The Folk of the Air trilogy
The three books in The Folk of Air series by the inventive Holly Black are a deeply satisfying read. Honestly, I advise you to quit reading this review and, instead, find a way to get your hands on all three books. (Book one, The Cruel Prince, is on sale today!)
Still here? OK. That’s on you.
Why do I so love these books? Well, to begin with: Jude. Jude is Black’s protagonist and, for all but the prologue of each book, their narrator. She is splendid. She’s everything I want in a character–complex, thoughtful, flawed, smart, and compelling. As the first book begins, Jude is verging on adulthood in the world of Faerie where, unlike anyone else, she and her twin sister Taryn are human AND members of the High Court–their adoptive father Madoc is the the General to the High King and has raised them as though they were his daughters in truth. Jude and Taryn have lived in Faerie for just over ten years and are profoundly aware that being a human in Faerie is no easy thing. The fey see humans as less than and, for Jude and her sister, that’s meant a decade of danger and daily humiliations.
Jude–an utter bad ass–dreams of becoming a knight so she will have her own–and not Madoc’s–power and will thus be accepted as a permanent member of the Court. Her sister Taryn seeks another path to inclusion: marriage to a fairy of the High Court. The paths the women pursue will, over the course of the series, put them at risk and at odds. Though they’ve been lived the same lives in many ways, they don’t see the fey the same nor do the wish to wield power in the same way. Taryn is curiously subtle, more interested in kisses than in politics. Jude is ambitious–in no small part due to watching Madoc scheme. Thus when the current High King announces his retirement and his heirs–only a child of old Mab’s blood may rule–strive for the throne, Jude sees an opportunity for herself to ally well. And therein begins a story of violence, politics, love, fear, and magic.
And then there’s Cardan, the youngest of all the High King’s sons, inhumanly beautiful and routinely, horribly cruel. His relationship with Jude is perplexing and deeply dangerous to Jude… and perhaps to himself. Cardan and Jude are determined to protect what they want for themselves and for the kingdom and the ways they do so are keenly informed by complicated, compromised ethics. Following their story over the three books—folks, this is how enemies to lovers is done.
That’s all I’ll say about the plot. I want you to have the joy of reading just as I did. #nospoilers
The Faerie of The Folk of Air, as the fairies of the High Court are called, is traditional and not. It’s a world where Vivienne, Jude’s older half-fairy sister, is in love with a mortal girl, fairies have alliances with humans and fairies of either sex, and weeds can be made into flying steeds. There are no cell-phones or TVs or fish sticks or bras. The magic the fairies have gives them the ability to do almost anything and yet they cannot lie and simple wards can rob them of their power. Jude, human by nature and fairy by nurture, uses her knowledge of both and maneuvers her way to… well, that would be telling.
The books build on one another beautifully, each deepening the complex narrative and illuminating the dispositions and motivations of the characters. The principals here, varied and satisfyingly authentic, are among the believable I’ve encountered in fantasy. One of the many joys of the three novels is seeing the conclusion of the stories of Madoc (Jude’s adoptive father who wants the throne for his own), Taryn, Vivi, the Ghost, the Bomb, and the Roach (fellow spies from The Court of Shadows where Jude once served) and a legion of others.
At its marrow, though, the series is Cardan’s and Jude’s story and I’m hard pressed to think of a pair I’ve liked more. In The Cruel Prince, Cardan and Jude begin as enemies, he a hateful brutal prince whom Jude hates more than anyone else in the Court. Over the next thousand pages, the two form a snarled partnership that, by the series’ end, empowers not only themselves but all of Faerieland. Theirs is love-hate story for the ages and one I suspect I’ll read and recommend again and again.