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A review by kathleenabby
Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
1.0
This was looking like a solid 3 star book untill there was a weird redemption arc of a rasict. It left a bad taste in my mouth so it went from 3 to 1 stars.
Set in world where whenever Britain is in peril the Knights of the round resurrect to protect them the kingdom. They have been through all the wars but this time they awaken to Britain warmer than it ever been, parts of the country are now underwater, land has been sold off to other countries and poverty is worse than it's ever been. The challenges they face are different to anything they have ever faced.
Now I love Arthurian retellings and I was looking forward to a different spin on it, but honestly other than there names this doesn't feel Arthurian at all. But still it wasn't a bad book I just wanted more fantasy elements. But this is mainly about climate change, it's a good message but I don't think the author trusts the reader to understand because he has as much subtlety as a wrecking ball. Over explaining why climate is bad repetitively had me rolling my eyes after a while.
Part of the reason why this didn't work was how the characters spoke and acted. King Arthur and the knights were all smoking taking mushrooms, sniffing coke. King Arthur who hasn't awoken in centuries was using words like cap and calling people milksops. This is just not what I want in a retellings. For me they were characters that happened to have the same names.
The humour also didn't work for me, reviews are saying it's British humour so I must be a whole different kind of British because this weren't it. But I didn't completely hate it. It had a good message, lots of diverse representation with race and sexuality. Which only meant the weird redemption arc of a racist seemed so out of left field.
Basically Kay one of our main PoVs is black. At the start of the book he comes across a group of rascists attacking an immigrant family naturally he defends them he turns one into a squirrel. Great! Rasicm bad it feels right on par with the rest of the book. Only Kay comes across this squirrel later having a beer near burnt immigrants. The squirrel says to Kay 'if it weren't for immigrants Britain would be great but they didn't deserve to be burnt' (that's still racist) he then asks Kay to turn him back into a man. Kay is like yeah sure come with me. Then later turns him back, the rasict hasn't even said sorry or done one redeeming thing and Kay like go find your friends and have a nice goodbye hug (side eye) Kay also forgives him because he might of been nice as a child. What's that got to do with the price of eggs? It left a really sour taste in my mouth so 1 star.
Set in world where whenever Britain is in peril the Knights of the round resurrect to protect them the kingdom. They have been through all the wars but this time they awaken to Britain warmer than it ever been, parts of the country are now underwater, land has been sold off to other countries and poverty is worse than it's ever been. The challenges they face are different to anything they have ever faced.
Now I love Arthurian retellings and I was looking forward to a different spin on it, but honestly other than there names this doesn't feel Arthurian at all. But still it wasn't a bad book I just wanted more fantasy elements. But this is mainly about climate change, it's a good message but I don't think the author trusts the reader to understand because he has as much subtlety as a wrecking ball. Over explaining why climate is bad repetitively had me rolling my eyes after a while.
Part of the reason why this didn't work was how the characters spoke and acted. King Arthur and the knights were all smoking taking mushrooms, sniffing coke. King Arthur who hasn't awoken in centuries was using words like cap and calling people milksops. This is just not what I want in a retellings. For me they were characters that happened to have the same names.
The humour also didn't work for me, reviews are saying it's British humour so I must be a whole different kind of British because this weren't it. But I didn't completely hate it. It had a good message, lots of diverse representation with race and sexuality. Which only meant the weird redemption arc of a racist seemed so out of left field.
Basically Kay one of our main PoVs is black. At the start of the book he comes across a group of rascists attacking an immigrant family naturally he defends them he turns one into a squirrel. Great! Rasicm bad it feels right on par with the rest of the book. Only Kay comes across this squirrel later having a beer near burnt immigrants. The squirrel says to Kay 'if it weren't for immigrants Britain would be great but they didn't deserve to be burnt' (that's still racist) he then asks Kay to turn him back into a man. Kay is like yeah sure come with me. Then later turns him back, the rasict hasn't even said sorry or done one redeeming thing and Kay like go find your friends and have a nice goodbye hug (side eye) Kay also forgives him because he might of been nice as a child. What's that got to do with the price of eggs? It left a really sour taste in my mouth so 1 star.