Bill, apologies for my Toronto gaff - as an ignorant Statesider, I'm only familiar with a few of Canada's big cities. I've been to Toronto, but never to Ottawa, so I don't recognize the local landmarks that Newford is parallelling.

My only gripe with De Lint's books is his sort of "in-group" references to real folk music groups. While I get the references myself, it can leave members of his audience not familiar with the music scene out in the cold. I react that way to any author who uses tie-ins to "popular" culture as a short-cut to descriptive writing to set a scene. I really like the Newford books, though!

Another book I enjoyed a lot was Peter Beagle's "Folk of the Air", for its descriptions of early lute music, as well as its mixing of fantasy and Berkeley. I guess I enjoy fantasy novels that take a modern, everyday setting and show magical happenings that are an undercurrent to the "Real" world...