Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee

1 review

kindra_demi's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

If there is one thing to be aware of with this book: be aware of the trigger warnings. Especially the suicide/suicide attempts and the alcoholism. They are very heavy and prominent points in the story. Others include: murder, attempted murder, bodily horror, drug addiction.

I was initially interested by the premise of this book: King Arthur inspired story in a near future England. The Knights of the Roundtable made a deal with Merlin in their first life that they may die but they will never pass over in the afterlife. They instead will return to their ancient oak to be resurrected when England is in peril. Now introducing Kay, a knight of the of the round table and King Arthur’s brother. Not much later, we meet Mariam, a member of an all women eco-activist group in England. She and her sisters are working for climate justice in a country dealing with the repercussions of corporate greed, climate change, and government sellout. Kay initially joins with Miriam in this mission. The third POV we eventually get is Lancelot, who offers the opportunity to see more of the workings of the corporate side of the world for the beginning.

While the story is set to follow the 3 individuals as Kay and Lancelot discover what they were raised for (and what the new world means) and Mariam as she and her sisters fight for their initiatives with their own new understanding of the world where men resurrect from the ground, the more interesting aspect in my opinion was actually the backstory of the characters. A big complaint of mine for the story is it felt like the foreshadowing was blatantly thrown into your face like a “hmmm that suspicious but I won’t look at it” *40 pages later* “ah yes that thing that was suspicious was bad”. So I became more interested in why certain dynamics were the way they were.

This book is not an easy read either. It covers a lot of contemporary issues that can weigh you down a lot as you are reading it. (And this is coming from someone who normally reads a lot of books that have contemporary issues/dark topics in it).

Overall, it was a decent book. The pacing felt right and the British humor is a good relief to some of the darkness. The foreshadowing and the overall heaviness is what brings down my rating though.
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