Kinda blown away right now. More on this later.

OK, it's later. I'm not going to rehash the back cover copy, so I'll just skip straight to the impact this book had on me. There are movies you watch, works of art you see, poems and books you read that you walk away from going "whoa."

This was one of them for me.

Complete gut-punch-powerful ending that reminded me of the experience of walking away from the big reveal in Ender's Game. (Not for any particular similarity between the stories or situations, simply the emotional impact of what just happened.)

But you don't have to wait to the end to love this book. The world is fascinating, the characters believable. In fact, I loved the main character's obliviousness and stubborn refusal to see the obvious because it was so true to this character and it made what happened in the end that much more powerful. I honestly don't remember if the prose was particularly skillful or any more technical aspect. I was too sucked in to notice. (Though that's a vote for pretty-dang-good writing, since this-sucks prose can't accomplish the same thing.)

I'm getting all stirred up again, and it's been a few weeks and several books read between as I write this. I can't recommend this enough to any science fiction or fantasy reader. Great book. I can't wait to see what this author does next.