I enjoyed The Keeper’s Six so much. I’ve been wanting to dive into Kate Elliott, and The Keeper’s Six, a stand-alone short novel seemed perfect. First of all, the protagonist in this book is a woman older than I am. It is very rare to see a 60-year old woman as a kick ass protagonist when she isn’t also immortal. Esther is a grandmother. Secondly, this book has dragons. A dragon is the antagonist. Thirdly, this book is quite Jewish, which is refreshing. I’m hoping that this is an introduction and not a one-off, because I would like to see so much more of this universe.
The action starts off with a kick. A middle of the night phone call sends Esther rushing to her son’s house, where she discovers he has been kidnapped. A dragon scale in a pot of roux gives her a good clue to who has taken Daniel.
The Keeper’s Six is a portal fantasy. Esther is a member of a disgraced Hex, a team of six who can traverse the Beyond – the space between realms. Earth is one of many realms, and an unimportant one at that. Esther did something about a year ago that got her Hex decertified by the Consortium. You get some idea of what that means, but not entirely. Several past events are referred to with little exploration. Which is fine, because you don’t want pages and pages of info-dumping, but I was very curious about all those past events and would probably have enjoyed more pages of info-dumping.
When I commented in a forum that I was enjoying this, I was asked if Esther ends up with the dragon in the end. No, but she does change the dragon’s life in an interesting way. Also, there is more than one dragon.
CW: kidnapping, trafficking of sentient beings. past injuries, death of spouse in the past, evidence of torture and abuse, injustice.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Tordotcom and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
