Title War for the Oaks Series --- Author Emma Bull Cover Art --- Publisher Tor - 2001 First Printing Ace - 1987 Category Urban Fantasy Warnings None Main Characters Eddi McCandry Main Elements Faeries

Acclaimed by critics and readers on its first publication in 1987, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel, Emma Bull's War for the Oaks is one of the novels that has defined modern urban fantasy.

Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But she's breaking up with her boyfriend, 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.

I'm glad I went out of my way to get my hands on a copy of this book, it lived up to its reputation. See I wanted to read an "elfpunk" book, which is defined as urban fantasy with elves/fae, but that didn't seem enough to describe it so I dug deeper. “These stories are often dark and gritty and may feature rock bands, car racing, or motorcycles. The biggest difference between Urban Fantasy and Elfpunk is that Elfpunk only uses Faerie creatures. Elfpunk isn’t always full-on dystopian like cyberpunk, but there’s often themes of rebellion, of fighting against society and challenging social norms.”

If you google the genre this book will come up on the top of most lists. There are the fae, there is a rock band, there is a motorcyle, its decently dark and gritty, however these are poor band members, they can't afford race cars...

The musicians are Eddi and her friend Carla that at the start are just quitting a band and Eddi breaking up with her boyfriend Stuart. As she returns home she finds herself chased by either a big black dog, or a man...only to find they they are one and the same in the creature who calls himself Phouka. Eddi is needed in a war between the Seelie and Unseelie courts, if she, as a mortal, is present on the battlefield, then the immortal fae can and will die from their wounds, raising the stakes of this war.

Phouka becomes her despised guardian, till Eddi learns more and he doesn't in fact seem so bad. In fact he even seems to like her. And wait, before you think its one of those eye rolling YA romances where the bad guy becomes the love interest (well ok, he does), it is done masterfully. Phouka never came off as evil, he's just a trickster, and when they finally realize they have become friends, and then maybe something more, it was very convincing and actually quite sweet.

I loved that Eddi brought Carla into what was going on, since it allowed two humans to pick on the poor Phooka for the occassional moment of humour. The characters can be pretty snarky all around which was fun and stopped it from being overly dark and gritty and made the reader like the characters that much more.

And important to me, these aren't your friendly sparkle fairies. No fairy godmothers granting wishes, no toothfairies (though there are some very toothy fairies...), these are the Sidhe and while they are beautiful they are...well again not evil, they just *are*. Like a force of nature, they do what they do because they are what they are and sometimes that doesn't turn out so well for the humans that cross their paths.

And there's a brownie called Hairy Meg...gotta love her.

My only complaint, I shouldn't have borrowed this from the library, I should have outright bought it, since I know I will want to read this book again.