Eyes Like Leaves gives us a view into an alternate reality -- and it's not just the one conceived by author Charles de Lint for the novel.

As he explains in his foreword, de Lint was a fledgling author when he wrote this book in the 1980s; it was accepted for publication, but his editor Terri Windling cautioned him that, based on his previous work, the next book he published would establish him as a writer either of high fantasy or the urban fantasy that he was only just beginning to explore. De Lint, as we know, chose the latter course and redefined the genre, so he obviously made the right decision.

Eyes Like Leaves is a good novel, and had it come out back in the day, I probably would have found it and enjoyed it immensely. No matter the genre, de Lint is a proven master of world building and character development.

But I still remember when I spied the cover of Yarrow on a Walden's bookshelf when it was new, almost lost among the myriad science fiction and fantasy novels on display. I was already growing tired of high fantasy, which for years had been my primary literary staple -- but too many books those days read like Lord of the Rings retreads or D&D adventures converted to prose. Yarrow was different, and it sparked in me a passion for contemporary fantasy, particularly of the "urban fey" variety pioneered by de Lint and a few of his peers.

So I'm glad he made the choice that he did. Still, I am also glad this book eventually saw the light of day, because it's a darn good book in the high fantasy tradition. It's full of magic and monsters, hope and despair, an almost futile attempt to fight great evil and, as is almost always the case in any de Lint fiction, music and wordsmithery of the highest order.

It's a nice peek at the road not taken. I'm glad we still got to walk on it for a while.