Salt on the Midnight Fire

Fallow Sisters #4

by Liz Williams

Remember that sense of wonder you felt when first reading a truly magical book? Rediscover it in the pages of Liz Williams' Fallow Sisters novels.

The Fallow sisters: Bee, Stella, Serena, Luna

Four Fey Sisters whose lives straddle the contemporary and the 'otherworld' -- comprising the past and alternative realms.

In this concluding volume of the magical quartet, new dangers arise as the focus shifts from the family home of Mooncote in rural Somerset to the rugged coastline of Cornwall. The sisters and their friends -- Ace, Ver, Dark, Davy, Nick, Laura, and Kit Coral - find themselves embroiled in a deadly struggle between the land and the Wild Hunt and the Wreckers and Pirates, a conflict that reaches down through the ages.

Their mother, Alys, claims amnesia after being thrown from a horse, but is she faking it? Who is the sinister Morlader who first warns them off and then invades Mooncote itself, whose very presence chills them to the bone? Who is the mysterious woman - first glimpsed in the crowds at the Wimbledon tournament - who so resembles their deceased nemesis Miranda? And what part does Good Queen Bess have to play in all this? Is she all that she seems, or more than she seems? And then there's Hob, can he be trusted?
The most pressing question, of course, will all four sisters survive this latest adventure?

Genres: Fantasy

338 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2023

About the author

There 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

Reviews

[Rachel Boss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so sad that these books are over! I hope Liz Williams will write more in this series! Incredible characters, lands, magic and wonder!

This is my 2nd time reading these books and I loved them just as much the 2nd time around!

[Steve Kimmins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last, I believe, in this quartet of novels about the four Fallow sisters; stories including English folklore, and magic of a type that I’ve enjoyed finding and reading.
It’s been a particularly well organised series, with the first volume being ‘magic-lite’, mainly introducing you to the strong lead characters, the four sisters, and their different lives in contemporary England. Slowly we discover the magical background to their family, starting in their rural Somerset home (not far from where I live nowadays, which added a personal element to my reading of the series). In volumes 2 and 3 we get progressively used to more frequent encounters with the supernatural, with ‘time -hopping’ and journeys into a magical ‘other world’.

By volume 4 it’s become a routine experience for the sisters, and their similarly minded friends, to jump back and forth in time, and into the other reality. They’ve also discovered they’ve unusual and unexpected talents of their own. Rather than the previous adventures centred on their Somerset home area, or modern day London, we now find ourselves in Cornwall. Nowadays, Brits use this far south west peninsula as a summer holiday location, with its rocky coastline, sandy coves and surfing beaches. The sisters discover not just this and a maritime flavour to their magical encounters but a more sinister past, which includes historical wreckers who lured ships onto the rocks to rob them (Jamaica Inn anyone?).

I enjoyed this different setting for the sisters, and the transition into an almost fully magical story has been well setup by the previous volumes as I just explained. I found it a deeper, more involved storyline than the other volumes, partly because for much of the book all four sisters have their own different adventures to follow, these weaving in and out with their other sister’s stories, and each sister having their own entourage as well. Not to mention a number of new historical characters, and many of the magical characters we’ve encountered previously. Not too complicated to follow but you need to keep your wits about you in following the storyline!

As I noted in the previous volume the author tries to tie up the plot threads at the end of the book maybe just a little bit too tidily and quickly than I liked. Given the enjoyably meandering storyline and the marvellous sense of mystery and wonder where enough is left a little uncertain for the reader to discover for themselves, I thought more of a sense of mystery could also be left in the concluding stages, but that’s my taste I guess.

All in all, I’ve very much enjoyed the series. English folklore and magical mystery of a type I’ve often looked for. Good strong, almost entirely female, lead characters. My familiarity with most of the story locations gave it an extra boost for me, even making me view the landscapes in a new light when I make my periodic cycling or walking excursions through them! I wouldn’t be unhappy to see more in the series, but that seems to be that.
5* for this and the series.

[Denny · Rating 4 out of 5]

No rating.

[Meg Leader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, and I don't mind the jumping viewpoints, but it was jumping around too much.

[Jacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth Fallow sisters book sees Bee, Stella, Serena and Luna heading for Cornwall for the summer after the birth of Luna’s baby and a very strange conclusion to an open-air Shakespeare performance. The extended family includes Sam, Luna’s partner, and Ver, Sam’s gran, plus Serena’s actor boyfriend, Ward, Stella’s friends Ace and Davy, Somerset hunt-master Nick Wratchell-Haynes and Bee’s lovely boyfriend, Dark, an Elizabethan sailor-ghost. As usual the sisters’ mum is up to something, but no one knows what, and the Wild Hunt (land) and the Morlader (sea) are fratching for territory. Expect shapechanging, ghosts, phantom ships, kidnapping and a guest appearance by Elizabeth I, and Francis Drake. I love the Fallow Sisters’ books. This might be the end of the series, but there could be more. I live in hope.

[Lynda Louise Clements · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best one so far

Having read all the books in the series, this for me, was the best. Folklore and history woven together - time slipping back and forth but not in a confusing way. St Michael’s Mount is one of my favourite places but I shall never look at in the same way again!

[Jane Ashford · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's better than a new volume in a series you love? I enjoy the Fallow sisters so much. My favorite thing is the Stars.

[Susan Peak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good fourth book in this series where the Fallow sisters again get caught up in strange happenings which they may be able to resolve. This time it's in Cornwall, and competition between two forms of the Wild Hunt .
One thing I like about these books is that there is no Big Bad, so no escalation between one book and another; just the mostly ordinary lives of four sisters who also deal with extraordinary events. I do hope there will be more.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All the people in the otherlands seem so marginalised. Scraping together bits and pieces of territory to live in.”
“Not just the otherlands,” Serena said. “If you walk along Regent’s Canal, bang smack in the middle of the city, you’ll see people living in benders and tents.” [loc. 2962]

Fourth and final novel in the Fallow Sisters quartet: this is very much a summer book, and I was pleased to be able to read it on a hot summer afternoon. Ideally, of course, I should have been on a beach somewhere in the West Country ... Salt on the Midnight Fire deals with the ongoing struggle for leadership of the Wild Hunt, and with the magical abduction of a child by a chilly, red-headed personage, and with wreckers and pirates on the Cornish coast: the Morlader, a supernatural figure who preys on souls, is making a play for hunting rights over the Hunt's ancestral territory. ('Rights we have held since the end of the ice,' retorts the Hunt's leader.) Meanwhile the Fallow sisters deal with disappearances, childbirth, and a fearsome Flea.

I preordered Salt on the Midnight Fire, read most of it on publication day, and broke off to reread the previous novels in the quartet before finishing this finale. I enjoyed it very much: I like the sisters and their various friends and acquaintances; I am constantly surprised and charmed that the author notices things that matter to me (the Southwark Cathedral cat!); the otherlands are reminiscent of other protomythic realms such as Mythago Wood, but rather less brutal; Williams' descriptions of landscape are magificent ('the light pouring down onto the land as if from an upturned cup, leaching the fields and hills into a sequence of faded green and tawny and mauve, with the sea silver in the distance') and her dialogue comfortable with colloquial rhythm. This is not, quite, our reality. Brexit is noted as something not to be mentioned in Cornwall; the Ever Given's sojourn in the Suez is namedropped, but there is no Covid pandemic. Pratchett's novels exist, but while there's a gender-swapped production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the 'blockbusting fantasy TV series' that the Titania-actress starred in is certainly not Game of Thrones.

While the main plot threads are nicely (if sometimes rapidly) resolved, there are a number of dangling plot threads that I hope the author will weave into further works: Nick Wratchell-Hynes' romantic relationship (though it may be hinted), Nan's baby, Bill's household... The quartet is a delightful creation, and I really hope Williams returns to this setting.

[Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this concluding volume of stories about the Fallow sisters, this time upping sticks and moving much of the action to Cornwall, where the sisters, and various hangers-on are on holiday. But they get tangled up with the mysterious Morlader and the Wreckers, who drew ships to their doom against the Cornish cliffs. What do the Wreckers want with the sisters, and what is their interest in the Wild Hunt?

I don't think that the series ever reached the heights of the first volume, but I came to care about all four of the sisters across the series, although it does feel, once again, that Serena got the least "screen time" in this one. The mystery is interesting, and their mother, Alys, is always just in the shadows, and interestingly morally grey. I know it's the sisters' story, but I would have liked more of Alys's motivation.

I like that this book takes us back into the country again, where I feel it's at its strongest. I was never that interested in the stuff going on in London. It's out in the Shires where this series is at its most evocative and magical, although this time we're on the coast, which adds a whole extra dimension to the story.

If you loved the other books, as I did, you'll find this to be a satisfying conclusion to the story, while still leaving enough threads outstanding that Williams could return to the world and write more about the Fallow sisters. I'd happily read it.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 3 out of 5]

...and here is the fourth book in the Fallow Sisters series, representing 'summer'.

I was thoroughly enchanted with the other books, but perhaps the concept is getting a bit worn for me now. We have a similar narrative structure where the POV rotates among the four sisters, keeping the readers on their toes. In this book there is a whole lot of to-ing and fro-ing between places and times, both in the real England and in past historical Englands.

The plot revolves around a territorial dispute between the mystical Wild Hunt and the shadowy, ghosty pirates from Cornwall's past. The Fallows are roped into it against their will, but there seems to be constant deux ex machina rescues from supernatural forces. For me, it was getting somewhat repetitive. It's a little like those cartoons or theater pieces where people are continually going in and out of many doors, slamming them all the time. Wham bam, here's another time slip for you to manage, and another supernatural threat, and a savior.

Still, Williams' concept of magic and the British mythic past is engaging. The land is suffused with supernatural elements. As one character put it, “There's no such thing as supernature, just nature, but nature's bigger than we think.”

The more we learn about nature, the more astonished we are. Maybe there really is more than we suspect? Liz Williams certainly thinks so.

[Kevin Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have followed the otherworldly adventures of the Fallow sisters through all four books with great relish, and this is a fitting end to the quadrilogy... though it also lays the way for more to come, if Liz Williams feels inclined to revisit the family later down the track. It has been a feature of all four books that the chapters follow the individual sisters on their sometimes separate, sometimes converging storylines (but always bound together by a single overarching story arc), yet this was the first time I found this structure a little confusing, and had to go back several times to reread sections in order to remind myself of exactly what was happening, where, and to whom! So my advice to those who are about to embark on this book would be to try to read the final 100 pages or so in one sitting... it is the leaving it a while and returning to it later that will mess with your mind!

[Ben Jeapes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series which could serve essentially as a primer for British pagan mythology comes to an end, and it has been huge fun. The four Fallow sisters have a distinctly sideways relationship with the real world. They do their best to live here, but are liable at a moment's notice to be whisked off to another time or place, or shift shape into an animal, or meet a ghost or something worse. The boyfriend of one of them is a dead Elizabethan sailor, their grandfather is dead but still available for chats in the graveyard, the spirits of various stars tend to wander around in their home, and their mother rides with the Wild Hunt. In this one, much of the action is based in Cornwall over several centuries and dimensions, and we get to meet the original Queen Elizabeth too. Great stuff!

My one quibble would be the author's way of dividing the chapters. The sisters are split up and have adventures that gradually come to overlap and bring them back together; fair enough, but the author tends to give each one a single chapter, then whisk us off somewhere else. This can make it hard to follow any one sister's experiences. Clumping three or four chapters together would help, and also increase the tension as we more and more wonder what is happening to the others.

[K.V. Johansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished reading Liz Williams' Salt on the Midnight Fire instead of writing today. What a great quartet of books that was. I love the four sisters and their friends and the wild magic running through their world. Highly recommended if you loved Garner and Cooper as a child; an adult book with that old wild folkloric magic alive and vital in the present.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out well but turned a bit KeyStone Cops toward the end. Each sister was involved in her own supernatural adventure with the action switching from one sister to another every couple of pages. I had trouble keeping track of who was where, what they were doing and whom they were with. Eventually it all came together at the end but getting there was confusing

[Kathi Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished the four book series. As always Ms Williams doesn’t disappoint. As the youngest of four girls, I thought her relationships between the sisters was spot on. Although it’s hard to write something new and imaginative in the mythological lore of England (so many great books!)., but she managed. Delightful

[Owen Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this series : )

William's writing reminds me of the works of Charles De Lint - interesting stories, endearing characters, without excessive mental or physical violence : )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...

[Jen Yonit]

I received this book free from librarything in exchange for review.

I hadn't realized how far into the series this was, there was so much back story and character relationships I didn't understand. I'll have to go back and start at the beginning.

[Caomhghain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the meandering plot, the ever-increasing number of new characters and mythological creatures, the regular sudden lucky escapes, this genial series continues to provide comfortable entertainment.

[Allison Henle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific end to the series!

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fallow sisters are at it again, this time in London and Cornwall.

Lots of the same stuff as in other books.

It's fine.