Where to start with Charles de Lint?

[Wombat]

For my money, start with almost any of his short story collections. Those give you the tone of de Lint very quickly and from there you can decide on the novels.

While I like his novels a lot (lot!), I simply adore him as a short story writer, a sadly under-appreciated genre. The Ivory & The Horn and Moonlight & Vines are two superlative collections.

As a matter of fact, about the only book by him that I didn't much care for was Jack of Kinrowan, but even that had lovely moments.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I, and my girlfriend, started on Moonheart. I don't think this was a bad thing, in either case.

For modern fantasy, he's still a writer I would recommend.

 

[Michael Tree]

I adore Charles de Lint's short stories, and it's probably easiest to read the collections in the order of publication, starting with Dreams Underfoot.

The order really doesn't matter for most of his books, with the exception of The Onion Girl and Widdershins, which shouldn't be read until after reading the Newford short stories, and should be read in the above order.

My favorite of his novels is Jack the Giant Killer. However, it's more of a straight up adventure story than most of his other novels, which tend to be more introspective and focused on relationships.