I only read when my OCD kicks in

Overall a 3.5 star book. It just misses greatness.

This book was looking like a 5 star for me up until about 40% of the way through. Once Rigg met his mother though the whole story took a turn that I didn't look forward to. On top of that between 45 and 55% is mostly filler, over descriptive and somewhat boring.The last 40% was pretty good but not as good as the the first part of the book. I give the back end part 3 stars.
Pathfinder just misses the mark for greatness. It could have been so much more if not for the middle section.



Below are my notes of the book: Main characters and Summary Stop reading at this point because I will provide a detailed summary.


Main Characters

Rigg Sessamekesh: The star of the book and the one who is the pathfinder. As the story is told you find out that Rigg is also a prince, brother of Param Sissaminka. He sees the paths that people have taken in the past and is able to distinguish how old they are by color.He can also at times distinguish gender and other characteristics based upon the time of path that they lead behind.

The Wandering Man: Also the Wandering Saint. He pretends to be Rigg's father, but in reality he is an expendable 12,000 years old. He is apparently killed by a tree falling on him but the body is never observed. He teachers Rigg to hone his pathfinding ability and also teaches him many fields of intellect. Arrived with the first man and discoverer of "The Garden", Ram Odin.

Umbo: Rigg's best friend, and also the one who got in trouble that forced him to runaway from the village he was living in.Umbo has a unique skill to speed up the time at which people observe things, which gives the person the appearance and sense that they are actually slowing down. With Umbo's gift, Rigg is able to see the "paths" are really people doing the same thing over and over again, and can be interacted with. He can travel into the future and the past.

Nox: Owner of a boarding house and friend of Rigg. She held the jewels that the Wandering Man had set aside for Rigg. And before Rigg left town, she talked the mob out of killing him. She had an ability of calming peoples emotions.

Loaf: A former soldier. Owns a tavern and becomes a protector for both Umbo and Rigg.

Param Sissaminka: Rigg's sister.she has an ability to expand molecules which can give her the skill of appearing invisible.

Hagia Sessamin: Queen and moth to Rigg and Param. She attempts to kill them in a bid for power. She longs for the Monarchy rule to return.

General Haddamander Citizen: Part of the People's Army. Plots an overthrow of the People's Republic in an effort to make himself king.

Olivenko: Rigg's guard. He was Rigg's true father's clerk as a boy and is loyal to Rigg. Helps him escape the wallfold.

Ram Odin: The first human to walk on the planet Garden, was the human pilot that discovered the planet and prepared it for colonization. Originally there were nineteen versions of him, until he ordered the death of the eighteen clones.


Summary

The book begins with Rigg, a boy that has the strange ability to see the path of any living being, no matter how long ago it existed. He spends his time hunting with his father in the mountains, trapping for valuable pelts. His father is his mentor, and so he has taught Rigg everything he knows. His father dies impaled by a tree, and the man's parting words were to find not Rigg's mother, but his sister, a person of whom Rigg had had no knowledge. After his father dies, Rigg tries to save a boy named Kyokay on the Stashi Falls (the waterfalls close to Rigg's home). During this rescue attempt, the paths around him solidify and people begin to appear in these paths. Someone else's path overlaps with Kyokay and because of that he is unable to save the boy. His brother Umbo sees this, starts throwing stones at him, thinking he could make him fall, and tells the villagers that Rigg murdered his brother. Shocked at this discovery, Rigg returns to his town only to find a mob ready to kill him for what they perceived as the murder of Kyokay. The innkeeper, Nox, hides Rigg, and gives him money and nineteen jewels inherited from his father. As Umbo's father was ashamed of him for perceiving it wrongly, he kicked Umbo out of their house. Umbo travels with his friend Rigg as he had nowhere to go. In a place called Leaky's Landing, they meet a new man, Loaf, who offers to take the duo to the city of O, where they can sell the jewels for more money. During their stay in O, General Citizen, from the army of the People's Republic, arrests the trio, for it is found that Rigg is the supposedly a dead prince. Umbo and Loaf escape by jumping off the boat, but Rigg must endure an assassination attempt in order to make it to the capital city of Aressa Sessamo. Rigg, upon arriving in Aressa Sessamo, he is met by his mother, the queen. His sister, Param Sissaminka, has the ability to scatter her molecules, speeding up the world around her in the process. When Rigg's mother decides to restore royalty, she decides that she will kill her children to make way for her children with the General Citizen. Rigg, Param, and Umbo all flee to the wall in an attempt to go through it. The wall is unbreakable, and every time one goes near it, he/she starts going insane. With the combined forces of Rigg, Umbo, Param, Loaf, and Olivenko (Rigg's guard that was supposed to keep him under constant watch, who later turned into a deserter), they were all able to get past the wall. There, they found out Father was an expendable (a robot from Earth made approximately 12,000 years ago). They also found out that the 19 jewels were the keys to unlocking the Wallfolds. The book closes with the team setting off to find the other Wallfolds.