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You are here: Home / Archives for primal Britain

Menewood by Nicola Griffith

By John Folk-Williams

Menewood by Nicola Griffith

As Nicola Griffith, author of Menewood, second in her Hild series, said in a recent interview, she expects to be writing about this seventh century British saint (the abbess of Whitby in her later years) for the rest of her life. The character of Hild she has created through 20 years of research is unforgettably […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Historical Fantasy Tagged With: historical fiction, language, nature, Nicola Griffith, power, primal Britain, religion, war

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

Spear by Nicola Griffith – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Nicola Griffith Spear

Nicola Griffith’s short novel Spear takes us on a luminous journey deep in Welsh roots of Arthurian legend to record the exploits of Peretur as she seeks to understand her nature and the fate that awaits her at Caer Leon, the stronghold of Arturus and his Companions. As Griffith explains in her afterward, she has […]

Filed Under: Secondary World Fantasy Tagged With: Arthurian fantasy, gods, magic, nature, Nicola Griffith, primal Britain, sapphic love

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

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison #WyrdAndWonder

By John Folk-Williams

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison is a brilliant but perplexing book, straddling the line between fantasy and literary fiction. It’s sort of proto-fantasy in which two principal characters, Shaw and Victoria, play out their lives, as if stuck to a purpose that no longer fits them, hardly able to […]

Filed Under: Parallel World Fantasy, Wyrd and Wonder Tagged With: alternate earth, climate change, fantasy, genetic change, M. John Harrison, primal Britain, water

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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

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