I have never read anything by Kate Elliott and a short standalone novel looked like a good place to start. Unfortunately, I did not vibe with it. I really liked the concept of a mother going on a cross-dimension rescue mission to save her son (yay to more parents in SFF!), and I liked the digs at poor working conditions at the dragon's hoard and Concilium, but the execution left me wanting.

First of all, there was so much infodumping and terminology thrown at you right from the start in a very short amount of time. You're very much thrown in at the deep end as you would be with the more complex of epic fantasy, and for something almost novella-length, it left my head spinning. It may technically be a short novel but it had similar problem to most novellas to me, where it feels like too much and yet not enough squeezed into the limited pagecount. Neither the story nor the characters managed to keep my interest either - I pressed on, knowing it's short, but it failed to truly grab me. Though it might be just me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review "The Keeper's Six" by Kate Elliot.
I have to admit I have not read any of Ms. Elliot's other fantasy novels, however the story line of this one intrigued me, so I decided to give it a go.
There is a whole lot of world building involved in the novel, but it's done quite sensitively and well. We are immersed in the characters' worlds and their adventures.
The main characters are a Hex which consists of 6 people, each of whom has a particular talent but who work together to accomplish whatever they set out to do. In this case, the apparent kidnapping of the Hex's 'Keeper', also the son of one of the main characters. Along the way we're introduced to various aspects of the world they live in, and the places they travel to on their quests.
The plot revolves around trafficking of species, and takes us to the heart of a dragon's hoard, where Daniel is being held as hostage for the return of someone very close to his heart - his mate and 'father' of their children.
I don't want to give anything away, as this is quite the adventure, but suffice it to say you will not be bored.
Recommended

I enjoyed this story. Dragon-like aliens have connected planets with intelligent, humanoid life (that breath the same atmosphere) with a magical wasteland that can only be traversed safely in groups of six, each having different magical abilities. The magic is pretty vague, this is more a story about the relationships and conflict between characters. I liked that Esther is a mature character with some history. The danger is told with a light touch, you never really get worried that they won't come through unscathed. It's even a bit silly, with the kidnapped prisoner befriending the workforce of the imprisoner by baking cookies and encouraging them to labor-organize. There are hints that one of the six will betray the others, but everything turns out alright in the end, and even the evil kidnapper is mostly just disgruntled and misinformed. Esther is very likeable though, and the tale does end up feeling like a win.

Thank you NetGalley, MacMillan-TorForge, and Kate Elliott for this eGalley copy of The Keeper's Six.

The world of The Keeper's Six is robust, with far too few pages in this novella to fill it out properly. While in some stories this has left me frustrated, Kate Elliott just left me wanting more in this case.

The moving bits & pieces of negotiating across dimensions were a fun spin for a fantasy novella and I certainly recommend giving this book a turn.

A wonderful story, hitting all the marks I'd expect from the fantasy genre. And that cover... it really does sell the novel and build you up for what you're going to get.

In all honesty, I think The Keeper’s Six is just a case of right book, wrong time for me. This isn’t to say I disliked it, but it’s an outlier when it comes to Kate Elliott books I’ve read, most of which I’ve rated 4 or 5 stars.

It’s hard to say what exactly about it didn’t match my mood. It was, for a novella, quite a complex world to get your head around (mostly in terminology, although in some other aspects too), and a lot of it was, for lack of a more charitable term, info-dumped. In context, that made sense! It was an info-dumping that was integrated into the plot smoothly and in a way that worked. However. It was still info-dumping and it was still something I did sort of start skimming at one point.

The rest of it was good, though, so I think my real (minor) sticking point was just that. The plot followed a group of, let’s say sort of mercenaries, who are forced back together to rescue the son of one of the number after he is kidnapped by a dragon. But, having split up acrimoniously 11 months previously, not everyone is particularly eager to help. (Although, it has to be said, everyone else was pretty quick to forgive.)

It’s a fun premise! And, as I said, I did like it. I always enjoy Kate Elliott’s writing, and I always enjoy her characters. So both of these aspects were good to me. However, I mentioned the info-dumping above and I think that interacted with the plot to make it drag just a bit. Since it’s a novella, it didn’t impact too much, but just enough that my rating ended up at 3 stars. I had, somewhere around a third in, when things appeared to be picking up after a slowish beginning, debated 3.5 stars rounded up, or maybe even a full 4 stars, but then came the info-dumps. But, let me just add once again, 3 stars is still a good review. And I did still like this one!

I just didn’t like it perhaps as much as I had hoped.

This is a short, action-driven book set in an interesting, if regrettably sparsely-filled out world. Esther wakes up in the middle of the night to a distress call from her son Daniel. She soon learns he's been kidnapped, and assembles a team to go after him. There's a diverse cast of characters that are interesting, but not really fleshed out, and as the story goes on there some times feels like there's too many to juggle. The story itself is interesting, but it didn't really keep my attention after a while. I was most interested in the worldbuilding, and would've like to see more of that. Since it is a shorter book, there are limitations, but for what we get it's a fun, quick read.

The Keeper's Six is a fantasy novella with a lot of portal fantasy and a little bit of video game in its DNA. The tagline is about a mother rescuing her adult son, who has been captured by a dragon, but the arc is really about negotiating for his release. Along the way, Esther and her son often pause to talk about labor rights with the denizens of the dragon's hoard. Esther isn't a perfect leader; the "six" in the title is a team of people with the skills to negotiate travel between dimensions, and some of Esther's team members are frustrated with her history of prioritizing good causes over the team's needs. I appreciate the way Elliott lets characters' good and bad decisions stem from the same fundamental character traits--stubbornness and ambition come up a lot in this story, from lots of different angles.

I loved this book and could not put it down. The fantasy aspects were intriguing and who doesn't love dragons? The traveling between different worlds was interesting and I adored the negotiations between the hex and the concillium, but also Daniel planting the seeds of doubt into the worker's brains about their working conditions was hilarious. I fell in love with the characters and hope there are a million more books about this crew in the future. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book!

The Keeper's Six is a fun adventure through an imaginative world (or more precisely worlds). I love the idea of exploring what social and even economic structures would emerge from an interconnected multiverse, and how that might be abused. It's also a neat touch to essentially codify heist roles within the magic system. I do feel, however, that the complexity of the worldbuilding is too much for a novella like this: so much of both the narration and dialogue is taken up by exposition which is really noticeable in the short length. And for a book about both family ties and the bonds of the crew, I really don't think we get to experience enough of the relationships between characters, with a few exceptions. That being said, I do wonder if this is just the first book in this setting, so some of this may be remedied in subsequent instalments. Ultimately I enjoyed this, but another classic case of why novella rather than novel.

An interesting mystery, and some excellent world-building - just what one might expect from Kate Elliott. If you're already a fan of the author's work, then I'm sure this is firmly on your radar. If you're new to Elliott's work, then this is a pretty good entry point: it's short, but also long enough to suck you in and provide a satisfying story.

Recommended.