The Everlasting

Alix E. Harrow
Completed 5/18/2026, Reviewed 5/19/2026
4 stars

This 2026 Hugo nominee is an incredible time travel romance that begins with a crawl.  The first 140 pages or so dragged as Owen Mallory goes back in time to confirm the existence of the national hero, Una Everlasting.  Those first pages are rather dull during the character study of Owen, a mediocre historian with a passion for the Una Everlasting narrative, and his encounter with Vivien the new Chancellor.  But when he goes back a second time, and then a third, the book takes off with plot twists, Owen’s passion for not just the legend but Una herself, and the revelation of Vivien’s real reason for sending him back.  Upon finishing, I realized I was completely engrossed in the story and forgave the necessary drudgery of the first quarter of the book.

Owen was a pathetic man.  He’s estranged from his politically radical father and not very respected by his colleagues at university.  He was a deserter in the military and is a sheepish patriot.  He’s a lecturer and a researcher, not destined for professorial greatness.  Without warning, an ancient book appears in the mail which seems to be the earliest documentation of the Una Everlasting.  Shocked by this windfall, he begins translating it, only to have it disappear after a few days and be replaced by an address.  It turns out he is being summoned by the new Chancellor Vivien for a mission to confirm and complete the mysterious book.  Before he is clear on how to do that, she stabs his hand, his blood seeps on the book, and he is transported a thousand years in the past to the time of Una.  He realizes his mission is to make sure she completes the tasks ascribed to her legend, save the Queen, and die a heroic death.  But as he repeatedly is sent back in time, he and Una realize they can rewriter the tale so Una doesn’t die, but the cost may be Owen’s life.   

Owen does not make a great impression on the reader at the start of the book.  Between that and the seemingly meandering beginning, I did not like him.  When we find out he’s in love with Una, he becomes even more pathetic.  But then the repeated returns to the past changed my opinion of him.  Una, on the other hand, is one of the greatest knights to ever exist.  She lives in legend because her saving of the Queen and the realm, the Dominion, set the stage for the country’s control over the whole land.  But with each iteration of time travel, we find out more and more about the two as individuals, their pasts, and their relationship.  They become vibrant three-dimensional characters despite Owen’s lack of belief in himself.  I loved them even more as they worked to break the cycle of the repeating time travel.  

The magic is very interesting here.  It’s minimal, primarily being the time travel aspect.  Later, there’s a dragon and a magical grail that can restore health.  It takes a while, but the extent of the magic becomes clear towards the end.  Speaking of which, it is so full of twists and turns.  The bad guys show up over and over again to thwart any plans to allow Una to live.  And just when you think that Una and Owen have finally broken out of the time travel loop, they are again thwarted and doomed to start over.

The narration of the book was done very well.  When Owen is the narrator, he speaks in 2nd person referring to Una.  When Una narrates, she speaks in 2nd person referring to Owen.  It seemed clunky at first, but it endeared me to the two as the book went on.  It also reflects the growing relationship between them.  

This book felt like a big departure from Harrow’s previous books, The Once and Future Witches and The Ten Thousand Doors of January.  I loved those books and was disappointed at the beginning of this one.  But once the looping starts and we find out the extent of the time loops, you realize it’s a very powerful, well-constructed novel.  All the ins and outs are well thought out.  If I was trying to write this book, I’m sure I would have had a miserable time keeping track of everything.  But Harrow handles it flawlessly with masterful prose and world building.  I give this book four stars out of five, knocking off a star because I was fully expecting to DNF it in its first quarter.  I’m so glad I kept with it because it ended up blowing my mind.