• Blog
  • About
  • Reviews
  • Great Series Read Project
  • Archive

SciFi Mind

Visions of Future Worlds

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Goodreads
  • Mastodon
You are here: Home / Archives for myth

Embertide (Book 3 of The Fallow Sisters) by Liz Williams

By John Folk-Williams

Embertide

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 […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Great Series Read Project Tagged With: England, freedom, gods, Liz Williams, myth, primal Britain, shape-shifting, spirits, star beings, time travel

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

By John Folk-Williams

The Spear Cuts Through Water

Impressed as I was by Simon Jimenez‘ beautiful and moving first novel, The Vanished Birds, I have to say I’m just staggered by his second, The Spear Cuts Through Water. Using the second person, the narrator lures “you” with intensely lyrical but dramatically apt prose into a world between worlds. One of several story tellers […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: dreams, epic fantasy, family, gods, magic, myth, shape-shifting, Simon Jimenez

Amazing Cities in SFF – 3

By John Folk-Williams

The Wall Sumer Cities in SFF

To round out for now this series on cities in SFF, I’m revisiting a few novels that capture the importance of how people experience urban environments and how the massive structures affect their language and thought. A city, after all, is not just buildings and a way of physically organizing dense populations, but also a […]

Filed Under: SFF Cities Tagged With: Arkady Martine, city, culture, Gautam Bhatia, language, Lavie Tidhar, memory, myth, poetry, power, religion

Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Destroyer of Light

Jennifer Marie Brissett has written a beautifully crafted time puzzle mystery wrapped in a new version of the Greek myth of Demeter’s search for her daughter Persephone (or Koré) in the underworld. Destroyer of Light gradually builds its world as told from multiple points of view at different times. The pieces of this puzzle deftly […]

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: alien life forms, altered minds, city, identity, myth, racism, religion, time

Ursula K. Le Guin on What Is Science Fiction?

By John Folk-Williams

What is Science Fiction Ursula K. Le Guin

When I started this blog, I considered having a page offering various answers to the question, What is science fiction? There are so many different, often clashing views that I thought that would be interesting, but I eventually rejected the idea because it seems too pedantic to even suggest that there is or ought to […]

Filed Under: What is Science Fiction Tagged With: art, C.G. Jung, character, consciousness, myth, Philip K. Dick, unconscious, Ursula K. Le Guin

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar #WyrdandWonder

By John Folk-Williams

By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar

I hope no one is so jaded on Arthurian fantasy that they can’t enjoy this glorious retelling and meticulous tear-down of every facet of the over-familiar stories. Every character comes to scurrilous life in By Force Alone, as that title phrase echoes over and over throughout this dynamic, hilarious and strangely moving book. I say […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: Arthurian fantasy, fairyland, Lavie Tidhar, magic, myth, primal Britain, violence

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Subscribe to SciFi Mind Posts



About SciFi Mind

nebula SciFiMind

Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

Search SciFi Mind

Recent Posts

  • The Mountain in the Sea by Ray NaylerThe Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
  • Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole TalabiShigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi – #WyrdandWonder
  • Under Alien Skies - Strange EncountersStrange Encounters – 3 Science Books for SFF Readers
  • Favorite Fantasy Characters – #Wyrd&Wonder

Categories

Twitter

Twitter feed is not available at the moment.

© 2023 Copyright by John Folk-Williams · Dynamik-Gen On Genesis Framework