Series Info/Source: I got an eGalley of this from NetGalley for review. This is a loosely connected series of stories and is a stand alone book (although I would absolutely loved to read more stories set in this world).

Story (5/5): This is a loosely connected series of stories all set in the world of Driftwood. I really enjoyed it a ton and would love to see a series of full length novels set in this same world. There is so much here to explore! The stories focus on the mysterious character Last, as he drifts from place to place and helps the denizens of Driftwood navigate their personal worldly apocalypses and the ever changing landscape of Driftwood.

Characters (5/5): Brennan does an amazing job of introducing characters that are intriguing and engaging in a small amount of page space. The main character that connects them all is Last, he is mysterious and intriguing and drifts from story to story and a bit of a hero to boot.

Setting (5/5): This series of stories is all about world-building. The world here is amazing. Driftwood is an ever changing place where the remnants of worlds end up. These remnant worlds start at the edge of Driftwood and eventually end up in the center in the Crush as they are slowly forgotten. The denizens of these worlds desperately seek to save their world against this inevitable destruction. It is an ever changing world where you never know what you will see around the next corner. As you venture to the center things get increasingly fragmented. It is an absolutely amazing setting and I wish I could go and visit in person!

Writing/Drawing Style (5/5): This is very well written. The stories are loosely joined together with interludes as people wonder over Last’s absence. While they wait they tell stories of Last and how he helped people in his wanderings. It is masterfully written and I loved every bit of it. My only complaint is that it was done too soon.

My Summary (5/5): Overall this was very creative and unique and had some amazing world-building. I enjoyed the mysterious character of Last and how he navigated the world of Driftwood to help people survive in this ever changing landscape. Driftwood is an amazing place and I would love to read more stories or even a full length novel set here. Highly recommended especially to those who enjoy amazing and wondrous worlds. This book made a huge impression on me and I constantly find myself thinking about it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review
The concept of Driftwood as a world was one that I could really get into. The story about how it became and the struggles that those that arrived there whether they be “one bloods” or “drifters” was one I found interesting. However the way it was written in form of short stories put me off as I found that I could not connect enough (something I always struggle with in short stories) to anyone or anything. The writing was fantastic and I will be looking at reading other work from the author in the near future. I would be really excited to see a stand alone or series about this world also.

I was really intrigued at the premise of a land called Driftwood, the place where worlds go to die in the Crush. Unfortunately, the story just fell a little flat for me.

I can really get a sense of the author's experience with anthropology with the world creation. Driftwood is a patchwork land of every imaginable cosmos and people. There is culture and linguistics on the surface, but we never really get to dive into the details. We focus more on the one thread stitches this patchwork quilt together. Last--the one who has seen thousands of worlds breathe their last breath.

His tale is told via a series of memorials, which makes this novel more like a collection of short stories than a book. Each storyteller describes a moment where Last impacted their life--in no particular order with no particular connection. By the end, you do realize there seems to be a heavy religious undertone (is Last a god or not), and there were certainly thought provoking moments.

All the stories seemed like they were trying to build a bigger picture, I just never saw it. It left me feeling like something was always missing from the story. I turned the last page in disbelief that there was no more.

When I requested the ARC, I had really been hoping for a book. The opening scene really seemed like it was leading towards a novel and was disorientating when it turned into stories. I closed the book craving the world that could have developed if Driftwood had been a full blown sci-fi novel.

I must say that this is nothing like I have ever read before. Driftwood is a world where all worlds eventually come to die.
This is a collection of stories told as worlds are slowly collapsing into a void known as the crush. The only way for your species to continue after the crush is to mingle with the species of other worlds. Brennan beautifully created very unique creatures and species and then merged some together. With your world squished between others, with different landscapes, races, and languages, a guide is needed to travel between the worlds. Last is a famous guide that has been guiding people through worlds long after his world disappeared. Last has been around for so long that generations of families have stories of what he did for them.
It has been a long time since anyone has seen or heard from Last, and he is assumed dead. The people of the worlds have come together to have a memorial for him. This is a collection of short stories about Last, and how he assisted their families and communities, told by the mourners at the memorial.

I loved the idea of this story. It was a bit confusing in the beginning but it soon came together. The author created these amazing creatures, communities, religions and worlds that all came crashing together. I feel like she did a great job of conveying the desperation and determination that people would have if everything they have every known was slowly collapsing. However with these incredibly unique cultures came incredibly unique names. It was difficult to remember names of people or items due to the long or intricate names. I would have loved to have a whole book on just one of each of these stories. I liked the stories, but they just weren't long enough. It made it a bit difficult to grow attached to the characters. I know the stories were all about Last, but I wanted more of the worlds, the people, and their struggles with the collapse.

Thank you netgalley for this book in return for an honest review.

I freaking loved this book! It has one of the most unique concepts I've ever read about.
Driftwood is a place where all worlds go to die after they had their apocalypse. Little pieces of the worlds with some inhabitants (if there are any left still) come out of the mist and slowly make their way for the middle, where the Crush awaits them. People from specific worlds are called one-bloods. Those who come from parents whose worlds have long perished are called drifters. Here, worlds don't live long,and neither do people. But there is one person,rumored to have been there when the first world came to die in Driftwood. His name is Last.
The book is structured as a collection of stories. People come to this bar and tell stories of encounters with Last. It is always the impressions he left on others,not the man himself, and I loved it,it made him into an enigma that he was for everyone in this place. We never find out if he is good or bad,just that he is very sad. Someone who lived that long would undoubtedly be sad and tired.
I loved all the different worlds that we got to see. This little book is filled with love for culture, customs, history and memories. I really need like ten more books set in Driftwood, I would read them all.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the most unique fantasy concepts I've encountered in a long while. I cracked it open this afternoon and simply couldn't put it down until I finished it. The world, Driftwood is the core of what's so awesome about the story/stories, As a place were worlds come to finish dying after their apocalypse it is an ever changing mosaic of bits and pieces, larger toward the Edge and fragmented just before the Crush where, as it implies, the final pieces vanish.

I thought having the story told in mosaic format using several short stories from various perspectives was so fitting, adding to the way you pictures things. The binding threads being the location and a character, Last, who I was as entranced with as the other characters were.

While this is a thoroughly satisfying read and you are not left hanging, I want more for greedy reasons. I loved it and just didn't want to leave. The concept allows for infinite possibilities and I hope to be back exploring in Driftwood again soon.

If you enjoy high concept fantasy this is must read.

I requested this title because I enjoy Brennan's writings (I've read several of the Lady Trent books) and because it sounded intriguing. And it was. Very intriguing concept. But the format, the series of interconnected short stories (which is a very favorite method of mine for telling stories, don't get me wrong) just did not serve this world well. And that's a shame because the concept of this world is great, and it has so much potential. I just don't feel like the format Brennan chose tapped into that potential, and it made it fall flat for me.

The main character, Last, the longest surviving resident of Driftwood, is interesting and captured my attention. Several of the other characters did as well, but we only got a few moments with them. We get very little resolution on anything, all the stories just kinda pop in and then out, leaving me with more questions than satisfaction.

Along with the disjointed feel, I have to make a comment on the names--other than Last, we had a host of names (for characters and their worlds) that just...well, just didn't sit well in my mind. I had a hard time with most of them. They are awkward and clumsy and didn't feel like names. That made it very difficult to connect with the story, especially given that most of the characters are only around for a few pages. Other than Last, I can't recall a single name after reading. That's never happened to me in 40 years of reading--and it's a sign to me that it's a pretty serious failing of the author. Some may disagree, and she gets a nod for trying to be creative and different in her naming--but for me, it just really missed the mark.

If I could, I'd give this 3.5 starts--the writing was good and the world building was fantastic. But even if Brennan adds to the Driftwood world, I may not venture there again because the first sojourn was so rough a trek.

I absolutely adored Driftwood. Before requesting this ARC, I read the short story because I wasn't quite certain I would like it. You can find the story here, though it is also the first chapter of the book. I'm so glad I read it, because I really loved the short story and the full book (which I was not expecting to be so short! It is only about 45k words) was no different.

Driftwood follows the tale of Last, which is also the tale of Driftwood. Driftwood is where dying worlds come to die. One day, they show up there, and piece by piece their people and their lands disappear, forever. Except Last.

Last is the last of his kind, the last of his world. No one knows how long he has lived, though it is longer than anyone else living can remember. His homeland has long since disappeared into the Crush, the center of Driftwood. He has lived past the time his kind should have died naturally. He is a mystery. Though he states that his intentions are to help the people of Driftwood, not everyone is convinced. And everyone wants to know the secret of why he is still alive and so many others aren't. Too bad Last doesn't know either.

Driftwood is told in a series of short stories, each one counting another tale of the man known as Last. Some are generations old, some are newer. There is a rumor going around that Last is dead at last, and no one knows what to think. They have held a sort of memorial, telling tales and remember Last, while also searching for anyone who has any real concrete proof of his death. Or life, as some hope.

While short, Driftwood is just so full of life. I wouldn't say it is full of happiness, since it is filled with people who are slowly losing their homes and lives. But it is full of life, regardless. I love the world that Brennan wrote. And I may have a small crush on Last. Even though he was rarely anything other than an enigma told by the storyteller. But when he was more, he was a friend.

I don't know if this is a book one in a series or a standalone, but I really hope I get more from this world. And Last. 

ARC received from Tachyon Publications on Netgalley. This did not affect my review.

Driftwood is the place where worlds come to die.
No one knows why it happens or how did it happened for the first time. Maybe except Last.

I‘m in love with this world. Driftwood is the most unique world I think I‘ve ever read. It‘s composed of scraps of dying worlds lying next each other but which are the most different from one to another so far it can takes. Whole myriad of worlds with several suns, constant rains, eternal dark or light; people with unheard languages, unspeakable names, peculiar ethics, skins, colours, genders,… It was pleasure to discover more and more about Driftwood and its inhabitants.
The book is composed of stories in which centre is one mythical man, Last. I liked him almost immidiately and want to know more about him. Is he god? Immortal? Or just a human? Had he really witnessed the fall of many worlds? So many questions!

Only issue I have with the book is cover. Driftwood deserves better one (looking at you, Lady Trent series, on which I have an eye for a very long time because of the cover). Ok, two issues. I can easily give 5/5* but I expect another book in the Driftwood series because this one sounded only as a prequel to the bigger story.

It took me a little while to get into Driftwood, but once I did I fell in love. The writing itself is beautiful, but it is the world-building (or perhaps more correctly world-breaking) where this book really stood out. The idea of this place where worlds come after their apocalypse, broken and merging, and breaking even more until they disappear is fascinating, and I would love to see more stories or even a longer novel set withing this concept, because there is something heart-breaking but intriguing about the idea. Driftwood itself is built up of shorter stories, offering different views of this world, all of them tantalizing in their own ways. I also really want to know more about Last, and while I enjoyed how most of what we know about him comes from the encounters with others and their viewpoints, it would be interesting to have something utterly centred on him and his point of view of the world(s) around him.

Where do worlds go to die? The answer is Driftwood, a place where the apocalypse is ongoing. Some worlds come in fairly intact, gradually shrinking into oblivion. Others come in with as few as two survivors, a hopeless remnant bearing witness to a lost planet. Some species stay put, refusing to acknowledge the presence of other realities, maintaining a genetic purity that will end when their world finally disappears into “the Crush.” Others become Drifters, moving along the flotsam of dying worlds to continue surviving even as their original planets are lost in time. These Drifters are often a mixed breed with ancestors from different worlds.

And then there is Last.

Last is a one-blood, a survivor from a world long since destroyed. Some say he is immortal. He does not make that claim but acknowledges he has long outlived his expected years. Last is a guide, someone familiar with many of the worlds in Driftwood. He can be hired to help a person find what they are looking for. Some proclaim him to be a god. Others say he is a con man. Many are grateful for his help. A few wish him harm. When rumors of his death begin to circulate, a gathering forms to remember him.

Driftwood is a collection of stories about Last. One man desperately needs his help to save the life of his king. Another person wants to find a way to rescue a priceless object from an unreachable place. A scholar wishes to draw a map of Driftwood, fully aware that a map is almost meaningless in a place of constant change and destruction. A cultist seeks to make him a god. A person desires his memories of their world when it was younger. Last is able to help most of them, though the results are not always what the seeker expected.

Hence the dispute about his character. Last guides people through the worlds of Driftwood. He finds things, persons, places, whatever one is looking for. Sometimes, though, the cost is substantial, the results questionable, the outcome unsatisfying. Does that mean Last has manipulated the customer? Or has he tried his best to accomplish the impossible? Witnesses disagree, but the stories they tell are compelling.

I fell in love with the world building and characters of the Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan. If I did not know otherwise, I would never have assumed Driftwood was by the same author. The storytelling style is so very different from the breezy and intimate “memoirs” of Lady Trent. Instead of one narrator, there are several. Instead of one world, there are many. Brennan sets herself with the task of creating at least one new world (often more) and a new voice in every chapter. Characters from different species who are male, female, and non-binary. It is a monumental task and she masters it brilliantly.

The tissue that connects all of the stories is Last. By the end, we find that we know more about him. However, he remains an enigma in many ways, and the reader gets to fill in the gaps with their own interpretation.

Driftwood is a challenging book. The number of points of view, the shifting settings, the diverse characters, and the short-story collection feel to the book mean that the reader has to pay attention throughout. The reward, though, is a wildly creative and imaginative novel that showcases an author’s vast talent and hard work. Grab this book with both hands and hang on with white knuckles for an experience unlike any other book you are likely to read this or any other year.

*Driftwood* is probably the most creative thing I’ve read since *The Library at Mount Char*. It was just … staggeringly imaginative.


This is not a large book. I started reading it shortly before going to bed, intending to read only the first chapter or so and get a feel for my new book. Three hours later, I’m done, and have so many thoughts and emotions bouncing around inside me that I still can’t even think about sleep.


Let me tell you about Driftwood - the place, not the book. Driftwood is where worlds go to die. At the edge are worlds that have just experienced their own unique apocalypse. As time passes, the worlds press in on each other, shrinking and shrinking as they move towards the Crush at the center of Driftwood. The outer edges of Driftwood, the newly dying worlds, are still much as they were. As one moves inward, things compress, and worlds that had been the size of a continent or a country are now reduced to a town, then a neighborhood, packed cheek-by-jowl with the surviving scraps of other doomed worlds. As they near the Crush they are abandoned entirely, as the remaining survivors abandon their home as it nears its fate. But they still share that fate regardless – when a world finally reaches oblivion, the people of that world go to. You can’t escape this by walking to another world. (something people do all the time in Driftwood. You can’t not.) You can’t outlast the end of your world, and you can’t do anything to slow its death. It can take a long time to die, but the world and its people *will* die.


There is one exception to this: a fellow called Last. His world fell into the Crush long, long ago, and his people went with it. No one knows how or why he’s still around, least of all Last himself, but he has, persisting long past the natural lifespan of his people. Some of the Drifters (the ever-changing interbred people who live on the fringes of the Crush, and as close to natives of Driftwood as it is possible to be) think he’s just a story, some think he’s a con man, some think he’s a hero, some think he’s a god. Last just think’s that he’s a person trying to get by, a fluke, though he is very emphatic on the subject of his non-divinity.


Except now there’s a rumor that he’s dead, that he’s gone into the Crush at last, and Drifters have gathered together to commemorate him (or stand vigil for him to return, or hail His Ascension, or sneer at the lot of them, depending on one’s personal opinions).


This book is in the tradition of *The Canterbury Tales*, or, to put it in SF/F territory, *Hyperion*. It’s a series of vignettes being told by people of how Last touched them, or their people, or their families. Last’s inexplicable *permanence* made him a very unique person in Driftwood, able to serve as an advisor and guide through its ever-changing maze (always for a price). The stories all have a common thread: the desire to preserve what can’t be preserved, to remember and be remembered as long as is possible, to not go gently into that good night. The stories are all evocative, often warming, and at the same time heartbreakingly sad. Everything in Driftwood ends up in oblivion, no matter what you can do.


It is somewhat ironic that I’m reading this as an advanced copy (thanks to the folks at Tachyon Publications for the ARC). I’ve been reading lots of ARCs lately, which is awesome, but I’m very conscious of all the books that I’m not reading. This book has got me wondering at all the books that have been forgotten. Books that got published and flopped. Wonderful gems that today might rise to the top of the SPFBO but were written before self-publishing was a thing and no publisher was willing to take a chance on. Books that only ever existed in the imagination of people who always *wanted* to write, but never had the time. *Driftwood* makes me want to stop reading new stuff and start finding old, forgotten books. To save them from the Crush for as long as possible.


Because there’s a kind of reality to Driftwood, and at some point - maybe years from now, maybe decades, maybe centuries - Middle-earth will find its way there, and Westeros, and Hogwarts, and Discworld, and the Stillness, and every other world we fantasy readers know and love.


I picked this book up with middling expectations. I read *A Natural History of Dragons* a few years ago, and thought it was ok, but it didn’t really catch me and I had no interest in the rest. This book caught me. It caught me bad. And made me want to go out and read and maybe give a few forgotten worlds just a little longer to flourish.


*Driftwood* is quite short - as I said, I read the full thing in about 3 hours. There's no suggestion of a sequel, but there's certainly room for one. Hell, there's literally room for infinite stories in Driftwood, by the very nature of the place. But I'm not sure whether or not I want there to be. This book might be better as a small, perfect standalone.


Either way, the book comes out on August 14th.

I loved this. Driftwood is where worlds merge together and eventually disappear into the Crush. One man appears to have been there since the beginning, the guide Last. But then Last vanishes and in the meeting place people tell stories of things he has done, and the worlds he has helped in the hope of working out who he is and where he has gone.

It's really a series of interconnected stories, some of which show how a world copes as everything it knows starts to vanish and the things that give people hope. I really enjoyed it, I loved the concept and that some of the stories are charming and funny, others were sad and some gave hope. Who is Last? The people of Driftwood don't know, but the stories are worth reading.

I have mixed feelings on this book. I really love the central idea of Driftwood, and think that it's just such an interesting concept for a world. There's so much that you can do in that sandbox to explore and understand. I just don't know if this series of vignettes is the best usage of that world though. I enjoyed most of the short stories individually, but I just kept wanting more out of this and felt that there was so much untapped potential. So I am going to hope that Brennan decides to keep exploring this world further, either in a full novel or something else, and will keep an eye out to see if that comes.

I really liked this once I got settled into the story. At first it was a little confusing (as it contains some very unique world building) so I just let myself drift with the story instead of trying to figure it all out.

I requested this book on Netgalley because of the author. This book is very different from the Lady Trent series though, apart from that it is excellently written.

This is how I imagine a book about Hoid (Sanderson) would be like. A group of people gather and tell stories about Last, a famous person in this world who is somehow immortal. The format is somewhat like that of the first Witcher books, a collection of short stories through which we get to know the main character and world.


And I love the world. Driftwood is the place words go when they are about to end. They start at the Edge, and slowly move towards the center where they disappear. Driftwood is constantly changing, and a very interesting mix of people, landscapes, geographies, cultures and natural phenomena. The possibilities are endless.

It took me a few chapters to get into this, the lack of main plot line confusing me. But then I was absolutely hooked on this fascinating setting with its diversity in people. It is a shorter read, one I easily got through in a few hours. It is so worth it though, because it is interesting and unique.

I really hope more books will be set in this world. I had a great time with it and highly recommend picking this one up.

Marie Brennan is an award winning author whose work first garnered award attention back in 2003. To me, however, she was unknown until I read DRIFTWOOD. Driftwood is a setting, a set of short fiction, and a novel. Driftwood a place is where worlds go to die, described as a "post-apocalyptic realm where the apocalypse has not ended". Worlds, towns, villages enter Driftwood at the mist, and slowly but surely migrate inwards, fragmenting , shrinking, and dying until they fall into the Crush, never to be seen or heard from again (If science fiction is your thing, think of the Crush as the center of a black hole and the shreds, mist, and everything else around it the event horizon of the black hole. It might be a quite accurate analogy, but it worked for me while I was reading it). Brennan over the years has written several short works set in Driftwood, and in the novel DRIFTWOOD brings them together with a linking story to tell the tale not only of Driftwood itself, but of one man, Last, who seems to be immortal. Yes, DRIFTWOOD is what we would call a fix-up novel, and it's only fitting that a series of stories about a fragmented world that is brought together by a mythical man should be tied together by a story line that investigates whether that man is a hero or something else entirely.

The center of the story - that man named Last - has been around since anyone can remember. His world fell into the Crush many years ago, and by all rights he should be dead. But he isn't, and he has spent his extended lifetime being guide, taking people to many and various parts of the Shreds (the name for worlds that are splintered and fragmented and heading toward the Crush) to help with them hopes and dreams. But one question he cannot answer is how to save a particular world from dying. He doesn't know why he's still around, but since he is, he's doing the best he can to make life better for people heading toward the Crush. Or is he?

The linking story, the bit that ties all the short pieces together, is that there is a rumor that he has died. People come from all over to pay respects, honor, and commemorate him, but the question arises of what kind of man was he really?

The stories approach the topic from multiple angles. The title story introduces the reader to the character of Last and the concept of Driftwood. Last is a guide, a helper of people, but there are some things he will not do, and some questions he does not want to answer. Last is a "one blood", not of mixed Drifter ancestry. He is tracked down by Alsanit, also a one blood who is looking for a way to save her world. Last has fielded this question before; his supplicants, if you will, believe that he must know the answer because he's lived forever. He answers them, but is always melancholy when all is said and done.

"A Heretic by Degrees" see a priest trying to save his dying king anyway he can. He enlists the aid of Last, and they travel the shreds far and wide looking for an answer. They don't save the king, but that's not the point of the story; the solution that Last provides is one that saves the priest's people, but makes those listening to the story wonder what ramifications his solution really had and what it meant about the kind of man Last was.

"Into the Wind" is a story of a Drifter trying to get something that she left behind in her home. If she could only get it, there may be a chance of saving the world, or so she thinks. The story is not about saving the world, the story is about making a keeping a promise. Last helps with that endeavor, although his ultimate solution may be a bit different than what was expected.

"The Ascent of Unreason" is one of my favorite stories of the book. The concept is simple. Tolyat wants to make a map of Driftwood, and he wants Last to help him. Once again, the point of the story isn't whether the map is actually made or not. For me the joy was reading how Last, normally a very stoic and serious man, really got caught up in the process, and the joy he experienced while helping Tolyat.

"Remembering the Light" is probably the most poignant and touching tale, as while Last is helping Noirin with her quest of remembering, we finally see him considering forgetting what he remembers about his own world. As he is the last of his people, if he forgets, his world will be forgotten as well. His decision, while the right one for him, is also a tough one.

"The God of Driftwood" is a new story for the novel. A mysterious man saves a young man, Ctarl, from committing suicide by jumping into the Crush. Ctarl is regularly beaten by his father, and he wants out, he wants it to end. But he survives and ends up a long way away from home, having been saved by the mysterious man, who he believes is a god, but who in reality is last. Ctarl builds up a cult around his belief of this god, and like most cults, things don't go well and end up somewhere else entirely. It is another of my favorites in the book.

"Smiling at the End of the World" is a piece of flash fiction that really doesn't fit with the story of Last but certainly is a piece of Driftwood myth and folklore.

I came into the novel not knowing what to expect other than what I read in the summary for the book. I was pleasantly surprised at what I got and am glad that I decided to give this one a go. Driftwood is an interesting and fractured place, and the stories in the novel DRIFTWOOD may be just the stories we need to get us through these fractured and difficult times.

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<p>Review copy provided by the publisher. Also the author has been a friend of mine for Quite Some Time Now.</p>
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<p>This is what used to be called a fix-up: where an author has published multiple stories in a setting, with one or more characters in continuity, and they go and write material that goes between the stories and make a book out of it. Driftwood is a really fertile setting for the fix-up that bears its name, because it features a potentially infinite number of worlds colliding, annihilating in slow-motion and leaving scraps of people and customs as they go. A Driftwood story could feature nearly any ideas, brought in from another wave of worlds.</p>
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<p>The continuity in this book is provided by the character Last, undying, wandering from world to world. The other characters aren't quite sure what to make of Last--Last is not always sure what to make of himself--but sometimes having a guide is enough, even if you're not sure what he's doing until the end of the section--or after. The nature of Driftwood gives a chance for others to serve as foils for Last in different directions--almost in a Doctor Who style, where part of the Doctor's differences are due to his Companions at the time. But Driftwood steers clear of our history, its cults and cultures its own, its fate its own--and Last is shaping his own fate too.</p>
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<p>I had a good time with this even though I'd read some of the stories already. Having them in a different context illuminates them differently--and, of course, you may not have read any of them at all. It works perfectly well as an introduction to this setting, no preparation required. Just dive in...perhaps a tiny bit carefully. There are kind people here, but it's not a place of sweetness and light.<br></p>
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Driftwood is a world where other worlds come to end. From the Edge where worlds find themselves connected to the Crush where the last shreds become nothingness, everything shifts and changes. Bound together by the actions of Last, lone survivor of his world and many others, the reader can explore a complex, varied world within a world.

Driftwood is the latest novel by author Marie Brennan, the author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent (A Natural History of Dragons). I really loved that series and its spinoff novel because of how well it built a series based upon Brennan's knowledge of anthropology, archeology, and science, together with great characters, a lot of wit, and a fun fantasy world. It's really great and you should read it. So naturally, when I saw her upcoming novel* on Netgalley, I put in a request immediately, and so I obtained Driftwood for this review.

*Driftwood is around 200 pages long from what I can tell, and is at best a short novel and may even be short enough to be considered a "Novella" - certainly I've seen books of similar length called as such. But the marketing text on booksellers' sites lists it as a "novel", and so thus, shall I.

Driftwood is very much in the same vein as the above, a short novel with some strong characters and a very anthropological focus: namely, how do people respond when their worlds begin their inevitable end? And I mean this literally, the story is essentially a series of tales of "Driftwood", the place that worlds go after their apocalypses, where they merge with other worlds as they slowly die out. Each tale is particularly interesting and explores different grounds, all centered around characters interacting with a mysterious man who seems to survive everything. It's a really well done set of tales and if this is the first in a new series, I would definitely look forward to more.
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Driftwood has been a thing seemingly forever, a place where worlds end. Or really, a place for worlds that have already ended. For Driftwood is where worlds that suffer their own apocalypses go, or the bits that seemingly survive of them. Those bits first appear out of the mist that borders Driftwood, and then slowly start to get smaller and pushed towards the center of Driftwood - the Crush - until they eventually disappear.

Some worlds handle their entry into Driftwood, and their eventual ends, better than others - being willing to mix blood and trade with the other worlds they now neighbor instead of demanding racial and political purity - but all worlds require their own form of adaptation to their end. And eventually, they disappear - everyone does.

Except for the strange man known as "Last", the man who has seemingly been in Driftwood forever and never faded. Many seek him out, seeking some clue to how their world can survive, which he refuses to give them. Others seek him out for his experience and guidance in knowing all the worlds of Driftwood, so they can learn to adapt to the end. But no matter what, Last endures as everything and everyone else disappears.

Until one day, Last seems to have disappeared. In memory of the one person in Driftwood who seemed to be eternal, the residents of Driftwood come together and tell their stories of how he helped them, or at the very least affected their lives, and try to figure out who Last really was.....or is.

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Driftwood is the type of "novel" that is often kind of hard to distinguish from an anthology - the novel is bookended by two short segments told through first person, and then contains a framing device story - the seeming funeral of Last - to tell a series of stories about the time people sought out Last for Aid. So if you're looking for a cohesive story of a single character, you won't find it here - Last isn't ever the main character of his stories and what we know about him comes generally from unreliable sources, no matter how well intentioned and the short first person segments.

Instead, we have a series of stories that are essentially telling the tales of how different peoples and individuals tried to deal with the ends of their worlds - and the ideas that their worlds were not special or as unique as they once thought. Driftwood provides the perfect setting for these tales: made up of different shards of worlds that all follow their own rules, which merge into each other over time before disappearing. Even the inhabitants do this, to the point where peoples find themselves interbreeding to become unrecognizable as part of any given world - the drifters - where any "one-blood", a person whose ancestry is purely of a single world, stand out more than anything and languages tend to merge the deeper you get into a pidgin.

And so this world provides for the stories of peoples adapting and learning to cope with the inconceivable. So you have a high chancellor braving his king's order not to visit the "false" outside worlds in order to find an outsider from a world that could heal the dying king, the last of a lineage without which his people would not know how to go on. You have a woman who desperately searches for a way to obtain an object her people left behind in a part of her world that is now too dangerous to enter, an object that means everything to her people. You have a historian who wants to chart and map Driftwood as it is, just for fun and knowledge, and is willing to take dangerous risks t pull it off. You have a priestess and leader who seeks out Last to obtain memories long lost of her people, so they can teach the young what once was. You have a boy, a true drifter without a world, who seeks something, a purpose or greater being to make the difficulties of Driftwood make sense. And you have a pair whose story is so short and surprisingly I won't say any more about.

These stories are very well done, and again, show the anthropological side of Brennan's stories and interests. Not everyone will react well to the end of everything - god knows we can see that today - but more will than you think (and Brennan perhaps makes this argument by having only one of the five major stories be focused upon someone acting destructively - and even then that person is driven less by the destruction of his world than other influences). But there are, even for coping and trying to survive positively, a number of ways to get by, and these stories show a good variety of such in interesting ways that really captivate.

It's a fascinating novel that works well and ends on a really nice touch, and I'd love to see more with this world, though I admit to being unsure what Brennan would do with it. But that's why I keep reading her as she manages to meet or exceed my expectations repeatedly.