Embertide: A Fallow Sisters Novel by Liz Williams

(NewCon Press, 2022)

Reviewed by D.A. Lascelles

Embertide is the third in the Fallow Sisters series that began with Comet Weather and continued in Blackthorn Winter. If you are coming to this book having not read both of these, it would definitely be worth looking at these first otherwise you will get lost.

In Comet Weather we were introduced to the Fallow sisters—Bee, Stella, Serena and Luna—as they searched for their missing mother, Alys, and came to understand something of their family’s occult legacy. Bee lives in the old family home in Somerset, Stella and Serena work in London and Luna lives on the road with her Romany boyfriend, Sam. Throughout the previous books, each sister faces challenges and discovers things about themselves, in particular each one learns about their magical abilities.

Embertide continues this story of discovery as the sisters reflect on the events of Blackthorn Winter and investigate some weirdness that starts with one of them time travelling back to the Victorian period and another encountering a goddess in the centre of London. Like the previous books, Williams weaves subtle threads of story together as each sister encounters a different aspect of the main plot and acts on it, sometimes without being aware of the links between them. This leads to a satisfying ‘cosy occult mystery’ style of story as the reader is as much in the dark as the characters about what is really going on and embarks on a journey of discovery with them.

The characters are entertaining and believable. Not only the Fallow sisters, who all show signs of development and growth throughout the series, but also the people they meet and interact with. Some of them have amazing occult powers—shape changing, travel through doors in time—but there are no ‘superhero’ complexes here. Each character is grounded, they have real jobs and you get the sense of a rich life behind even the ones who only appear briefly. Each could be a real person you might meet in the pub in London or Somerset.

The layers of both the plot and the characters are strengthened by William’s own expertise in myths, history and the occult. The magic used by the various characters is both familiar as ‘traditional English occultism’ and unique in its interpretation. Symbols, stories and myths that are familiar to most people (especially those interested in fantasy) are given a new spin here with some amusing asides. For example, one supernatural character mentions that the sisters need to find someone with ‘the Knowledge’ and this is immediately interpreted as the famous test all London Black Cab drivers have to take when it really means something more mystical. All such world building elements are approached with a richness of description and a clever use of hints rather than blatant ‘telling’.

If there are flaws, I might say they are in the pace of the story and the perceived threat. I called it ‘cosy occult mystery’ because for most of the story there doesn’t appear to be a significant, urgent threat. This means that the characters can sometimes feel like they are unrushed in their resolution of the plot. However, in Embertide, this is less of an issue as it was in Comet Weather as here the characters have already gone through the journey of discovery that took a fair chunk of Comet Weather and are entering events here with more awareness of the supernatural and the threats therein. To be honest, though, I am not sure this is really a flaw as it allows time for the characters to develop and the aforementioned subtle plot threads to be laid properly. Not every supernatural story has to be an immediate threat and even magic using protagonists have real lives they have to maintain.

Overall, this is well worth checking out, though only if you have already read the first two in the series.

Review from BSFA Review 18 - Download your copy here.