CBR Bingo: Rec’d (this recommendation actually comes courtesy of Emmalita, when I asked for recommendations for more fantasy books with main characters that are older women).
I’ve read a couple of Kate Elliott’s books before, but not very recently. Before picking up The Keeper’s Six, I’d sort of forgotten about her work. I remember enjoying her previous books, but nothing much actually about their contents.
This is a pretty short novel, that follows Esther, a 60-ish-year-old. Early one morning, she receives a brief, fearful phone call from her son, Daniel, and quickly concludes that he’s been kidnapped. She gathers her former team and sets off to rescue him.
The world building in this fantastic (it’s one of those books that’s really hard to classify as either fantasy or science fiction, and is instead a melding of both), and I really liked the way it was presented. In very broad strokes, Esther is from our Earth, and there are other realms that small groups (a “six”) can travel to using a dangerous in-between space. I’m being quite deliberately vague here, as the book doesn’t really spoon-feed the reader any information, so half the fun of the first half of the book was figuring out just how the world(s) worked. I know this kind of style isn’t really for everyone, but it’s something that I really appreciated.
I really enjoyed this, but I wish it was longer and less rushed. I liked the characters, but I think the relationships and the plot could have used a bit more breathing room. I’d love to read more books set in the same world!