A review by stephilica
Seeker by William Nicholson

This book excels at drawing characters and rhythmic prose, though it could have done with a few less POVs. While the plot threads do all intersect and wrap up by the end, in the middle act it feels slightly unfocused.

The book's strength lies in the scene-setting passages that provide a framework for characters to discuss their deepest motivation: each of them is on a pilgrimage, but for different reasons. One seeks justice and truth, one seeks peace, and one seeks the love she lacked from a mother. It's refreshing to see the characters' choices actually reflect their religious beliefs—rather than serve as some over-arching 'worldbuilding,' the religious institutions and precepts have a noticeable effect on the cast. I wish we knew more about some of the tenets, but we have just enough to understand why each character interacts with the idea of the All and Only in their own way. Worth reading for that alone.

As an aside, the not-quite-Abrahamic motif of the monotheistic All and Only (the name itself is a callback to the rarer epithet Alpha and Omega used in the NT) was a pleasant surprise. Many fantasy religions draw on animistic or pantheistic interpretations of divinity, which is no surprise considering the influences of Greek mythology and other pantheons in developing the Western storytelling tradition. That said, it was interesting to see a monotheistic fantasy religion, in fact one competing with the neighboring empire's naturalistic worship of the sun, develop on the pages.