Second paragraph of third chapter:
I simply crouched in my flat above the butcher shop and smoked an entire pack of Lucky Stars, lighting each cigarette from the butt of the last. It was a habit I’d picked up during the war and continued on doctor’s orders for my weak disposition, and also because it was the only way to overpower the meaty, battlefield smell of the butcher shop below.
Fascinating wrinkle on the time-travel romance story: she’s the knight who saved the kingdom centuries ago, he’s the scholar researching her life, together they want to rewrite history to give her (and the kingdom) a happier ending. Intensely and intricately plotted, and I think that Harrow kept control and didn’t let it descend into its own complexity. I still find her graphic descriptions of violence somewhat squicky, but enjoyed this a lot. You can get The Everlasting here.
2026 Hugos: Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Dramatic Presentation, Short Form | Professional Artist | Poem
Best Novel: The Incandescent | Shroud | The Raven Scholar | The Everlasting | Death of the Author | A Drop of Corruption
Best Graphic Story or Comic: The Invisible Parade | three more finalists | A Wizard of Earthsea, and my votes
Best Related Work: Colourfields | The Cuddled Little Vice | Inventing the Renaissance | Positive Obsession, and my votes
Lodestar: Holy Terrors | Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe | Among Ghosts | They Bloom at Night
Where to get them | Goodreads/Librarything/StoryGraph stats
