The main character is one that I, as a reader, do not run into in most fantasy books. Yes, maybe a minor character or two in a few books I have read. Lidea is a mother with two children, a recent widow and a retired warrior. Normally the children are dead. Or grown enough to take care of themselves. The story opens up on Lidea, pre motherhood, the warrior in battle. The next chapter Lidea is burning the body of her dead husband, dealing with two children, ages 8 and 5, when the world crashes in. A good portion of the book is spent with the reader in the thoughts of Lidea, whose thoughts a lot of readers will identify with. The notion that you never had any true choices in life. You changed what you wanted, because someone you loved wanted something else.
Things I really liked about this Book.
The battle scenes are told through the eye of Lidea, a foot soldier, who gets a limited view of the battle. Lidea changes sides after each battle, some by luck, sometimes with help of others. Having read Christian Cameron's Chivalry series, it is a concept I have ran across before, that foot soldiers change sides because it really does not matter who you fight for sometimes, rather it is based on who will feed and pay you. (A shout out for the really inexpensive Historical Fiction series Chivalry by Christian Cameron, who also has a cool YouTube series on Medieval weaponry and how to fight with them.)
Anna Smith Sparks writing style. When Lidea suffers a metal breakdown the reader suffers with her as Spark's paints the pressure of the situation brilliantly. The reader gets torn apart emotionally as Lidea is torn apart by deceit, love and responsibility.
I hope some Hugo voters will nominate Borodin for this fabulous cover. I like it when the cover art is from a scene in the book, a throwback to those Fantasy books covers I loved as a kid.
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