The Pathfinder trilogy, consisting of Pathfinder, Ruins and Visitors.  I trust you noticed the complete lack of an Oxford comma anywhere in that first sentence?

I read this trilogy from ’13-’15 and I have to say, they were a refreshingly cool drink in the midst of YA novels where feelingz, emotions and stupidity produce llama-drama in spades. Rigg, the main character starts out as a very young man on his own and has to figure things out. But he doesn’t whine, he doesn’t obsess and he doesn’t go girl crazy.  He stops, he thinks, he plans. In many ways, he is a return to form that Heinlen popularized with his juvenile novels; the capable young male who can handle what life throw at him.

Card also explores Time Travel, as best he can. A good bit I found tedious and tended to skip over but when I did dip my toes into the conversations, they made sense to me. I suspect Card spent some time thinking out what could happen before actually writing any of this.

I decided to add this trilogy to my Thrive series of posts because I thrive on characters that can think, not just react. Rigg is not a perfect character and he makes mistakes. But he doesn’t make stupid mistakes just so the author can use them to further the plot. He makes mistakes because he doesn’t know enough or because someone smarter than him is opposing him. I thrive on capable characters, characters I wanted to be when I was a teen and the kind of character that will mature into the kind of man I want to be now.

While the trilogy is complete, it would be nice if Card were to write another trilogy in this universe. However, I don’t see that happening and overall I’m pleased enough with how everything turned out to be satisfied. Further books might ruin things.

Highly recommended.

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• Thriving – Grimnoir
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Yep, the Grimnoir Chronicles, consisting of 3 novels, one prequel short story and one sequel short story. I feel like I’m almost cheating by using a series, but considering they are a true trilogy telling one story it would just drag things out too long to do each book as its own post.

On the surface, these would appear to be everything I hate. Hard boiled Noir, Urban fantasy, 1930’s or ’40’s. I don’t like any of those categories and yet Correia tells a story that absolutely sucked me in and convinced me to buy these in hardcover. In fact, I like them enough that I pre-ordered some Limited Edition Hardcovers from Vault Books back in 2017.  Once I actually get the books I’ll be posting pix and telling THAT particular cock up of a story.  But the here and now is that I LIKE these books a LOT.

I added this to my Thrive list because of the main character. Jake Sullivan is a heavy, someone who can make themselves wicked heavy or light, basically playing around with how gravity affects them. He’s considered a thug but has a very smart mind,  a bull dog’s determination and a very strong moral compass. He is just the kind of main character I like to read about.  It also helps that Correia throws in some great bad guys and even a “frenemy” that works too. Add a dash of Eldrich Horror and wham, you have a series that I can eat up with a spoon.

I read these back in 2012-13 and while Correia has written that he’ll eventually do another trilogy set in this universe, I don’t expect anything remotely soon. That being the case, I’ll just have to settle for a re-read and bump up the star rating. Some things do get better over time.

• Thriving – Way-Farer
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