The Everlasting

Finished May 21

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

This fantasy book tells an interesting story. In the country of Dominion, Sir Una Everlasting is the greatest historical hero, a young woman who took revenge on those who killed her own father after drawing a sword from the trunk of a tree. She was then recruited by a queen for whom she fought many battles, overcoming other threatening nations, and killing all the remaining dragons in the world. 

Owen Mallory is a boy who grew up in Dominion, playing in the woods and reading. He joined the military inspired by Sir Una Everlasting and came home a hero, but changed. He became an historian and when a fabled book about her last quest came into his hands he finds himself transported to her time and a motivating factor in the quest. 

Owen falls in love with Una, not the hero of tales, but the actual woman. She is a physically dominant woman and he is a scholarly man, and the gender roles blur here. Every time their story seems to end, Owen finds himself brought back to the same place in Una's life for a redo, asked to make the story better, the ending more climactic, the legend more legendary. 

But the woman behind this is one without empathy, without thought for the people. The people of Dominion, the people of the other nations Dominion wars with, the ordinary people whose lives are changed for the worse. Una and Owen begin to have memories of their stories and find themselves wanting to own their own stories and not be merely actors in the drama. 

This story speaks to the mindset of colonialism, the lack of empathy for others, and other dramas playing out in our world as well. A thoughtful story that caused me as a reader to pause and consider.