Charles de Lint (Author) / A Handful of Coppers
Author Charles de Lint (Author)
Title A Handful of Coppers
Subtitle Collected Early Stories, Vol. 1: Heroic Fantasy
Publisher Subterranean Press
Pub Place Burton, MI
Publish Date 12/2003
ISBN 1931081735
Binding Hardcover
Edition 1st Edition
Synopsis This collection of early tales, some of them unpublished, is essential reading for fans of World Fantasy Award-winner de Lint (The Onion Girl). The six Aynber and Thorn yarns that open the volume ("Wizard's Bounty," etc.) are chock full of slashing swords, magic and evil sorcerers, but lack depth. The three set pieces about Colum mac Donal, an outlawed Irish berserker who becomes part of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, exhibit more compassion and better plotting. The last and most compelling Colum piece, "The Fair in Emain Macha," deals with his return to his family in Ireland and the subsequent "King-Breaking." Somewhat atypical is "The Skin & Knife Game" (co-written with Lee Barwood), a fantasy-horror melange of creepy madness. All the stories are short and a bit light on the wordsmithing readers have come to expect from this master fantasist, but they are nonetheless fun to read and right on target for the sword-and-sorcery crowd.
Notes Once there was a man with no name -- Aynber : The fair,
the foul & the foolish ; Wizard's bounty ; Stormraven ; The valley of
the troll ; The road to Jarawen ; A handful of coppers -- Colum mac
Donal : Night of the Valkings ; The ring of Brodgar ; The iron stone ;
The fair in Emain Macha -- Damon : Damon: a prologue ; Wings over Antar
; Dark god laughing -- Liavek : The Rat's Alley shuffle ; The skin &
knife game (with Lee Barwood).
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