
People of Danu,
sing your songs in Tír na nÓg:
The Appalachians.
This was my pick for Eleven-Books Club, my third pick after China Miéville's Kraken& the first volume of Invisibles. Why did I pick it? Well, I'll tell you why: because Alex Bledsoe's Eddie LaCrosse books are a bucketload of fun. I really like them-- you should give them a stab, really-- & I knew that other people similarly really liked his Tufa novels, of which this is the first.

Oh, Bledsoe underplays it-- he doesn't quite comes out & explain the plot through exposition until the fringe right wing blogger starts acting a damn fool-- but that is what it is. The Tufa are the Tuatha Dé Danann, brown-skinned & white-toothed, secret-songed & music-winged. Speaking of which, brief side note: when Andy Silliphant says "skin that song iron,"& they joke about his weird attempts to coin a catchphrase, all I can hear is a skald's kennings. I liked this book but...I don't know that I liked the protagonist? Bronwyn spends too much time doubting & denying & then...that denials just becomes her...answer to everything? I mean, the final compromise with Terry-Joe & the pastor I liked because it is messy, which makes it believable, but Brownyn's triumph is ultimately one of fate-- a fancy word for deus ex machina-- not character.
You know who I do like a lot though? Don Swayback. He's the real story, if you ask me; he overcomes. I also liked the mention & brief appearance of the Sin-Eater. It is a favorite trick of Bledsoe: he imagines a full world, & then as he writes, he gets along to filling in the blanks. You'll find out his deal sooner or later, I'm sure. & while we're talking about things I'm sure of, I sure did hate Pafford & Dwayne; Bledsoe knows what he's about when he builds characters, which makes me think that it isn't a failure on his part to make me like Bronwyn...I just don't like her. Personally, I was hoping she'd start a third clan, or sing some new songs; all that talk of destiny, but what do we get out of it? She does her own thing. It isn't systemic, either; if she'd broken the hold of the pure-blooded, that would be one thing. See, I don't know if it would be the right thing-- would the Tufa just vanish, then? Or would they, like Don, still hear the night wind?-- but it would be a thing.
I also...well, I also didn't care for Pastor Chess, though I didn't mind him when the other Tufa were lecturing him. When the haint tells him in a dream "you are more than your job. The preacher doesn't have to be right. Craig does[,]" I was like, right on. Then again, when Pastor Landers tells him "[w]e also have noses that run & feet that smell. Sometimes the universe just doesn't make sense[,]" I had to grit my teeth. More "tides come in, tides go out" nonsense. Noses run because they are dark, moist holes that go into your body, & so you have defenses ready to flush stuff out of them; feet smell because bacteria eat foot sweat. These are not mysterious ways. Then again, the pastors bugging the crap out of me may be my own baggage.
I guess my thesis here is: I liked this book! I didn't particularly like the main characters, though, which means...well, it means maybe I'll like the second book better? My issues were largely personal preference, so hopefully Wisp of a Thing will be right up my alley. I like fairytales, & I like faeries. You know me. The strange elves of old, your Tolkien elves, your Book of Invasions, that is how I roll. There is an issue of...exoticism? That is, an insular ethnic enclave of...magical people can be problematic. That is something I'm eager to talk about with the book group; I think Bledsoe didn't map the Tufa onto Native American issues, but I want to hear the thoughts of those that did.

(The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke by Richard Dadd.)