JACK, THE GIANT-KILLER by Charles deLint was a 1987 urban fantasy, back before PI types like Harry Dresden and Anita Blake became the norm. Unlike Harry, deLint’s protagonist, Jackie Rowan, doesn’t know anything about the supernatural until she stumbles across the body of a murdered fae. Before she can say “tinkerbell” she’s caught up in the ongoing war between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts ranging across the streets and parks of Ottawa. All she has to do to fix things is contact the Seelie wizard the Gruagach for help, rescue a kidnapped princess, escape the Wild Hunt, keep her friend Kate safe and oh yeah, stay alive herself.
I enjoyed this novel the first time I read it; rereading, I think it’s an impressive bit of writing. Any story of “ordinary person plunged into deadly adventure” has to keep the danger level up, make it plausible they can survive and make it plausible they win, too. Some novels make it too easy. Some novels give the hero a magical boost, then have them turn helpless without it. That’s plausible — “butt-kicking hero” isn’t a role most of us can handle naturally — but I hate it; if the hero doesn’t have the right stuff without magic, why am I reading about them?
Jackie has magical help, first from a Hob who gives her some protection, then from the Gruagach, the Seelie wizard of Ottawa. As it becomes obvious she’s the Seelie Court’s best shot at survival, others pitch in. Never so much that victory is a slam dunk. Nor does the implication she’s a little bit of a Chosen One (she’s a “jack,” an old folktale character in England, and rowan is a tree of powerful magic) mean she has it easy. And the final victory is all hers.
This would make a good comp for Southern Discomfort, I think. It also makes me reflect that the threat level in my book is somewhat lower, without the same level of “urgency and tension” as the feedback and the link put it. Maria’s under threat, sure, but the multiple points of view makes the danger less intense. I shall think about that as I go into the final draft soon.
The book also had me thinking about setting. De Lint makes good use of the Ottawa setting, or so I assume (as I’ve written before, I’ve no way to know if it’s authentic) and more generally of the contrast between Fae and a modern city: the Wild Hunt on motorcycles, hiding from pursuit at a Dairy Queen, constant references to local features.
Southern Discomfort uses the streets and locations of Pharisee, Georgia — St. Luke’s hospital, Emily McAlister Park, Dublin Street, Garvey Acres — but they’re all made up. De Lint is setting the supernatural in a real city; I have to create the illusion of doing the same. Consistent details, names and directions. Enough detail to create the same sense of the impossible intruding on normal, every day reality.
The biggest difference is that events in Southern Discomfort affect the mundane side of Pharisee much more than Jackie’s battles do. The elves Olwen and Aubric have been the de facto monarchs of Pharisee County since they brought the settlers over from Ireland in the 1600s. Now Aubric’s dead, Olwen’s grieving and nature — deeply linked to them over 300 years — is running wildly out of control, from torrential rains to stillbirths and crop blight. And everyone’s wondering how the balance of power — economic, political, racial — might shift if Olwen dies too.
It’s one of the reason the tension isn’t as unbending — there’s simply no way with so many POV characters — but I think it’s the right way to go.
#SFWApro. I don’t know the cover artist; all rights to images remain with current holders.
Jack the Giant-Killer is a favourite of mine. The depiction of Ottawa is accurate, based on the one time I visited that city.
Good to know. Though even if it was inaccurate, I’d still like the book.