Medicine Road - Softcover

De Lint, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1892391880 ISBN 13: 9781892391889

Publisher: Tachyon Publications, 2009

Synopsis

Music, Mischief, and Magic

Laurel and Bess Dillard are charismatic bluegrass musicians enjoying the success of their first Southwestern tour. But the Dillard girls know that magical adventures are always at hand. Upon meeting two mysterious strangers at a gig, the red-headed twins are drawn into an age-old, mystical wager along the Medicine Road.

One day, seeing a red dog chasing a jackalope, Coyote Woman gave them both human forms. They became Jim Changing Dog and Alice Corn Hair. In return, both Jim and Alice must find true love within a hundred years, or their five-fingered” forms will be forfeit. Alice has found her soul mate, but trickster Jim is unwilling to settle down until he sets eyes upon free-spirited Bess Dillard.

Yet time is running out for the red dog and the jackalope. In just two weeks, they will journey to their reckoning at the Medicine Wheel. Meanwhile, a motorcycle-riding seductress and a vengeful rattlesnake woman are eager to meddle, and Bess and Laurel, caught in a web of love and lies, must find their own paths into the spirit world.

About this title

About the Author

Charles de Lint is the best-selling author of more than seventy adult, YA, and children’s books, including Moonheart, The Onion Girl, Widdershins, Medicine Road, and Under My Skin. He is the recipient of the World Fantasy, YALSA, Crawford, and Aurora awards. De Lint is a poet, songwriter, performer, and folklorist, and he writes a book review column for Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Review

Canadian author de Lint and illustrator Vess make good medicine in this whimsical collaboration of words and images starring those rambunctious red-haired Dillard twins, Laurel and Bess, mentioned in 2002’s Seven Wild Sisters and now stage center in their own short novel.... The mythic magic inevitable in all of de Lint’s best fantasies marks the spirited conclusion.”
Publishers Weekly

De Lint adroitly and believably meshes the world we live in and the spirit world, and his lyrical descriptions of desert and canyon take us directly into the ambiance of the Southwest, adding much to the charm of this first-in-a-series short novel that is already well laced with humor, romance, and Native American mythology and nicely complemented by World Fantasy Award winner Charles Vess’s black-and-white illustrations.”
Booklist

Charles de Lint’s new book, Medicine Road, is a first-rate folk tale, the story of a jackalope (that’s a mythical cross between a rabbit and an antelope, for the uninitiated) and a red dog whose run-in with a meddling Coyote Woman changes their lives forever.”
Bookslut

Medicine Road is like a dish made with a few strongly flavored ingredients. It has its impact and lingers in the memory just as long as a complex, subtly seasoned meal might. I heartily recommend it.”
Green Man Review

De Lint has created a rich fairy tale where the characters, both human and animal spirit, practically jump off the pages with their own personalities, and it’s a fast-moving enjoyability that doesn’t suffer from not knowing the full measure of the Dillard sisters’ background.”
Fantastica Daily

...a strong, thoroughly enjoyable, thoroughly magical story that takes advantage of native myths and lore to create something entirely new, yet quietly familiar.”
SF Site

The author cleverly weaves ancient myths with modern-day romance in a way that seems easy and natural.”
Rocky Mountain News

Edition details

• Publisher: Tachyon Publications
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1892391880
• ISBN 13: 9781892391889
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 185
• Illustrator: Vess Charles