and rivers, cafes and clubs, university and library, cathedral and record shop, dangerous districts and upscale neighborhoods, official and unofficial histories, and so on. In his stories de Lint presents us with a series of urban protagonists (outsiders like artists, writers, or musicians) who are confronted with some disorienting fantastic thing or being and then must decide whether to reject it as only a dream or to incorporate it into their world-views.
The collection begins promisingly, when in "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair" (1987), a middle-aged woman takes in a beaten punk teen, and their respective fantasies (benign balloon men and demonic booger) conflict at the beach, informed by an urban fantasy short story.
In the funny and scary "Stone Drum" (1989), Jilly Coppercorn has an eye-opening encounter with the goblin-like denizens of the subterranean Old City that leads her to become an artist specializing in urban faerie.
"Timeskip" (1989), narrated by Jilly's friend, the street fiddler Geordie Riddell, is a romantic story about his tragic encounter with a time traveling ghost.
In "Freewheeling" (1990) Jilly tries to protect a simple boy who goes around Newford at night freeing locked bicycles to ride off on their own.
In "That Explains Poland" (1988) the spunky Latina narrator LaDonna recounts her hunt for Bigfoot in the derelict and slummy part of town.
In "Romano Drom" (1989) punk singer-guitarist Lorio encounters a wounded hyena-wolf being who introduces her to the war raging between forces of creation and destruction on the multiple roads between the multiple worlds.
In "The Sacred Fire" (1989) Nicky Straw is tired of hunting and being hunted by vampire-like monsters who pose as human beings to eat their life fire.
"Winter Was Hard" (1991) is a moving story depicting the relationship between Jilly, some girlish punkish place-spirits, and a writer living in a home for the aged.
"Pity the Monsters" (1991) features an immigrant to Newford from England, a creepy old woman, and a scary multiple-personality "monster" called Frank.
"Ghosts of Wind and Shadow" (1990) depicts the struggle of a conventional mother who has rejected faerie to understand her teenaged daughter who is drawn to it, while the Oak King's daughter and her wizard-bard husband help out.
In "The Conjure Man" (1992) local poetess Wendy St. James learns about the Tree of Tales.
Graveyard shift DJ Zoe Brill is approached by a spooky handsome guy with a knack for giving people bad luck in "Small Deaths" (1993).
"The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep" (1993) features Sophie Etoile telling Jilly about her vivid dreams in which she is supposed to rescue the maternal moon.
"In the House of My Enemy" (1993) is the most harrowing and moving story in the collection (and is the one story that doesn't feature the fantastic), as we learn why Jilly is so keen to help waifs like this pregnant girl from the streets.
In "But for the Grace Go I" (1991) Maisie Flood, a street-wise young woman taking care of a mental institution cast off and a pack of dogs while squatting in an abandoned house, tells how receiving a mysterious letter changed her life.
In "Bridges" (1992) Moira Jones has moved to Newford to escape her bad high school reputation when she walks into an Escher-esque world of hope and despair.
"Our Lady of the Harbour" (1991) retells the Little Mermaid story, the target of her desperate love being a genius musician who cares only for music.
In "Paperjack" (1991) Geordie (with help from Jilly and a mysterious old black man who is an origami sensei) tries to come to terms with the tragic events of "Timeskip."
In the last story of the collection, "Tallulah" (1991), Christy Riddell, whose stories have been popping up throughout Dreams Underfoot, explains his (and de Lint's!) themes "about love and loss, honor and the responsibilities of friendship, and wonder, always wonder" and recounts his intense relationship with a mysterious, well-read, punky woman who can only be with him at night.
I liked the sense of Newford that de Lint builds more richly with each successive story. I liked the connections between music, art, writing, and magic. I enjoyed Jilly Coppercorn popping up in multiple stories. I cared about many of his characters. And I like the idea of a world into which the fantastic may intrude at any moment.
However, I found that nineteen stories was about ten too many, for I became tired of their base pattern (spunky, punky, tough but tender outsider artist type protagonists, in medias res openings, explanatory flashbacks, and climactic epiphany endings). Too often de Lint signals early on that the fantastic is real, so that when his characters encounter it and try to figure out if it is real or not, the reader has no doubt. And although there are moments of wonder in many of the stories, they're usually not so sublime or enduring (unlike similar moments in, say, John Crowley's Little, Big).
Kate Reading’s voice is clear, compassionate, and appealing as she reads the stories, and she modulates her voice effectively for male and female characters. But her compassion combined with the over-familiarity I began feeling with de Lint’s typical story to nearly become cloying by the end of the collection.
I might return to Newford in the future via one of de Lint’s novels set there, but not for a while.
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