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@Tak@gush.taks.garden Now that you explicitly point out all the things the author didn't do, I realise that I appreciated them as well. @picklish@books.theunseen.city I also would argue that the whole "fantasy tournament" thing is less of a prominent element than it could, or I expected it to, have been. I think it's consistent background noise, but I was okay with that. Moreso because the aforementioned lazy outcome didn't eventuate.

I enjoyed reading this quite a lot. I enjoyed the writing and world building, how the characters and story gain depth in intriguing ways the more you read through the story, and the story itself is very interesting. I'd like to say that I've read a significant amount of time-travel stories–especially recently with a recent collection I've been working through–and I think this a very good time-travel story; it feels fresh and new, which I think can be hard to achieve with this genre.

My only real critique is this: at one point one of the main characters abandons his two- and four-year-old to travel through time and leaves them behind. And it's well established by this point that when time-travelling those people left behind don't disappear: the timeline remains. And I was not okay with that at all nosiree. I instantly hated that (protagonist) character and considered them a monster. Their success/resolution was not worth it from that point on. Like, would you kill two children to be with your partner? What about if they were your own, the ones you had with said partner? So, well done, author, for making me feel things with your writing, but those are not the feelings I want to feel ever.