Jerry Cooke
5⭐️ - An enthralling and poetic tale that spans centuries, a scholar and a knight finding each other over and over again
Owen Mallory's academic obsession has been the tale of Sir Una Everlasting - the greatest hero of the nation, an orphan girl who became a knight that bested all foes until the last. The many conflicting stories of her life have made him fall in love with her legend, that of the virtuous and true champion, time and time again. When a book purporting to be the truest story of her life appears on his desk.. then promptly disappears again.. he finds that the history taught is a pale reflection of the woman who inspired it and that he has a greater role in it than he could have imagined. Caught in a cycle of life and death, holding on to each other more and more each time, Una and Owen must try to change history itself, no matter the cost.
This was jaw-droopingly good and profoundly poetic. The writing style, a mix of second person story telling with first person narration inserts, fills it with so much heartbreaking personality. The way both the characters have chances to tell their story, to talk about each other, makes it feel like a love letter. An object of devotion and careful chronicling.
The subversion of gender roles, the messaging of fighting back against totalitarian oppression, of challenging the appearance of fate, is so very powerful. More than this, the world makes sense - it's really hard to make time travel work in a book in a way that deals with paradoxes cleanly and this does a great job of it. The chronology, despite all the tangles and splitting paths, was entirely easy to follow and by the time we go to the end, I honestly had no idea how it would play out, yet it provided such a satisfying conclusion.
Originally posted at www.tiktok.com.
5⭐️ - An enthralling and poetic tale that spans centuries, a scholar and a knight finding each other over and over again
Owen Mallory's academic obsession has been the tale of Sir Una Everlasting - the greatest hero of the nation, an orphan girl who became a knight that bested all foes until the last. The many conflicting stories of her life have made him fall in love with her legend, that of the virtuous and true champion, time and time again. When a book purporting to be the truest story of her life appears on his desk.. then promptly disappears again.. he finds that the history taught is a pale reflection of the woman who inspired it and that he has a greater role in it than he could have imagined. Caught in a cycle of life and death, holding on to each other more and more each time, Una and Owen must try to change history itself, no matter the cost.
This was jaw-droopingly good and profoundly poetic. The writing style, a mix of second person story telling with first person narration inserts, fills it with so much heartbreaking personality. The way both the characters have chances to tell their story, to talk about each other, makes it feel like a love letter. An object of devotion and careful chronicling.
The subversion of gender roles, the messaging of fighting back against totalitarian oppression, of challenging the appearance of fate, is so very powerful. More than this, the world makes sense - it's really hard to make time travel work in a book in a way that deals with paradoxes cleanly and this does a great job of it. The chronology, despite all the tangles and splitting paths, was entirely easy to follow and by the time we go to the end, I honestly had no idea how it would play out, yet it provided such a satisfying conclusion.
Originally posted at www.tiktok.com.