Emma Bull, War for the Oaks

[oyceter]

I haven't read this in years. My very first thought was something like, wow she spends a lot of time describing everyone's clothes! And: Wow, this was written in the eighties, wasn't it?

I still absolutely adore the phouka. I think he fits in with the Fool/Trickster type character that I like so much.

That said, a lot of it read like a first novel -- the sort of Mary-Sue-ish specialness about Eddi, her amazing skill with music and her ability to change the minds of the Seelie Court and the Lady while gaining magical powers of her own (sort of) remind me a great deal of the discussion in oracne's LJ a while back about the visitor to foreign culture gaining some sort of nifty martial art prowess.

I wonder if I would have noticed this if I had reread more frequently? Hrm.

Comments

[oyceter]

Maybe Mary Sue isn't quite the right term. And I don't know exactly why it struck me as that this time around -- I think I was thinking along the veins of the Robin McKinley heroines (particularly Beauty in Beauty), or the so-called "princess" dream that Gaiman names in A Game of You... little girls dream of being swept away from their ordinary roots and turn out to be the stolen daughter of royalty or something.

Although I think Eddi fits more in with the typical fantasy protagonist, like all the young guys (Shannar, Jordan, etc.) who are living their backwater lives and find they have Destiny or something.

Anyhow, I suppose one could argue that while Eddi doesn't possess extraordinary beauty, she does manage to beguile about half of the Seelie Court, have sex with the sexy Willy Silver, earn the respect of the Lady and the Queen of Air and Darkness, earn Hedge and the brownie's trust, etc. I don't know what it is that makes me think of it as more "special" than the special protagonists running around everywhere in fantasy. Maybe it's that she doesn't seem to accumulate much psychological damage along the way? Or that she seems much the same in the end as the beginning? Not sure...