This is a sci-fi book and (in my uniformed, unpracticed opinion) it is pretty thick sci-fi, so if you don't have a stomach for sci-fi, don't even bother.
The main character is Rigg. Rigg is a boy, probably 12-14. He lives on a planet called Garden which is just like Earth (otherwise humans would not be able to survive, of course). He has been raised by a man he calls Father, who teaches him just about everything. They make their living by trapping wild animals and selling their furs in the villages. (Garden has not developed modern day technology.) Rigg has an unusual gift that allows him to see the "paths" of all living creatures. He can see where they've been and where they go and where they die. He can focus on a path and see a person's entire life by following the path.
At the beginning of the book his father dies, claiming that tree has fallen on him and a branch has pierced his abdomen. Rigg, who was off setting traps, is forbidden to look at him, his father claiming he doesn't want that to be the last image of him that he has. His father tells him has to go back to the village and speak to the innkeeper and then to go and find his sister (who Rigg didn't know about). Turns out his sister is the deposed princess of a royal family that forbid any male rulers.
Ahg. Explaining this is getting exhausting and it is just going to get more complicated. Basically, Rigg and his friend Umbo (who also has a gift, he can slow down time or speed up a person's perception of time, they are constantly discussing if he's slowing or speeding) travel to the royal village with the help of an innkeeper named Loaf. Rigg and Umbo discover they can time travel, but most of the book is them discussing the minutia of time traveling and the implications of time traveling, which I found difficult to follow. I decided early on I wasn't going to try to understand it and just enjoy the action of the book, but the action didn't really take off. It was a lot of traveling and a lot of discussion. It felt like the book was just one long set up for the second book, which it very well could be. Maybe the second book is more interesting.
It was a little tedious to read at times, but I might attempt the second one just to see if it was worth all that work. I'll let you know.
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Sister by Rosamund Lupton was recommended to me by my sister, Kelly, and I am grateful she did. I was pleased with this book, especially after the drudgery of Pathfinder.
Sister is a murder mystery. Beatrice's sister, Tess, goes missing and no one has any clue where she has gone to. Beatrice lives in New York but is from London, where Tess and their mother still live. Beatrice gets a call that Tess is missing and of course flies back to London. After a few days, Tess's body is found in an abandoned restroom in a local park. The autopsy report comes back that she committed suicide with the reason being that she had given birth to a baby that was still born and was suffering from severe post-partem. Tess was not married and said the baby's father was that of her college art tutor, Emilio, who is married.
Beatrice refuses to believe that Tess would ever take her own life as they had both watched their younger brother die from Cystic Fibrosis and life was too precious for both of them. The police refuse to look anymore into her case, so Beatrice investigates on her own, suspecting everyone that may have had any motive to kill her sister.
The story is written as if Beatrice is writing a letter to Tess telling her what happened after she died and how Beatrice found out the truth. I really enjoyed that. The bond between the sisters is evident and it gave the story such a personal coloring.
I was disappointed by the ending. I won't tell you why, in case you want to read it and I wouldn't want to spoil it. I do recommend this to you all. It was a good read. Thumbs up.
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