It’s been a little while since I dipped into the urban fantasy genre. Lately I’ve spent my reading hours pouring over histories and memoirs, leafing through the serious and humorous. But in the end I’ve gone back to one of my first loves and I picked up one of Emma Bull’s novels that I’d never read, War for the Oaks. It has reminded me why I love the genre so much.
First published in 1987, War for the Oaks won Locus Magazine’s award for Best First Novel and it’s easy to see why. A blend of rock‘n’roll and the world of faerie, War for the Oaks is everything a good urban fantasy should be but so many rarely are. I’ve read several reviews stating that War for the Oaks was one of the books that started this sub-category in fantasy fiction and it’s been called a minor cult classic. But what it is, over everything else, is a fantastic book that should be read by everyone.
Maybe that’s too broad a statement that everyone should read this book but I believe it’s true. Bull’s writing is tight and smooth, lyrical and moving, from the first sentence you are pulled into the story and the lives characters. Few books will grab you like this one does. Few will stay with you so powerfully after you’ve put it down.
Eddi McCandry is a guitarist and singer who’s just broken up with her boyfriend, left her band, and been recruited into the wars between the Seelie and Unseelie court in Minneapolis. She’s had one hell of a night but on top of all that she gets stuck with a babysitter to make sure she sticks around for the faeries' war. The Phouka, a creature that is able to switch between a man and a dog, follows the reluctant Eddi home.
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