Thank you to everyone who entered the Faerie Winter ARC contest. I loved reading all your answers, and seeing which characters lingered on for you after you read. Fascinating seeing the common threads, too!
After thinking a bit, I’m going to have to go with artemisgrey‘s argument for Kaylen-not-Caleb, because I found I kept going back to it, and because what she said very much rang true for me:
Kaylen is who Caleb was BEFORE the war, and Caleb is who Kaylen became AFTER the war. I crave to understand the Fae, and their culture, and the connection that Kaylen shared with Tara, and why he thought she would be safer in our world than in his. We’re shown glimpses of Kaylen, of a strong, confident Fae who was obviously concerned about the coming war, but didn’t think it would result in such utter destruction. How did he come to know Tara? Why did he share friendship (more?) with her when others of his kind apparently didn’t converse with humans? Did he fight in the war? Did he look for Tara before settling down and becoming Caleb? In BoF Caleb is a character in flux, a Fae living in our world, trying to mend the destruction he helped wrought. He seems almost to fight with himself and yet, he comes across as very humane, if not quite human. What I want to know is what he was like before. I want to know about Kaylen, the inhuman Fae who seemed to love a human girl … Besides all of that, Kaylen is sexy, dang it… and I’d like to know more about him before he went and turned himself into Caleb.
Kaylen and Karinna were both different people before the War (arguably everyone was, but I’m most acutely aware of it for them), and this is something that fascinates me, too.
So artemisgray, email me a snail mail address at janni(at)simner(dot)com, and I’ll put an ARC in the mail!
I also wanted to give an honorable mention to jamiam for making a compelling argument for otherwise much-hated Ian:
But in the end, he [Ian] was the only real bad guy in the book, the only person beyond saving or repairing or talking sense into. And I don’t believe in bad guys, not really? This is totally naive of me, I know, but… I don’t believe people are simply born bullies, or are beyond saving. I want to know how he got to be the way he is, and I want to know if he’s capable of changing. I want to see him come back and say: “I was wrong, and I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
And now I’ll bite my tongue in order to keep from commenting on which of the characters you mentioned do and don’t actually show up. 🙂
Thanks again for joining in, and I hope those of you in the U.S. have a lovely Thanksgiving!