Maybe if we wrote criticism that read every novel as romantasy, we could exert massive cultural leverage and completely transform everything!

Yeah, but I'm on the side of the magic...

However, there are several moments where it mentions how history might have gone otherwise without this particular thread of destiny. In this respect, we could see the novel as a fairy tale.

True but we still end up with something very different - two women celebrating Beltane while the wolves howl. There's a kind of disjunct in the book between middle-class liberalism (coffee date with eagles) and alternate lifestyles of Annie, Belinda etc. Lucy is interestingly poised between.

.. change of social structures with no cultural shift. (That's not to say I find the political developments -rainbow coalition etc - in the novel especially likely but then I see their purpose as illustrative rather than the cause of the change).

This discussion depends a bit on how one views the relationship between culture and social structures. I think culture is upriver of society, so if the culture shifts enough then the structures will follow. So for me the novel is more radical because countercultural, than a novel depicting rapid ..

Yes, that's a great point. It all depends on how we conceive of change operating. A relatively sudden huge cultural change might take decades to work through institutional, social and state systems. At a systems level, the UK is still struggling to adapt to cultural change since the 1960s.

having had three completely different tonal phases (season 1, seasons 2&3, season 4), it's consistently better paced than its competitors (which is a comment on how badly the other 3 have been paced). It's probably going to be the only one that makes it to 5 seasons *grunts*

The radicalism of the book is disguised by the choice of viewpoint characters. If Lucy's friend Annie - radical activist and witch - was the protagonist it would look very different. Even so, the politics are radical, countercultural and feminist - more in line with peace movement than lib centre.

My first stories, and novels When the Sea is Rising Red, and Beastkeeper came out under Cat Hellisen.

My latest novel The Shape of Monsters is under CL Hellisen, and narrated by the fabulous Omari Douglas.

Also more stuff between those ends of the timeline