The Everlasting

Owen Mallory comes home from war a struggling scholar, and he cannot stop thinking about Sir Una Everlasting. She was the lady-knight who helped Queen Yvanne build the nation of Dominion, and she died for her queen and her country. Her legend is the one story Owen cares about.

Then Una's long-lost original manuscript arrives on his desk, and his assignment turns out to be stranger than study. He is sent back through time to walk beside her and to make sure she plays the role the legend demands. Reading the story becomes a matter of living inside it.

The book is a standalone fantasy built on Arthurian legend, with a sword set in a yew tree instead of a stone, a dragon and a grail quest. Two narrators tell it, each speaking directly to the other across the centuries. Their tale ends the same way every time they are made to tell it, and they want to break that pattern and save Una from her fate.

Underneath the quest runs a question about what legends are for and whom they are built to serve. The book looks at how a story can be bent into propaganda for war and nationalism. It took the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novel, as well as the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in the same year.