The Green Man's War by Juliet E McKenna
I would like to thank Wizard’s Tower Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Wizard’s Tower Press
Published – 15/11
Price – £25 hardback £17 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook
For a few years now, the Green Man has sent Daniel Mackmain to resolve clashes between ordinary people and the supernatural world. Dan has found allies among folk from myth and met other humans who can see the uncanny.
He has also made dangerous enemies. Someone has decided to put a stop to this interference once and for all. Dan and his friends are about to find themselves in the firing line.
NB - This is the latest instalment in a loosely linked excellent and award winning series of novels starting with The Green Man's Heir by Juliet E McKenna and you can I think also jump in via the recent The Green Man's Quarry
Subverting expectations in a series can be hard. We know the typical shape of the stories and as there is a series we know certain characters will survive. But great writers know to play with reader’s investment in characters they love so as we get swallowed up in the story we forget we are in a book so everything feels very real. In the Juliet E McKenna’s The Green Man’s War we get a powerfully ominous contemporary fantasy tale delivering a cast of characters readers know very well but delivering a sense that all is not well and that a new ominous danger now has arrived on the scene.
Daniel Mackmain is a young carpenter who also happens to be the son of a human and a dryad. This gives him the ability to see the supernatural world and those who live within it. It has also made him effectively the champion of a powerful supernatural entity known as the Green Man who sends Dan to investigate and put right situations where some form of magic is at work. As Dan has investigated allies, human and otherwise have been found across the UK but the dangers are getting more powerful too.
Dan has been summoned to a craft fair and is suddenly plunged into an armed robbery which appears to be organised by men with some form of supernatural ability, who think nothing of using violence to get what they are after. At the same time Dan and his friends find all sorts of strange attacks and accusations are being levelled at them. From the Norfolk fens to the mountains of Scotland Dan and his friends get involved and soon realise that this time they are the ones actually being pursued by some of the dangerous creatures Dan has ever faced.
I was gripped all the way here as a fan of the series because this is a tale that cleverly uses the reader’s expectations to make the drama more intense. We are used to Dan being the investigator and sorting things out using his intelligence, strength and friends. From the off having Dan having to stand still while men put weapons in his face feels off and as he investigates further the mystery here feels a lot more dangerous and increasingly personal to Dan. Normally Dan is the rescuer but this time it feels Dan and his allies are the ones needing rescuing.
I’m not going to spoil the cause of all of this too much, but McKenna has chosen some really interesting foes for Dan this time. In some ways calling back to the earlier books but also a sense that Dan’s work has attracted attention from all sorts of magical entities, and these are all at the more dangerous end of the spectrum. There is a brilliant sequence where Dan finds something completely new, very strange and dangerous and incredibly hard to beat. We rarely see Dan stretched as we do here and there are personal issues in the same sequence that make us wonder how bad things have got. This time we feel we are up against powers that match Dan’s for guile, power and allies. Things do not feel easy all the way to a very well-crafted action-packed finale where all hell breaks loose.
There are also hints where the series may be going next as well. We see other sides of some of the magical communities we have met hinting at intrigue and old secrets to unpick and we get a new mysterious entity arrives on the scene whose scenes are deliciously eerie and mythic but also deliver new powerful and disturbing magic that even puts Dan’s supernatural allies on edge. Once again McKenna deliver a story that creates a satisfying experience for the reader but has opened up even more of this world and its magical history to explore. This makes me excited for where we go next, and this series still feels that it has plenty of miles left in it.
Fans of the Green Man Series should roll up and get their copy now because this is a treat you will not put down. New readers should come and give this smart, incredibly entertaining and richly mythic series a go as for my mind its one of the best long-running fantasy series out there. The Green Man is calling, and you really should meet him. This is very strongly recommended!
