A review by geldauran
The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove

5.0

I really really liked this book. The entire concept is so fun- the book description mentions that the continents of the world have been thrown into different time periods, but its a little more complicated than that. The boundaries are not so neat. There are pockets of different times all over the place- sometimes there are hundreds inside what was formerly one country. Imagine crossing the street and suddenly you're in a part of a city that belongs a thousand years in the future or past- and how the world would deal with that kind of catastrophic event. Trade, politics, technology, and religion are all revolutionized and suddenly mapping the new shape of the world, the new timeline of the world, is the name of the game. The world building really really really shines in this book in a way that reminds me a bit of the His Dark Materials books.

They're actually kind of similar to the HDM books in a few ways: 1) a young, clever girl is our protagonist 2) takes place in a world that looks kinda like ours, but is clearly different 3) magic exists, primarily in objects, and naturally causes a lot of trouble for everyone. This book wasn't as dark as the HDM series, but it didn't suffer for that- there's something to be said for sheer wonder and fun with only the tiniest twinge of existential angst. I heartily recommend.