I read somewhere (who knows?) that War for the Oaks is a retelling of Tam Lin. I’m on a mad craze to read all the retellings of Tam Lin that I can find, which is brilliant because Fire and Hemlock is waiting for me at the end. Also, I am interested in reading a whole bunch of retellings of one story, because I am thinking of doing an adaptation of “The Little Mermaid”, and I am curious to see how people do it. War for the Oaks isn’t a retelling of Tam Lin, but it’s fun and I enjoyed it.
It’s about a talented musician called Eddi who becomes entangled with the Seelie court. They want to do battle with the Unseelie court, but they can’t do it properly unless they have a mortal around, because that’s the only circumstance in which the Seelie and Unseelie people can be killed. Once they’ve decided to do this, they set a phouka to guard Eddi until the battle arrives, so that the Unseelie court doesn’t kill her in advance of the battle. It’s all fun and games until – well, no, it’s never fun and games. There are many unpleasantnesses. (I mean, it’s fun for me. It’s not fun for its protagonists, at least not mostly.)
I was in the mood for something fun with phoukas and brownies and the Sidhe. I can’t do with a constant diet of them, but it’s a nice thing to read on a Sunday afternoon, when it’s too hot to go outside but just about right to pull open the shades and open up the window. Lovely.