KAMN Show #32: War for the Oaks
Welcome to Show #32!
Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Brian talk about Emma Bull’s critically acclaimed 1987 debut novel, War for the Oaks.
The Ninjas talk about the story premise, the interweaving of music into the story, and the melding of the mundane realm with the magical realm because the immortal Seelie and Unseelie can only permanently harm/kill each other when a human with special abilities is invited to play witness on the battlefield.
We get a glimpse of how there might be magic in all realms that may happen to collide in this world of ours. All in all, it’s a fast, fun read. Go check it out.
The next KAMN show will be an in-depth discussion about the TV series “Quantum Leap”, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. We’ll post a list of episodes to watch to prepare for this discussion.
Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.
Books mentioned:
Promo: Dragon*Con: Joe Murphy Blood Drive
Link: QWERTY Ranch: Will Shetterly & Emma Bull
This sounds interesting, but I doubt I’ll be reading it myself. However, I think my roommate, who has very few books (thanks to theft and multiple moves) but loves to read would adore it. I think I’ll get her this for X-Mas too (I’m already getting her the first volume of Tanya Huff’s Blood books).
I was glad to see you were going to talk about War for the Oaks. I remember reading it when it came out in 1987. With regard to its place in the urban fantasy movement, it was an early book, but not the first. Charles de Lint’s Moonheart came out in 1984 and it marked his transition from traditional fantasy to his early efforts at urban fantasy. In 1985 his urban fantasy/horror book, Mulengro came out. He is widely accepted as the author who has popularized this subgenre of fantasy and his urban fantasy writing is at its best in his series of books, novellas, and short stories set in his imaginary town of Newford. Some would argue that John Crowly was the originator of the urban fantasy movement with his book Little, Big, which came out in 1981. This book covered generations of a family from the turn of the 20th century into a dystopian future. I’m a huge de Lint fan (he’s my favorite author) and it was because of my enjoyment of his work that I picked up War for the Oaks when it came out.
I look forward to your episode on Quantum Leap. I’ll be thinking of Joe Murphy, a huge fan of the series, while you discuss it.
Looking at the wiki entry and it mentions it goes back to the 1920s in fiction aimed at children.
I was going to send a voicemail regarding Charles de Lint’s earlier work that popularized the genre of urban fantasy…looks like I wasn’t the only one with the same thought!
Has the feed been messed around with? Juice just tried to download a load of old episodes.
Doing some housecleaning, and since it has been mentioned in the past that some newcomers would like to be able to download all the existing shows in a feed (or as close to all as possible), I made some adjustments there as well.