The Folk of the Air – Peter Beagle

This is a difficult book to describe. It’s set in the fictional Bay area town of Avicenna, to which Joe Farrell is returning after years away. (Bearing in mind, this was published in 1987, after apparently having been in the works for 18 years, so it’s got a hippy vibe to it that surely does not exist in today’s techy Bay area). He’s to stay with friends – his old friend Ben, and Ben’s girlfriend, Sia. It’s quickly clear that Sia is more than she appears – interesting people keep turning up at the house, and Farrell could swear he sees rooms that later aren’t there.

Combine this with a local SCA-like guild that Farrell finds himself attending – there’s a wide range of characters there, some of whom (his friend Ben included) seem to be very seriously into their roles. There’s also a teenage girl named Rosanna who has an alter-ego named Aiffe, who’s a witch, and clearly has some power. Farrell also reconnects with Julie, a flame from his past, and she has evidence of Aiffe’s power.

This ends up coming together with Sia’s presence in an interesting way – very Beagle. He has a gift for working supernatural into the mundane, and when it’s over, you really need to step back and think about what happened. He’s a really interesting writer that way.    The SCA bit is somewhat jarring – again, a little out of place with what you’d expect today, but if you can take that with a grain of salt, you should enjoy this book.