Charles De Lint

A Handful of Coppers is the first volume of Charles de Lint's collected early stories, including many unpublished and uncollected stories.

Collected Early Stories, Vol. 1: Heroic Fantasy

A Handful of Coppers

In the introduction, Mr. de Lint remarks, "If this is (God forbid) your first visit to my fiction, I think I'm telling better stories these days." This was, in fact, my first visit to his fiction, and I very much enjoyed it! It's a collection of early short stories and novellas in the heroic fantasy/sword & sorcery mode, divided into four sections by subject.

The first six are tales of Aynber, a roguish bounty hunter, usually in or around the city of Calthoren. The next four are of Colum mac Donal, an exiled Irish warrior who joins King Arthur's court while plotting to overthrow the tyrant who killed his family back home. Next are two stories (and a new prologue) about Damon the Damned, an amnesiac aelf/daemon hybrid with a magical sword. Finally, two tales of Saffer, a struggling musician in Emma Bull and Will Shetterly's shared setting of Liavek. Damon and Aynber seem to exist in the same setting, while Colum's setting is pseudohistorical.

While perhaps not groundbreaking, they're very enjoyable and well written, and there's a good variety to them. "A Handful of Coppers" and "The Rat's Alley Shuffle" have a more comedic bent, while the Damon stories are edgy and bloody. "The Road to Jarawen" and "The Skin & Knife Game" are murder mysteries while the Colum tales are mythic in tone and draw on Celtic and Norse mythology as well as Arthurian legend. All around a fine collection.

Tuck

In the introduction, Mr. de Lint remarks, "If this is (God forbid) your first visit to my fiction, I think I'm telling better stories these days." This was, in fact, my first visit to his fiction, and I very much enjoyed it! It's a collection of early short stories and novellas in the heroic fantasy/sword & sorcery mode, divided into four sections by subject.

The first six are tales of Aynber, a roguish bounty hunter, usually in or around the city of Calthoren. The next four are of Colum mac Donal, an exiled Irish warrior who joins King Arthur's court while plotting to overthrow the tyrant who killed his family back home. Next are two stories (and a new prologue) about Damon the Damned, an amnesiac aelf/daemon hybrid with a magical sword. Finally, two tales of Saffer, a struggling musician in Emma Bull and Will Shetterly's shared setting of Liavek. Damon and Aynber seem to exist in the same setting, while Colum's setting is pseudohistorical.

While perhaps not groundbreaking, they're very enjoyable and well written, and there's a good variety to them. "A Handful of Coppers" and "The Rat's Alley Shuffle" have a more comedic bent, while the Damon stories are edgy and bloody. "The Road to Jarawen" and "The Skin & Knife Game" are murder mysteries while the Colum tales are mythic in tone and draw on Celtic and Norse mythology as well as Arthurian legend. All around a fine collection.

A Handful of Coppers Collected Early Stories, Vol. 1: Heroic Fantasy

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