Emma Bull

A young princess must be given everything she wants in this original fairy-tale, or else the curse put upon her by the Lord of the Night will lead to the death of her parents and the ruination of her kingdom. Realizing one day that she must set out to find what she really wants, the girl takes to the road on her swift white horse that can traverse the length of the kingdom in a day. Accompanied by her walnut-brown dog who understands speech, her ash-gray cat as swift as a blink and as clever show more as six professors, and her ink-black crow who can recite every poem in the world, and carrying her blue invisibility cloak, the princess parts with each of her animals to help people she meets along the way. Eventually she even gives away her cloak, receiving in return a magical ring that will aid her in obtaining her heart's desire: freedom from the Lord of the Night's curse...

Published in 1994, The Princess and the Lord of the Night is, as far as I know, the only picture book ever produced by author Emma Bull, who is better known for her fantasy fiction for adult readers. The story itself is a wonderful tale, one in which generosity and courage are rewarded, as the eponymous princess finds that she wants others to be safe, happy and healthy more than she wants to hold on to the wonders which belong to her—a state of affairs which results in her winning her freedom from the curse holding her, her family and her kingdom captive. The accompanying artwork from illustrator Susan Gaber, done in watercolor and colored pencil, is just lovely, capturing the beauty and magic of the princess, her companions and her journey. I have encountered Gaber's work before, in Heather Forest's Stone Soup, and in her The Baker's Dozen, and have enjoyed it, but I think the illustrations here far surpass what can be found in those two other titles. In any case, this is one I greatly enjoyed, and which I would recommend to young fairy-tales lovers, and to picture book audiences who enjoy fantastical stories. show less

Originally published in 1987, War For the Oaks by Emma Bull is considered one of the earliest examples of urban fantasy and, quite frankly, it blew my socks off. Chock full of adventure, romance, musical references and various magical beings, this story of a young Minneapolis musician who gets caught up in a war between the two faerie courts was really, really good.

Eddi McCandry is a rock and roll singer who is having a very bad night. Her band just broke up, she and boyfriend are on the show more rocks, and then as she is walking home from her seemingly last gig, she meets both a phouka and a Glaistig, members of the Seelie Court of Faerie. Somehow, she has been chosen as the mortal that will enter the battle between the Seelie & Unseelie Courts. She has no chose in this matter, and to make matters even more bizarre, the phouka, a being that can change shape from a man to a dog, is to be her live-in body guard.

Emma Bull tells a great story filled with intelligent and well defined characters. The 1980’s setting added unintentional charm to the story with characters who dressed like members of Fleetwood Mac, and made no references to computers, cell phones, or I-Pods. This book never felt dated to me however and I found the story had a very contemporary feel. I’ve seen some complaints that the author spends too much time writing about the band and the music, but I really enjoyed that part of the story. Overall a great fantasy read, and one I recommend to admirers of urban fantasy. show less

An assassin with fancy fairy/elven technology is tasked with down illegal supernatural immigrants in LA to keep things stable for the elves that are already living there. I liked that this story remained a little cagey about the exact nature of its faery/elf/whatever creatures, although that may have been because I'd read Welcome to Bordertown fairly recently, and had no problem inserting the version of elves from Bull's contribution to that anthology into this story as well, although I have show more no idea if that's what she intended. (Probably not.) The idea of an assassin listening to one of his victims and wondering about his employers' motives has been done before, but that plot made for an interesting mix with the supernatural elements and the traces of environmentalism. show less

There's a lot to like in this, I think: the characters are mostly well-drawn, the magic is subtle and interesting, the writing carries Emma Bull's usual warm elegance. But I found myself meticulously overlooking a certain carelessness of storytelling and struggling particularly hard at times to slot Bull's version of the Earps into what I know of them. All that work made the book a lot less enjoyable to read.

Bull picks up the thread of her story, weaves an engaging yarn, and then show more just...drops...it all. I think she expected the shootout at the OK Corral to serve as a satisfying postscript to her own tale...but her tale isn't about the Earps and Doc Holliday. They're in it, and they're important, but her tale is about Mildred and Jesse, the Earp wives and Chu. And the way Bull shifts the weight of her story at the end, leaving us with the sense that her whole intent was to slide magic into the Earps' destiny? It turns Mildred, Jesse, the wives, and Chu into stage dressing; it cheapens their stories.

I want to know where Mildred and Jesse end up, if Chu stays with them, if they keep in touch with the wives. I want to know if Bull's sacrifice of yet another interesting character in service of her plot (see my review of Finder) actually allows these characters to fill that empty space with one another. I don't want to wonder why I just spent an entire book getting to know people who the author seems to have been using as a way to tell a clever story about a bunch of other people entirely. show less