What’s New for the 12th of April: Some new and recent SF; new Americana, Norwegian folk rock and jazz; and thoughts on War For The Oaks

Dan played a keyboard line like a question that demanded an answer, and Willy punctuated it with a harsh chord. After two of those, Carla joined Willy with a distant growl of thunder on one of her toms. Hedge’s bass began to throb with the hungry rhythm of tuned engines and tires on pavement seams. There was the digitally sampled crash of a cymbal that went on and on, glass breaking in slow motion—and the band welled up behind it like water, into the first verse.

Fantasies of violence breaking bottles on the wall, Hungry for the motion, for the action, For it all.

Road noise on the night street, See the taillights through the blinds, Out there where your dreams slide Toward the night side, For it all.

Emma Bull in her War for the Oaks novel

It’s a good evening to re-read one of my favourite novels, so let’s talk about War for the Oaks, Emma Bull’s novel beloved by oh so many. As Michael says, ‘In 1987, Emma Bull revolutionized the way we look at the world around us with her debut novel, War for the Oaks , a no-holds-barred, fast-paced, magically written rock-and-roll fable about Eddi McCandry, a Minneapolis singer/musician who gets dragged into a supernatural war taking place out of mortal sight.’

I really like the novel because it takes a real setting which is the Minneapolis and imposed it upon it a fantasy reality in a way that city stays real. I’ve not been to Minneapolis but I’ve got friends there who say that you can recognise everything in the novel because she didn’t change anything.

The characters, fey and human alike, feel quite real. Eddie, our human guitarist here, is a remarkable character, fully realised in a way that fantasy characters generally aren’t. That’s not to say that the other character that are  here aren’t.

The story itself, the best one she ever is told though I am very fond of Finder, her story set in Terri Windling’s Bordertown universe. yes as a supernatural war going on but the interpersonal conflicts here are just as important and definitely told by her in a way that keeps them as important as the overarching theme is.

I’ve got on at some length about this at this point so let me stop here and say just go read the novel. copies of the original edition are still available out there unreasonable price, and Tor did a hardcover edition which has some rather great artwork as well though it officially never came out. no idea why but I’ve an autographed one here. I didn’t say it wasn’t published, just that it didn’t officially come out.

 Gary finally got around to reading James S. A. Corey’s first book in The Expanse series. ‘I greatly enjoyed Leviathan Wakes, racing through its 500-some pages in near record time, and plan to proceed through all nine of the series novels published so far. (Taking time out, of course, for the upcoming installments in their new The Captives’ War series.)’

He also enjoyed the action and humor in a new book just out this month. ‘Award winning author Suzanne Palmer adds to her growing stack of novel-length SF with Ode to the Half-Broken, an engaging tale of friendship and treachery, adventure and revenge among post-apocalypse AI “mechs” and a few surviving humans in what used to be the United States.

And some Archival SF reviews, starting with Cat’s take on Larry Niven’s Rainbow Mars. ‘Ah, to visit John Carter and the inhabitants of Barsoom, Edger Rice Burroughs’ richly imagined Mars. The characters in Robert Heinlein’s The Number of The Beast did so, in their travels across the multiverse, and now the protaganist of Rainbow Mars does it. Well, sort of.’

Next, Kathleen’s look at Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Inferno. ‘They just aren’t the writers one would expect to essay a modern version of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. And that’s a shame, because Inferno is one of the better books either of them has written. It is clever but also wise, which is very rare in science fiction.’

And Gary’s review of the sequel, Escape From Hell. ‘I found myself wishing that the authors had delved a bit further into an obvious potential explanation for the existence of Hell — something that would incorporate quantum physics and the kind of ideas explored by Heinlein and others.’

It’s me, Gary, with some new music. I’ve been listening to some good Americana music lately, including the new release from Cincinnati based duo The Montvales. ‘They wrote most of the songs on Path of Totality, their third album, on a 2024 cross country tour that coincided with a solar eclipse, and themes like darkness, light and shadow, poverty and living on the margins, and making community where you find it run through these 12 songs.’

‘I was surprised, perhaps even shocked, to learn that It Runs Deep is the Garrett Boys’ debut album,’ I say in my next review. ‘This collection of deeply rooted and deeply personal songs is one of the best old time Americana records I’ve heard in some time.’

‘My favorite head-banging Norwegian metal prog folk rock band is back!’ as I note in this next review. ‘Gangar’s second full-length Dreng continues in their established vein of playing knock-em-dead versions of Scandinavian folk songs and dance tunes on Hardanger fiddle plus rock instruments.’

I also cover some jazz, of course, starting with saxophonist Mark Turner’s latest for ECM. ‘A tight yet flexible boundary between improvisation and control is one of the central features of this amazing, sophisticated, and engaging album from Mark Turner’s quartet. Every one of Turner’s six compositions on Patternmaster swings back and forth from tightly composed chamber jazz to high-wire soloing and back with jaw-dropping ease. It’s a document of a composer, bandleader and ensemble in peak form.’

‘After recording their first album from within the claustrophic confines of pandemic enforced digital collaboration, the American jazz quarter Triple Blind’s second effort is all about reconnecting,’ I opine in this next one. ‘They recorded together live in the well known Dreamland Recording Studios in an old church near Woodstock, New York, and the resulting album Cold Walk comes with an invitingly spontaneous and organic feel.’

Our musical offering is ‘For It All  which is from the Another Way To Travel album by Cats Laughing, used here courtesy of Will Shetterly. We’ve reviewed both of their albums here, of which the Another Way To Travel album is by far the best. Years later after the band was no longer, they came together again and released a CD and DVD, A Long Time Gone: Reunion at MiniCon. The concert’s fun, the rest of the material here is great.