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Fallow Sisters #3
Embertide
Rediscover your sense of wonder...
The Fallow Sisters: Bee, Stella, Serena, Luna
Spring is in the air. As the Fallow Sisters and their friends recover from the events of Christmas, life has taken on a semblance of normality, but that's never going to last. They have made enemies, and it's not long before darker concerns intrude on their comfortable existence in contemporary London and their Somerset home. Once again they face danger beyond their understanding; a threat they are determined to identify and master.
Serena's relationship with the movie actor, Ward, is going from strength to strength, but when she is dragged back to the past while on location with him in Brighton, she knows the discovery of a dead airman is significant, but has no idea how. And what was Ward's ex Miranda doing there in the year 1893? Miranda had been present during some of the events of the winter, but was her role more significant than anyone realised?
When Diana, the Huntress, appears to Stella in central London and sets her a task to complete, Stella knows she can't refuse, but is it something she can hope to achieve?
If only the sisters could trust their mother, but they all sense there are things that Alys isn't telling them and instinct warns them to be wary of her...
The Fallow Sisters: Bee, Stella, Serena, Luna
Spring is in the air. As the Fallow Sisters and their friends recover from the events of Christmas, life has taken on a semblance of normality, but that's never going to last. They have made enemies, and it's not long before darker concerns intrude on their comfortable existence in contemporary London and their Somerset home. Once again they face danger beyond their understanding; a threat they are determined to identify and master.
Serena's relationship with the movie actor, Ward, is going from strength to strength, but when she is dragged back to the past while on location with him in Brighton, she knows the discovery of a dead airman is significant, but has no idea how. And what was Ward's ex Miranda doing there in the year 1893? Miranda had been present during some of the events of the winter, but was her role more significant than anyone realised?
When Diana, the Huntress, appears to Stella in central London and sets her a task to complete, Stella knows she can't refuse, but is it something she can hope to achieve?
If only the sisters could trust their mother, but they all sense there are things that Alys isn't telling them and instinct warns them to be wary of her...
342 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2022
28 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Liz Williams
146 books266 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 23, 2024
The third in the Fallow Sisters series and it’s an excellent continuation to an English folklore style of fantasy storyline that I’ve often sought and rarely found to be well done, until now.
It’s interesting how the series has developed. In volume 1 there’s a lot of world building; we learn a good deal about the four sisters everyday lives, their relationships, and their place in the contemporary world. The supernatural side appears infrequently, except in close proximity to their rural home, at least until a mystical climax escalates. However, in volume 2, and for certain here in volume 3, the story plunges into the supernatural much more frequently and right from the start.
We learn that the sisters continue a family trait of showing surprising talents that they weren’t aware of. Their circle of acquaintances has grown and includes many who also have surprising magical talents, with a nice twist that one neighbouring family are in denial about that! The story jumps between the quiet rural family home in Somerset and modern busy, noisy London where two of the sisters usually live and work. The magical side of London is further developed.
If I said that there’s quite a lot of jumping around between the present and the past (‘time shifts’), and a sort of Fae ‘otherworld’ also features into which one may accidentally or deliberately stumble, you might imagine that the storyline could become confusing. But I thought the plot was particularly well constructed in this respect as I didn’t find this ‘jumping around’ confusing at all - you learnt pretty quickly, alongside the surprised protagonists, when these events were happening.
The story is a type of magical mystery, where you and the sisters don’t really understand why certain strange events happen and why weird characters appear. But go with the flow, enjoy the mystery and it all gets sorted out! Though maybe the suddenness with which this happens at the end is a weaker part of the story. In addition, I did sometimes find the prose a bit too ‘matter of fact’ descriptive for my taste - a bit heavy on asides by the main characters when they give an opinion on some aspects of contemporary life or details on journeys (in London or Somerset) interrupting, for me, the flow of the plot. To be fair other readers less familiar with English life might regard these tangential details as interesting background!
Overall my estimation of the series is growing the further I get into it. A nice blending of English folklore, a hidden supernatural side to contemporary life, with the sisters being excellent strong characters throwing themselves into the uncertainties that confront them. Certainly not violent fantasy though this one has more ‘threat’ and hostile encounters than the previous volumes.
And a bonus appearance in this volume by everyone’s favourite English literary mystic, William Blake, or Bill to his mates.
4.5*.
It’s interesting how the series has developed. In volume 1 there’s a lot of world building; we learn a good deal about the four sisters everyday lives, their relationships, and their place in the contemporary world. The supernatural side appears infrequently, except in close proximity to their rural home, at least until a mystical climax escalates. However, in volume 2, and for certain here in volume 3, the story plunges into the supernatural much more frequently and right from the start.
We learn that the sisters continue a family trait of showing surprising talents that they weren’t aware of. Their circle of acquaintances has grown and includes many who also have surprising magical talents, with a nice twist that one neighbouring family are in denial about that! The story jumps between the quiet rural family home in Somerset and modern busy, noisy London where two of the sisters usually live and work. The magical side of London is further developed.
If I said that there’s quite a lot of jumping around between the present and the past (‘time shifts’), and a sort of Fae ‘otherworld’ also features into which one may accidentally or deliberately stumble, you might imagine that the storyline could become confusing. But I thought the plot was particularly well constructed in this respect as I didn’t find this ‘jumping around’ confusing at all - you learnt pretty quickly, alongside the surprised protagonists, when these events were happening.
The story is a type of magical mystery, where you and the sisters don’t really understand why certain strange events happen and why weird characters appear. But go with the flow, enjoy the mystery and it all gets sorted out! Though maybe the suddenness with which this happens at the end is a weaker part of the story. In addition, I did sometimes find the prose a bit too ‘matter of fact’ descriptive for my taste - a bit heavy on asides by the main characters when they give an opinion on some aspects of contemporary life or details on journeys (in London or Somerset) interrupting, for me, the flow of the plot. To be fair other readers less familiar with English life might regard these tangential details as interesting background!
Overall my estimation of the series is growing the further I get into it. A nice blending of English folklore, a hidden supernatural side to contemporary life, with the sisters being excellent strong characters throwing themselves into the uncertainties that confront them. Certainly not violent fantasy though this one has more ‘threat’ and hostile encounters than the previous volumes.
And a bonus appearance in this volume by everyone’s favourite English literary mystic, William Blake, or Bill to his mates.
4.5*.
September 12, 2022
Liz Williams’ Embertide is the third outing with the Fallow Sisters (following on from Comet Weather and Blackthorn Winter), and it’s another time-slipping and spirit-battling adventure with Bee, Serena, Stella, Luna, and their reality jumping Mom, Alys. Spirits, both good and evil, frequently interrupt their lives in present-day England. Assisting them are a troupe of friends, including some baseline humans but also various ghosts, shapeshifters, reborn time-hopping folks or the avatars of stars or ancient goddesses.
One of the things I love about this series is the ordinariness of the sisters’ encounters with the spirit realms. The four of them try to carry on with their daily lives (Stella is a DJ, Serena a clothing designer, Luna a sort of free roamer, and Bee the keeper of the family hearth at Mooncote) but they are not too surprised if that pier in Brighton suddenly slips into the 1940s or the 1890s. Or if that ugly corner of London turns out to be the involuntary home of a huntress spirit named Noualen, or if that country lane becomes a hollow overrun by a herd of cattle that are really human spirits. Each incident begins with barely any warning, maybe a change of light or a tree appearing where none had been before, and they are off.
While the Fallow sisters and their close friends try to use the spiritual sight they have for benevolent purposes, they are dogged by a more malevolent crowd. In earlier novels, the famous actor Miranda Dean (who is also in and out of the spirit world) is always going after Serena, whose partner Ward, also a well-known actor, was once Miranda’s lover. But in Embertide it is Stella she seems to pursue in order to fulfill a bargain she struck with very dark forces. There is the man with goat’s eyes and threatening hounds who leads the Hunt for souls, and those white shoots coming out of the ground seem to be warriors, as in the legend of dragon’s teeth sown in the soil that rise up as warriors and fight each other to the death. So many strange people suddenly appear to the sisters that they keep having to check if they are part of this world or something else entirely.
........
As with the previous books, there are a lot of questions only partly answered at the end of Embertide, so I hope there will be more in this series. Above all, it will be interesting to see what happens after the very pregnant Luna gives birth (to a child of what sort of powers?), to learn more about her lover Sam’s Traveller family, and to find out more about what Alys has been up to in all her wanderings. I’m on board for anything Liz Williams writes. Her beautiful style is carefully attuned to both harmony and discordance of the ancient land and the people struggling to understand it.
Read the full review at SciFi Mind.
One of the things I love about this series is the ordinariness of the sisters’ encounters with the spirit realms. The four of them try to carry on with their daily lives (Stella is a DJ, Serena a clothing designer, Luna a sort of free roamer, and Bee the keeper of the family hearth at Mooncote) but they are not too surprised if that pier in Brighton suddenly slips into the 1940s or the 1890s. Or if that ugly corner of London turns out to be the involuntary home of a huntress spirit named Noualen, or if that country lane becomes a hollow overrun by a herd of cattle that are really human spirits. Each incident begins with barely any warning, maybe a change of light or a tree appearing where none had been before, and they are off.
While the Fallow sisters and their close friends try to use the spiritual sight they have for benevolent purposes, they are dogged by a more malevolent crowd. In earlier novels, the famous actor Miranda Dean (who is also in and out of the spirit world) is always going after Serena, whose partner Ward, also a well-known actor, was once Miranda’s lover. But in Embertide it is Stella she seems to pursue in order to fulfill a bargain she struck with very dark forces. There is the man with goat’s eyes and threatening hounds who leads the Hunt for souls, and those white shoots coming out of the ground seem to be warriors, as in the legend of dragon’s teeth sown in the soil that rise up as warriors and fight each other to the death. So many strange people suddenly appear to the sisters that they keep having to check if they are part of this world or something else entirely.
........
As with the previous books, there are a lot of questions only partly answered at the end of Embertide, so I hope there will be more in this series. Above all, it will be interesting to see what happens after the very pregnant Luna gives birth (to a child of what sort of powers?), to learn more about her lover Sam’s Traveller family, and to find out more about what Alys has been up to in all her wanderings. I’m on board for anything Liz Williams writes. Her beautiful style is carefully attuned to both harmony and discordance of the ancient land and the people struggling to understand it.
Read the full review at SciFi Mind.
July 10, 2022
I love these books about the Fallow sisters. One could say they're like The Dark is Rising for adults, but with much more complexity and ambiguity than that classic's simple conflict of good and evil. These books have roots sunk deep in landscape, folklore, history, myth and legend, and the contemporary world, and are peopled with ghosts, spirits of the land, stars, angels, shapeshifters, and ordinary people who carry more than they know within themselves. This is the third book of what is intended to be a quartet, continuing on from events in Comet Weather and Blackthorn Winter; the series is creating both a story to devour quickly, to find out what's happening with Bee, Serena, Stella, and Luna, and one for leisurely re-reading, lingering over particular favourite scenes out of order, as a landscape and a reality to immerse yourself in. If you liked The Dark is Rising as a child, if you can immerse yourself in Robert MacFarlane's non-fiction, if you like contemporary real-world fantasy but want it to have roots in the earth rather than glitter (though it has fashion designers and actors and rock stars too, so maybe I should say 'as well as'), these are for you.
July 7, 2022
Outside, the rain had passed and it was very still and starlit; Bee looked up and there was Orion, striding high in the southern sky with the blue fire of Sirius at his heels. There was a small, hard moon, bitterly white. [loc. 2314]
I knew I was in good hands when I opened Embertide to find that Part One is entitled 'Our Thumping Hearts Keep the Ravens In', a quotation from Kate Bush's song 'Lionheart'. (Part Two is 'Selling England by the Pound'.) Third in the splendid 'Fallow sisters' tetralogy, following Comet Weather and Blackthorn Winter, Embertide is very much a springtime book, and I wish I'd been able to read it earlier in the year, because Williams' evocation of the season is so vivid.
The four Fallow sisters (Bee, Stella, Serena and Luna) are regaining equilibrium after the events of Blackthorn Winter. At least they remember those events: Ben and his mother Caro seem to think that, instead of tangling with otherworldly forces, they simply fell ill with some virus. (Note that these novels are a Covid-free zone.) But there's an underlying theme of how human perceptions make rational narratives of the irrational spiritual world; even sensible and grounded Bee only perceives an essential truth about a friend in the nick of time.
Spring is stirring, in the lanes and woods of Somerset and in the green corners of London, and the sisters are separately swept about by the tides of time, experiencing various metamorphoses, encountering new friends and foes (the Huntress, Kit Coral, Davy Dearly, Aiken Drum), piecing together the scraps of knowledge and understanding that they've accumulated, and trying to come to terms with their mother's new relationship. Like the previous novels in the series, Embertide is centred on women, human and otherwise. There's little in the way of romance (though I'm vastly intrigued by hints of Master of Foxhounds Nick Wratchell-Haynes' 'romantic interest of unusual origins') but plenty of female friendship and solidarity. (That said, one of the more villainous characters is also a woman). This is a novel that deals with the Wild Hunt, the ravens at the Tower, and White Horse Country: but also with road protests, class privilege, and land ownership: all very English.
I'm fascinated by the 'Knowledge', by Alys' alter ego Feldfar, and by an offhand mention of American cousin Nell (who has inexplicably become 'Nan') and her baby, presumably conceived during Comet Weather: I'm very much looking forward to the fourth and final novel, which should be a summery one.
February 28, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. The world building is excellent and the Fallow Sisters finally start finding out more about the many other-worlds impinging on their reality. Very satisfying, and embedded in the English landscape in a way few other books ever manage to achieve.
November 26, 2022
This is the third book about the Fallow sisters, after “Comet Weather” and “Blackthorn Winter”. The sisters and their family and friends are involved in British paganism, so that they sometimes walk between different times in British history, and can also transform into animals.
The books have a lovely delicate touch, alluding that magic is 'just over there', a short reach away. Always with us, actually.
A recurring theme is the natural history of Britain, and how the ancient land still exists under the modern overlay that civilization has placed on it.
The book is haunted by the aspect of the Hunt, the shadowy figures that ride at night searching for souls. There are servants of the Hunt, known as Hounds, that are effectively creepy and threatening.
I particularly liked the scenes on the Thames. There is a fair amount of time spent on the river, and a lot of description of how the river used to be, including the somewhat wider river before the Victorians put in embankments. Again, celebrating the natural world of Britain, and reminding us that there is so much more under the thin veneer of modern British life.
So far there has been a book for each season: Autumn, winter, spring. Will there be a summer book? It would make sense: Four seasons, four Fallow sisters, four books.
The books have a lovely delicate touch, alluding that magic is 'just over there', a short reach away. Always with us, actually.
A recurring theme is the natural history of Britain, and how the ancient land still exists under the modern overlay that civilization has placed on it.
The book is haunted by the aspect of the Hunt, the shadowy figures that ride at night searching for souls. There are servants of the Hunt, known as Hounds, that are effectively creepy and threatening.
I particularly liked the scenes on the Thames. There is a fair amount of time spent on the river, and a lot of description of how the river used to be, including the somewhat wider river before the Victorians put in embankments. Again, celebrating the natural world of Britain, and reminding us that there is so much more under the thin veneer of modern British life.
So far there has been a book for each season: Autumn, winter, spring. Will there be a summer book? It would make sense: Four seasons, four Fallow sisters, four books.
September 5, 2022
Cards on table, I love the Fallow sisters. This is their third outing and in many ways I found it the most satisfying yet (especially after book 2, which, though still utterly lovely, I felt got a little frenetic). It could be much to do with the fact that we are getting to know the family so well now, but this book feels like coming home. Yes, there is plenty of magic and mythos, and a great deal of real tension and jeopardy, but we, like the sisters themselves, are becoming attuned to their powers, and share their journeys into the otherworld, and back into previous time periods, with both joy and trepidation. Read them in order if you can, so that you can luxuriate in the development across these books. I believe there is a fourth to come, and to be honest, I can't wait.
July 15, 2022
This is the third in a series about a family of four magical sisters, their friends and families. All of them have been enjoyable but this one fell a bit short of the mark. There didn't seem to be a strong story line. There were villians and sort of villians. There were shape shifters and time travel. There were dangers and rescues. With all that somehow it felt more like a-month-in-the-life-of the sisters rather than a quest or adventure. Good enough to recommend but not the best in the series. Here is hoping for another installment.
December 4, 2024
The Hunt Rides On
I am completely enchanted with these books! I really hope there is a fourth planned. I’ve always liked folklore and these stories pull the lore into the modern world. I really could not put it down! Grand adventure.
I am completely enchanted with these books! I really hope there is a fourth planned. I’ve always liked folklore and these stories pull the lore into the modern world. I really could not put it down! Grand adventure.
July 11, 2022
After being a bit down on Blackthorn Winter, I was pleased that the series picks up again with Embertide. This book turns the season again to spring and, after a quiet few months, supernatural entities are bothering the Fallow sisters yet again. Diana, the Huntress, asks Stella for a favour; Serena slips in time and is followed by a mysterious wartime airman, while Bee and Luna are accosted in and around their home of Mooncote.
I enjoyed this quite a lot more than I did the previous book. I still don't really know what's going on in the larger sense of the story, but then the Fallow sisters don't either. Alys continues to be frustratingly closed and refuses to tell anyone what she knows, and we get another mysterious, magical Londoner for Stella to make friends with, joining Ace and Bill and who helps the sisters out.
I've said in the past that I find myself having less and less time for romantic conflict through lack of communication. This book doesn't have any of that, so gains a bunch of extra points from me. Three of the sisters are in solid relationships and while there's plenty of drama going on, it's outwith the family, not internal strife.
This book has a more even split between London and Mooncote. While I'm still over Magical London, Embertide does spend more time than its predecessor in the country, around the old house and the Somerset countryside which feels like the heart of this series. Speaking of the countryside, Nick Wratchell-Haynes, the local lord of the manor, gets quite a prominent role in this book. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of him. He seems nice and he's been an ally to the Fallows but I can't help wondering if there's more to him. (Aside: I can't help imagining his voice as Nigel from The Archers.)
If the next (final?) book follows the same pattern as the previous ones, it'll be set in the summer, and I look forward to seeing what supernatural forces will be ranged against the Fallow sisters then. I also have no doubt that their solid level-headedness and practicality will win out against whatever they're up against.
I enjoyed this quite a lot more than I did the previous book. I still don't really know what's going on in the larger sense of the story, but then the Fallow sisters don't either. Alys continues to be frustratingly closed and refuses to tell anyone what she knows, and we get another mysterious, magical Londoner for Stella to make friends with, joining Ace and Bill and who helps the sisters out.
I've said in the past that I find myself having less and less time for romantic conflict through lack of communication. This book doesn't have any of that, so gains a bunch of extra points from me. Three of the sisters are in solid relationships and while there's plenty of drama going on, it's outwith the family, not internal strife.
This book has a more even split between London and Mooncote. While I'm still over Magical London, Embertide does spend more time than its predecessor in the country, around the old house and the Somerset countryside which feels like the heart of this series. Speaking of the countryside, Nick Wratchell-Haynes, the local lord of the manor, gets quite a prominent role in this book. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of him. He seems nice and he's been an ally to the Fallows but I can't help wondering if there's more to him. (Aside: I can't help imagining his voice as Nigel from The Archers.)
If the next (final?) book follows the same pattern as the previous ones, it'll be set in the summer, and I look forward to seeing what supernatural forces will be ranged against the Fallow sisters then. I also have no doubt that their solid level-headedness and practicality will win out against whatever they're up against.
August 20, 2022
The third Fallow sisters novel is split between London and rural Somerset. It’s spring and the sisters are recovering from the events at Christmas, but they’ve come to the notice of the supernatural world. DJ Stella and fashion designer Serena (and her film actor boyfriend, Ward) are in the city where Diana the huntress sets Stella a task, and Serena keeps being dragged into the past. Bee is in Somerset, holding the family home together, content to be with her ghostly lover, Dark. Luna, the youngest sister (and her partner, Sam) is temporarily at home while her pregnancy progresses. Floating about, doing her own mysterious thing is Aliys, the girls’ mother, enigmatic as usual, and not entirely trustworthy. This book weaves folklore into everyday occurrences, and all the sisters cope with magic of one kind or another. The characters (the main ones and the secondary ones) are wonderful. This is a family saga with added magic which is well worth reading, but start at the beginning with Comet Weather and Blackthorn Winter. There’s a fourth book in the pipeline.
October 19, 2022
I have really enjoyed this series, and I liked spending time with the characters once again, but this latest entry was the weakest of the three. It kind of meandered along, and then it ended, but it didn't feel like a satisfactory ending to the series. If there is a fourth upcoming, and this is the bridge to it, I will be more forgiving. For one thing However, as with the earlier books, I really liked the kind of Susan Cooper vibe of the whole thing, and it's nice to read NICE characters (although some of the baddies are very much not nice, but that's ok). The series has been moving through the seasons, and we haven't had summer yet, so here's hoping there's a more satisfactory conclusion coming up.
August 16, 2024
The Fallow sisters inch their way into spring after a rather trying Christmas season. Friends are recovering from magical attacks, and a few are in denial of the supernatural beings wrecking the countryside. Luckily the sisters, their significant others, relations, and new allies are ready for yet another set of difficult encounters. Miranda returns (this makes sense if you have read books 1-2 and you should read those first and in order). The sisters, and the reader, attend a wonderful birthday party on palace grounds (no royals, sadly, but they are probably busy with the Matter of Britain), wander lost through history and the countryside (as usual!), and gather frequently for meals or a trip to the pub. In short another solid cozy adventure as the women deal with the magic that their mother has brought closer to home than should be comfortable.
May 26, 2022
Excellent addition to the series, satisfyingly developing the underlying mythology while leaving plenty to resolve in the next book.
July 21, 2022
A tour de force of British legends in a fab family story of four interesting women
August 21, 2023
excellent series - gently pastoralist writings
March 8, 2024
The third book in this lovely series about the Fallow Sisters, fantasy books entwined with British folklore.
August 2, 2024
There is definitely something magical about these books but they are slipping as we reach number 3. Closer, perhaps, to a set of short stories.
July 5, 2023
An excellent third book in this series. I like the subtle references to other writers, eg, Susan Cooper, Elizabeth Goudge - in Goudge's Little White Horse, the hare is named Serena, and Serena Fallow changes into a hare.
April 10, 2025
Not quite as focused as the previous two novels, but there is a nice sense of starting to wrap things up by the end of this novel. I eagerly await the 4th novel in the series!
October 27, 2025
Amazing! These books are like a dream. I will be so sorry for this series to end.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews