I love the world and the characters and enjoyed watching Pali come to terms with herself. Can't say more! ***** ( )

I have approached this book with some trepidation. So far, Pali had not been my favourite character in the Nine Worlds universe, and reading a whole novel with her POV seemed… excessive.

It wasn’t.

“Pali drew her great-grandmother’s sword with a stately hiss that had never failed to bring joy to her heart. She drew it when a moment was significant. Never in jest, or idleness.”

There are glimpses of an amazing backstory. (I need to get to The Sisters Avramapul stories.) There are friends meeting again after a long time - done so well, with a delicate touch. “They laughed, peals of laughter, as if they were young women discovering friendship for the first time.” Learning how to make friends and how to be a friend when not on an epic quest is harder than it sounds.

I loved many scenes. The glorious flying carpet (flying carpet!) ride through snowy mountains was pure magic. It will stay with me, I think.

The overlaps with The Hands of the Emperor and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell were very skillfully done. (Bravo, author!) I re-lived certain events with delight and heartache. Familiar lines of dialogue suddenly took on a different flavour.

Pali, you were not being your best self in this book, were you? Jumping to conclusions like there is no tomorrow… Yes, it’s easy for a reader who knows more than you do, to facepalm, feeling smug and superior. I also wanted to give you a cup of tea (of exceptional quality, naturally).

The journeys Goddard took me on were like being hugged, despite their emotional turmoil – they are about understanding what you are feeling, discovering and accepting that people change, yet remain the same, remain your friends. The last chapters were wonderful. More, more, more, please. ( )

I thought this was one of the novellas, so I have inadvertently read it out of order, but one of the things I love about Goddard's work is that it really doesn't matter. We swim in a rich world, back and forth through vortexes of time and magic and connections and it all just flows. This story has difficult processing of different traumas and also working out how to relationship and also some serious flying carpet action and deep friendships and general badassery that I enjoy very much. Also, that gentle and philosophical conversation that I lovelovelove about the Monk&Robot books -- these are both traveling books, unraveling of sorrows books, rest in the kind-but-sometimes-hard safety of friendships books. I am so glad to be continuing this journey. ( )

Pali Avramapul, formerly of the Red Company, has been mostly content in her job as a professor. She is known as Domina Black, the foremost expert on Emperor Artorin Damara's reign. When the archives open up at the court, she takes the opportunity to travel and research, not anticipating how meeting the emperor himself will impact her.

If you've read The Hands of the Emperor, you will recognize part of where the story is going. Because time runs differently in different parts of the emperor, Pali's story is a bit compressed, overlapping with the timeline of both The Hands of the Emperor and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell. It very much does not stand on its own, but gives you a new perspective on elements of both those stories. The beginning is very slow and I had a tough time orienting myself to the timeline I just described; the second half moves along at a good clip. Goddard's strength is writing characters and their relationships well, and this is true in Pali as well. I teared up a few times during conversations or reunions. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023016-redoubtable-pali-avramapul.html ( )