Book Review: War For The Oaks
It's been a while since I've done one of these, hasn't it?
Title: War for the Oaks
Author: Emma Bull
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: None
Summary: [from barnesandnoble.com] Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But her boyfriend just dumped her, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk-and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.
By turns tough and lyrical, fabulous and down-to-earth, War for the Oaks is a fantasy novel that’s as much about this world as about the other one. It’s about real love and loyalty, about real music and musicians, about false glamour and true art. It will change the way you hear and see your own daily life.
How I Found It: In that large pile of books recommended to me that I still have to finish working through...
Review in Five Words Or Less: Wait, you mean that's it?
Rating: Neutral
Review:
So, reading this book was an interesting experience. It took me much longer to get into the book than usual - I spent probably a month getting through the first hundred pages and then had the rest of it done within three or four days. Take from that what you will.
I went into it a little bit wary - the main character is in a band, which is rarely a good sign in urban fantasy novels. But I trusted the literary tastes of the person who recommended it to me and I realized that this was the novel that really kicked off that trope, so I went with it. I started reading it and really could not get into it at all and I couldn't figure out why, since I actually enjoyed Bull's writing style and the supporting characters were kind of amazing. It took me until nearly half way through the book to realize that I just really did not like the main character. I have no idea why, but there you have it.
Once I figured that part out, the rest of the novel was much more interesting. The secondary characters were a lot of fun (especially the phouka, though I'm still trying to cope with the fact that I just read an entire novel where one of the major characters had no name...). The writing style was fast-paced, if a bit clunky in places.
There was a lot of emphasis placed on music in the novel, which threw me a bit. I'm really not all that knowledgeable about music and I know next to nothing about that world. My usual reaction to music is something along the lines of “Oh, that sounds cool!” This put a bit of a damper on how much I could enjoy the novel, but I think that's something that is more my problem than a problem with the novel itself. I think if you know anything at all about music, if you have the ability to translate a written description into actual sounds, then you'd get much more enjoyment out of the plot of the novel than I did.
I also found it kind of entertaining that for a novel without a single real sex scene, the characters here certainly have a lot of sex. Though I did not like the main romance. I think the majority of that, however, comes from the fact that a) I really don't like Eddi very much and b) the phouka gets much less interesting after he falls in love with her. I mean, half the reason I loved him so much involved him antagonizing Eddi and her getting all up in arms about it and all of a sudden that doesn't happen anymore.
The way Bull handles the concept of love also bothered be a bit. Eddi falls in and out of love so easily, and with people she's only known for a few days or weeks. Which... yeah. As I said, bothered me a bit.
My biggest issue with the novel, however? The entire climax scene and denouement happen in approximately ten pages. There's all this build up to what promises to be a really awesome final few scenes, and then it just sort of... fizzles out. There are plot threads left dangling, no closing action whatsoever, and... yeah. It feels unfinished.
Note that none of this stopped me from recommending the book to my sister, who I am trying desperately to wean off of the Twilight books and into some decent literature...
Title: War for the Oaks
Author: Emma Bull
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: None
Summary: [from barnesandnoble.com] Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But her boyfriend just dumped her, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk-and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.
By turns tough and lyrical, fabulous and down-to-earth, War for the Oaks is a fantasy novel that’s as much about this world as about the other one. It’s about real love and loyalty, about real music and musicians, about false glamour and true art. It will change the way you hear and see your own daily life.
How I Found It: In that large pile of books recommended to me that I still have to finish working through...
Review in Five Words Or Less: Wait, you mean that's it?
Rating: Neutral
Review:
So, reading this book was an interesting experience. It took me much longer to get into the book than usual - I spent probably a month getting through the first hundred pages and then had the rest of it done within three or four days. Take from that what you will.
I went into it a little bit wary - the main character is in a band, which is rarely a good sign in urban fantasy novels. But I trusted the literary tastes of the person who recommended it to me and I realized that this was the novel that really kicked off that trope, so I went with it. I started reading it and really could not get into it at all and I couldn't figure out why, since I actually enjoyed Bull's writing style and the supporting characters were kind of amazing. It took me until nearly half way through the book to realize that I just really did not like the main character. I have no idea why, but there you have it.
Once I figured that part out, the rest of the novel was much more interesting. The secondary characters were a lot of fun (especially the phouka, though I'm still trying to cope with the fact that I just read an entire novel where one of the major characters had no name...). The writing style was fast-paced, if a bit clunky in places.
There was a lot of emphasis placed on music in the novel, which threw me a bit. I'm really not all that knowledgeable about music and I know next to nothing about that world. My usual reaction to music is something along the lines of “Oh, that sounds cool!” This put a bit of a damper on how much I could enjoy the novel, but I think that's something that is more my problem than a problem with the novel itself. I think if you know anything at all about music, if you have the ability to translate a written description into actual sounds, then you'd get much more enjoyment out of the plot of the novel than I did.
I also found it kind of entertaining that for a novel without a single real sex scene, the characters here certainly have a lot of sex. Though I did not like the main romance. I think the majority of that, however, comes from the fact that a) I really don't like Eddi very much and b) the phouka gets much less interesting after he falls in love with her. I mean, half the reason I loved him so much involved him antagonizing Eddi and her getting all up in arms about it and all of a sudden that doesn't happen anymore.
The way Bull handles the concept of love also bothered be a bit. Eddi falls in and out of love so easily, and with people she's only known for a few days or weeks. Which... yeah. As I said, bothered me a bit.
My biggest issue with the novel, however? The entire climax scene and denouement happen in approximately ten pages. There's all this build up to what promises to be a really awesome final few scenes, and then it just sort of... fizzles out. There are plot threads left dangling, no closing action whatsoever, and... yeah. It feels unfinished.
Note that none of this stopped me from recommending the book to my sister, who I am trying desperately to wean off of the Twilight books and into some decent literature...