The Green Man's Foe

Green Man #2

by Juliet E. McKenna

When you do a good job for someone, there's a strong chance they'll offer you more work or recommend you elsewhere. So Daniel Mackmain isn't particularly surprised when his boss's architect brother asks for his help on a historic house renovation in the Cotswolds. Except Dan's a dryad's son, and he soon realises there's a whole lot more going on. Ancient malice is stirring and it has made an alliance in the modern world. The Green Man expects Dan to put an end to this threat. Seeing the danger, Dan's forced to agree. The problem is he's alone in a place he doesn't know, a hundred miles or more away from any allies of his own. A modern fantasy rooted in the ancient myths and folklore of the British Isles. The Green Man's Foe is the sequel to the best-selling The Green Man's Heir .

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Fae, Folklore, Magic

366 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2019

About the author

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018. The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023 was the sixth title in this ongoing series and won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The seventh book, in 2024, is The Green Man’s War.

Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter fiction includes forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. She has served as a judge for the James White Award, the Aeon Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2015 she received the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.

Who’s to say what will come next?

Learn more about all of this at julietemckenna.com and on Twitter @JulietEMcKenna

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

I was looking for shelves for this and realised I needed a new category: rural fantasy, in opposition to urban fantasy. It's a modern fantasy deeply embedded in British folklore--the Green Man, dryads, the Hunter, witch bottles, 20s occult, and a general sense of the deep spookiness of the British countryside. It will not be a surprise to anyone who follows me that I loved it.

This is a sequel to The Green Man's Heir and again gives us Dan the dryad's son and loner solving an occult problem in a remote country pile. The house here is fantastic, with huge character, and I also really liked the juxtaposition of modern rural poverty with the ancient wealth and privilege and the part that plays in the plot.

It's not fast moving--there's a lot of description, a lot of well developed characters who aren't plot necessary--but tbh that feels appropriate to rural fantasy (I am taken with this concept). Urban fantasy moves at breakneck speed, and should because cities are all flashing lights and constant change and a ton going on. Here it's all about the rhythm of seasons and the weight of centuries of history and you have to adjust to a very different pace, slowly building up a picture. It's the difference between EastEnders and The Archers, she says Britishly. That said there are some cracking action scenes, a powerful sense of urgency, and a really magnificent inexplicably-lost-in-hostile-woods sequence (my favourite rural fantasy trope by miles).

I had an ARC from the publisher.

[imyril is not really here any more · Rating 4 out of 5]

Off the cuff reaction: I preferred this to The Green Man's Heir. Here we get a single, slow-building story that takes in past misdemeanours, present socioeconomic inequalities and supernatural shenanigans. Characters get more page time so feel better fleshed out, although I feel the council estate kids and get short shrift here (we see them through the lens of middle-class sympathy or straight-out antagonism, so they're ultimately cardboard).

...in fact, that may be my core criticism of this series over all: villains are eeeeeeevil doing baaaaaad things, not really characters at all. Which is fine when we're talking woses and nixes, but makes Aiden a bit of a pantomime.

However, on the plus side there's plenty of atmosphere, and McKenna excels at grounding her fantasy with a solid sense of place and of the mundane. Dan has a day job, which cannot just be ignored, and quotidian problems like should he buy a kettle (yes, this is Peak English, and I adored it).

Ultimately, a fun, fast read and I am now invested in reading further instalments as they become available.

3.5 stars

Full review

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up because it is such a comfort read and I love the English folklore.

The story is not very demanding, an easy read with cardboard villains, but as mythological narration this works. The characters (at least the 'good' ones), are fun to follow along and since the time dot I have a soft spot for Britishness.

[Cameron Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful rural fantasy dripping with English folklore - every bit as good as the first book, if not slightly better.

[Runalong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very enjoyable supernatural mystery to solve in the British Countryside which is no where near as safe and cozy as we tend to think. Lots to untangle and characters to enjoy in this instalment

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Jacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a follow up to Ms McKenna's fabulous 'The Green Man's Heir' which came out last year. Daniel Mackmain works with wood, which isn't surprising since his mother is a dryad. His half dryad blood lets him see into a world that most people don't know is there, a world of British folklore, myth and legend. He's lived the life of a loner for years, moving on from one building site to another, but in the first book he found somewhere he could call home, for a while at least, and a friend who knows about his world. But once again he's on his own as he's asked to take a temporary contract overseeing a refurbishment project, an old hall with an occult problem. Separated from his friends and family by a lousy phone reception and a hundred miles, Dan has to figure it out on his own and learn to rely on locals who don't seem particularly friendly at first.

This is contemporary fantasy in a rural setting. The pace is measured, the worldbuilding rich and detailed. Ms McKenna certainly knows her folklore. Dan has to work out what exactly is wrong, before he can begin to solve the problem. It's a slow build leading to a gripping and satisfactory resolution. Highly recommended.

I had this as an advance reading copy from the publisher, Wizard's Tower Press.

[Tom Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent sequel - engaging and diverting while building on the first.

It's probably a good sign I wasn't sure if this was book 2 or 3 because of all the detail I remembered of book 1 (something I'm mostly terrible at) and here it was effortless to slip straight back into the world, settle down and enjoy a good tale. To be picky I'd say there was a slight anti-climax around the end, but it was something I noted distantly rather than felt let down by the book. Overall, I'm just delighted to hear there are going to be more than three books so I know I've got a good few to enjoy yet.

[Sally S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good one!

[Kahlia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5ish, rounded up because the things I didn't like so much are personal preferences rather than problems with the text. This series can sometimes be... aggressively blokey in a way that makes perfect sense for the main character and speaks to McKenna's excellent characterisation skills, but doesn't really interest me as a theme. I also find the villains a bit thin and cartoonishly evil.

But otherwise, this is a great series: the mystery was again well-written and unravelled a a good pace, and I liked learning more about the various creatures of the woods. McKenna also really captures the rural British vibe, as the main character spends as much time thinking about where to find a good curry and whether he should buy a new kettle, which is my favourite thing about these books so far.

[Martin Owton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent storytelling from a master (mistress?) craftswoman. This continues the story of half-dryad Dan Mackmain and is every bit as good. Deeply embedded in English folklore, and mining a few niches I didn't know about, it also manages to make some telling comments about the seamier side life in the contemporary rural communities. Tautly paced and well-characterised, the best book I've read for a while. Wish I'd written it.

[N.W. Moors · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great story with a mix of folklore and the occult! I read The Green Man's Heir, the first book in this series, a long time ago on the recommendation of Charles de Lint and loved it. Then I lost track of the following books until now.
Dan Mackmain is a woodworker and the son of a human father and a dryad. He's also under the protection of the Green Man. He is offered a job as the project manager of an estate under renovation to become a hotel. The grounds are under threat by a folkloric monster, and the Green Man needs Dan's help.
This is a terrific series based on folklore and the magic all around us. The characters are varied and interesting, dealing with everyday issues like work and extraordinary problems like wyrms or nixes. Ms. McKenna writes very well and deals with contemporary issues like drug use and drinking in a sensible manner. I bought all the rest of the books and I look forward to reading through the series.

[Shaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars

This story is yet another exploration of British folklore in modern rural settings around England but we get a well-paced single story in this second book of the series and it's overall more satisfying. I like the characters and how the book takes time to introduce a diverse cast which shows some of the class differences that are relevant to the story as well. So far we've got glimpses of qute a few folkloric figures and they've all been interestingly drawn.

[June]

There's a problem with the audiobook. It's a shame that I can't comment on the listing on the app I bought it on because the sample sounds absolutely terrible, but it just needs to be played at 1.1x speed.

[Ulrike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous follow up to the first book and more folklore figures I never heard of are part of Dan Mackmains everyday problems.
Looking forward to the next one

[Mikael Cerbing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry in the series. I like the mix of urban fantasy and British folklore. Feels very much as a modern Väsen (RPG) adventure, and I am all here for it. Also, didnt know that the main supernatural antagonist existed in England as well.
I would call this a pleasant read. A bit like a short season of a TV-series, as I think this might work quite well as.

[S. Naomi Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars.

This is the second of Juliet McKenna’s Daniel Mackmain books, following on from last year’s The Green Man's Heir, and I have to say it’s at least as good as the first one, if not marginally better. If you’ve read the first book then I’m pretty confident you’re going to love this one, and if you haven’t read the first one then you need to remedy that straight away. Seriously, go read it.

For those who aren’t up to speed, our main protagonist, Daniel Mackmain, is the son of a dryad and a human, giving him a limited range of powers as a result of his greenwood blood. Mostly these powers seem to consist of being able to see the inhabitants of the ethereal world, such as dryads, naiads, black shucks and assorted other beasties most people wouldn’t believe in. Guiding Dan through the supernatural world is the Green man of the book’s title, though sometimes the Green Man’s guidance seems to cause Dan more trouble than he’d like.

In the first book Dan found himself dealing with an ancient evil thought long dead, an evil he barely managed to vanquish even with some supernatural help. In this book he gets drawn into another ancient evil, this time involving a haunted country house and a malicious water spirit that feeds off pain and torment. He also has to contend with a creepy magician and a bunch of brainwashed teenagers.

As with The Green Man’s Heir, the information Dan needs to overcome the bad guy is gradually revealed, though this time there’s less exposition and more action. Having established the basic rules of her supernatural world in book one, McKenna is free to give the reader a much beefier narrative in book two, and as a result the pace fairly clips along once Dan and his allies know what they’re up against. There are still a few twists and turns along the way, and the ending definitely feels cleaner and more complete than the first one, but it still left me wanting more. If the author has any more books planned in this series I’m certainly going to be adding to my pre-order list as they become available.

[S.J. Higbee]

I dived back into this world with huge delight and immediately got swept back up into Dan’s problems. You don’t have to read The Green Man's Heir to appreciate this one as each story is a standalone – but you are denying yourself a wonderful reading experience if you don’t. McKenna has managed to produce something unique – an urban fantasy adventure set in the heart of rural England. This gives the story a flavour all of its own as the countryside around the neglected stately home that Dan is working on is vividly described, along with the characters he encounters.

I liked the real sense of threat evoked by the creepy Aiden, a really well-rounded antagonist who I loved to hate throughout as he manipulates the lost teenagers who have drifted into his orbit because they come from socially deprived backgrounds with no prospects. The poignancy of their trapped existence is vividly depicted without any kind moralising or ‘telling’ by McKenna.

The aspect I also love about this series is the real sense of otherness about the supernatural beings – they are all disconcertingly odd and rather scary and despite the fact he is half-dryad, Dan doesn’t get any inside knowledge about their motivations. I read far later than I should have done as I couldn’t put this one down – but the snag is that I am now suffering from withdrawal symptoms as I am out the other side of this fabulous world and feeling rather bereft as a result. This is one of my outstanding reads of the year.
Highly recommended for anyone who has a pulse…
10/10

[Polwanderer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cliche after cliche after cliche. The kindest thing I can say about this book is that it’s an easy read. The main character talks in cliches and just has no emotions, flat characters, things happen with no consequences and as a reader I felt no investment in what happened. The climax was too easy and left me feeling with a sense of ‘so what’. Disappointing as it is listed for awards.

Anyone wanting to read about British folklore and myths should read the works of Robert Holdstock, starting with Mythago Wood.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3366809.html

I found The Green Man's Foe very helpful and hopeful comfort reading. It's the sequel to a book I haven't read, a contemporary fantasy about an English chap with magical relatives, dealing with dark forces and teenagers going off the rails. I am marking it down a bit because the villain was pretty one-dimensional, or at least the protagonist's perception was, which weakend the investment I was ready to make in the characters.

[Elspeth Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart contemporary British fantasy, with a brilliant voice for the protagonist Daniel and a starring role for a not-your-run-of-the-mill mythological creature in the nix. I loved the first book in the series The Green Man's Heir and this one is just as good. Highly recommended.

In fact, I think I trust Juliet enough as an author that I would probably love reading her shopping list.

[Graculus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very strong sequel to The Green Man's Heir , where Daniel yet again finds himself dragged unwillingly into a problem in order to solve it for the Green Man. This time around, it's taking on the role of construction manager for an old house that's being turned into a hotel, threatened by a combination of dodgy local teens and a haunted lake.

One of the things I really like about these books is their relative lack of romance - this isn't to say that Daniel doesn't get to have sex, he just has it with characters who are supporting players and not protagonists. In both the previous book and this one, Daniel ends up friends with a woman who has supernatural powers of her own and the focus is on them building their relationship rather than just jumping on the insta-lust train to Bone Town. A pleasant exception to an annoying trope that comes up far too often for my liking in other books.

Here's hoping for more in this series.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second in a series set in the wild Wychwood Forest in Oxfordshire, which has frequently been thought of as magical, both in fiction and in the customs and tales of the area. The second in the series feels more like this is where the series takes off. Protagonist Tom has wood and water magic in his ancestry, and when a job helping renovate an old house is interrupted by practitioners of black magic. This includes a totem set up with tortured and killed animals and a nix (a water spirit, this one malevolent) aiming to corrupt local teenagers. This makes the book sound like an allegory of good and evil, but McKenna creates a compelling background and peoples it mainly with believable characters. The teenagers are exceptions to this: they seem to be more like part of the background than rounded individual character - but that is part of the point, in that they are being moulded into the weapons of for the nix to use as foot soldiers.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Dan, a dryad's son, has looked all his life for other people like him, people descended from dryads who can see what he can. He finally does at a historic house open to the public. Only, he discovers that there is an ancient evil stirring here. He didn't exactly expect to be fighting for his life when he finally found people like himself...

One thing I really like about this series is the slow growth of Dan. He starts off as roaming carpenter going from job to job without many connections as he looks for other people like him. He finally begins to find roots in a place and with people. But that doesn't mean it is boring. There is plenty of action as Dan and others find themselves fighting against one of the oldest and greatest evils told in the folk tales of the British Isles.

I really liked this one.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan has two new jobs - one, supervising the renovation of an old home being turned into a hotel and the second job is from the green man who wants him there also; but as per usual, he is not sure why.

It doesn’t take him long to work out this cursed family and its centuries long run of bad luck might be linked to whatever the heck it is living in the local lake. It might also have something to do with a guy who has parked his caravan on local land and is having way too much influence over the local youth.

Dan will need help so he calls on the dryads from book 1, who have trouble travelling all the way to the Cotswolds along the water paths.

It is that kind of creeping dread, ever so British countryside stuff.

Witch bottles, and old journals, curses and more modern versions [drugs and alcohol]

4 stars

[Stephen Whq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Builder Dan is managing a house restoration outside a village but the mysterious Green Man has a task for him. There's a deeply unpleasant man corrupting the local youth and something very old and vicious out for blood. Throw in a few nasty village secrets and a gripping climax. Dan is half dryad and sees stuff ordinary humans don't, and he has to struggle against physical, spiritual and moral dangers.

McKenna reminds us the stuff lurking out there was not sweet, and manages to evoke the stark contrast between the mundane world (remembering the petty cash for the tea). and getting something ancient and murdery off your case. Recommended. The sequel to the acclaimed Green Man's Heir.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2023/1...

Ok, this does seem to be a series about a guy who rights supernatural wrongs, and I liked this one a lot! The protagonist takes a job from his friend/boss' brother at the Green Man's urging, and has to figure out what’s VERY wrong with the local lake, what the Aleister Crowley wannabe hanging around is up to, and fix it all. Some cool new characters with cool new abilities are introduced, and I’m enjoying seeing this world expand. I definitely like it better when there aren’t serial killers (though there is some dark stuff in this one too). A-.

[Bel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Undemanding and entertaining, with excellent use of British and other European myths and folk tales. I like the way the author is exploring different parts of England.

The level of detail gets a bit much: an illustrative example is the couple of pages where the protagonist decides whether or not to buy a teapot since he already has one at home. I also found the swearing a bit over the top. I'm not offended by it but it made the dialogue hard to read sometimes. Still, I'm straight onto the next one!

[Steven Poore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Green Man novel did feel slightly as if two shorter stories had been wedged back to back to create a full "first season" so to speak (though it was also a great read in its own right). This second in the series allows itself to spread out more, and Juliet McKenna takes the space to set up excellent secondary characters, subplots, and even someone who can break a man's arm. The magic is subtle when it does come, and works within the story and the landscape rather than against it. Some brilliant stuff here from one of fantasy's best modern authors.

[KateKing58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love learning about British folklore this way. The characters are well developed, the scenes detailed, and the situation evolves with tension and drama.

There is one loose thread, though. Daniel finds a list of archetypes/dramatis personae at one point that hints at deeper mysteries at play. The Hunter, The Watcher, The Despoiler, The Wanderer and their company. Reading the story puts names to some of these, but the question of who they are and why they are important nags at me. I hope that future books build on this.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Green Man's Foe

Dan finds himself summoned by the Green Man to a house that is being refurbished as a hotel. Someone wants something that is in the house and it's Dan job to make sure that doesn't happen.
This is a brilliant sequel to Juliet E McKenna 's first book. Familiar characters return along with new ones including Fin a swan maiden.
The Green Man's Foe is highly enjoyable and I can't recommend it highly enough.