My novel has multiple POV characters. More than a year ago, one of the people in my writing group suggested I read this book because it tells its story through multiple POV characters as well, and she thought it would be good for me to see an example. Now, most of the SF I have read recently is also told through multiple POV characters, so this isn’t new for me, but I figured I would try it. I asked my child if they had the book, and they were so excited that I was going to read it that they ran and got it for me immediately. So I started the book, read about 5 chapters, and then it sat for a year.
About a month ago, I was between books. I wanted to read the conclusion of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Final Architecture trilogy, but I had promised myself that I wasn’t going to buy it until I submitted a story I’ve been working on (I’ve now subbed that story and have the book sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to finish Six of Crows…). So, I started the book and while it is outside my normal reading genre (it is YA and it is fantasy; I have read some YA such as the Red Rising books, but I rarely read fantasy) I really enjoyed it.
There is a collection of interesting characters, all hardened by their lives in the crime infested city of Kerch. There is a thief, a ringleader, a pistol expert, a tradesman’s son, a magic user, (all of these characters are 16-18 or so) and an older character who is in his 20s who is a fighter. Some of the characters have a history together, and some are being thrown together for the first time, because the ringleader caught wind of a heist that will get them enough money to escape their hard lives.
First they have to break into a prison to free a character, and then they have to break into an even bigger prison to free the person of interest and caim their reward.
I found the writing to be fast and easy to read, full of adventure, but enough backstory thrown in that you could take a break between the set pieces to learn more about the characters. There were a few places where the author left out a detail (for example, the ringleader goes and makes a plan with one of the characters but we don’t learn of it until it happens) so it makes us want to keep reading and find out what the plan is. And of course, how likely is it that the plan works as designed?
I liked the book so much that I gave it 5 stars and my child was very excited to give me the second book, which, believe it or not, I am going to read before I finish the Final Architecture! It is a fast read so it shouldn’t take me too long. I’m looking forward to finishing this duology. I also feel like I can learn some craft from this book. How to stage reveals, how to set the plot so the character who has the best view of the action is the POV, how much foreshadowing can you put in, how subtle can you be, things like that. I may reread with an eye towards craft. It was a quick read, fairly simple language, and aimed at a younger audience, so I might be able to extract some craft ideas from it more easily.