“Children of Earth and Sky” by Guy Gavriel Kay. I love the way he sets up his characters, puts them in an interesting spot. And then I love how he catches them at an absolute life-changing moment. I love how he doesn’t feel obligated to keep them static. His characters evolve so much!
So this book contained what seemed to me to be like the worst-planned war ever. And I assume it’s totally based on history! Every sprint one army would leave its city and drag their heavy cannons towards a fortress. If they made it there in time, they would besiege it. If not, they would turn around and go home, so they could come back next year.
“The Peripheral” by William Gibson. When I requested this from the library, I didn’t realize it was so long. But that’s okay, the chapters were short and it was no trouble to read 100 pages at a sitting. He really kept the energy up – characters popping in and out of the peripherals, using the alternating POVs to keep the story moving. I stopped about halfway through to figure out how he was managing those POVs actually.
So the worldbuilding was great (the lack of time paradox was useful), the characters were great (esp. the ones who appeared in both timeframes, that was neat), the plot kind of got lost for me. But whatever.
“Forever” by Maggie Stiefvater. The boy read it and wanted to talk about how MS does the things she does. He has the spirit of an editor. So I finished it, and now we can talk.