ONCE AND FUTURE was one of my favourite titles of 2019, so I *could not wait* to read SWORD IN THE STARS (especially after Book 1's epic cliffhanger!).

And, after finishing this title... I'm just as in love with the series as I was before.

The cast of characters is not only diverse, but so vibrant; they jump off the page, unique in personality, rich in description, rife with strong arcs and immense development. I'm still obsessed with Merlin (and his grapple with his memories), and Morgana has always been one of my favourite Arthurian characters.

And the plot! The TIME TRAVEL ANTICS! Agh! I have such a soft spot for time-travel stories, so the fact that this book had such a plot line baked into its world was just the icing on the cake.

I'm already planning my next re-read of this title. Fun, fresh, and bound to bring a smile to your face, SWORD IN THE STARS is a Camelot retelling for the times -- and the ages.

Action, adventure, time hopping: what more can a girl ask for?! First I just want to applaud the authors this book for Ari and her Rainbow knights. What an inclusive book with characters who identify in a variety of ways and who were well-written and complex not just side characters. This novel does a fantastic job of writing a story with a large host of characters who are fully developed and play important roles in the action of the plot.

The world building is also phenomenal both in the past of Camelot and the future. The location descriptions are well elaborated while still continuing the flow of the narrative.

I highly recommend this novel. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

Had to DNF, I got so bored with the political agendas that I gave up. I want to escape into a book, not have things shoved down my throat. Which is sad, because this had so much potential.

Thank you Netgalley for a review copy of this book.
Was a little disappointed by this one. Just did not stand up to the first in the series. Bit predictable and lacking pace.

This was a satisfying conclusion to the duology. With the end of the first book taking a left turn, I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the things I loved about the first one-- the humor, the interpersonal interactions, the intentional digs at an oppressive society-- were all still present. The results were a good balance of what I expected and things that surprised me. 4.5 of 5 stars.

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

A interesting and nice read

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

I wanted so much to like this book. I really enjoyed the first book and thought it was a really fresh take on the King Arthur myth. I loved the characters and the way they thought, fought, and loved each other. Ari and Merlin were so fun!

Then this second book. Catapulted to medieval King Arthur, it had all the makings of a great fish out of water romp. But what we were given was a however many page explanation of gender and sexual identity politics with a little bit of adventure mixed in. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for the diverse cast of characters and it is very welcome. I just want more out of a plot than someone explaining what nonbinary means. Just a small ask.

The good things: I did like Merlin and him struggling with his memories of this place vs his present day life as well as protecting both Ari and Arthur.

I wanted to like this book more than I did but in the end it’s only a 3 star read. There were funny moments and the plot was fast paced but it’s major downfall is the dialogue is pretty heavy handed and there is more telling than showing. Honestly, I wish the book took itself a little more seriously and less tongue in cheek, because a serious fantasy story with the kind of diversity this book has would have appealed to me much more.

I love me a story about queer teens in space, and the sequel to Once & Future did not disappoint. I've never really been into Arthurian legend but these books still really drew me in. I loved the characters and I really appreciated how masterfully Cori McCarthy and Amy Rose Capetta wove the story -- there were some epic twists that really caught me off guard!

Did not finish. This novel was not for me. I had a hard time connecting to the story and the characters.

Overall enjoyment: 5/5
Characterization: 4/5
World building:3/5
Diversity: 5/5

I'm so in love with book. I loved the first book so much that i was kinda scared to fully read this one, but i am so full of love and hope. If you enjoyed the first book I'm sure you will love this one just as much.

Characters
We have are beautiful characters back! Ari is still our headstrong hero, Gwen is still our beautiful strong queen, Merlin is still a bit of a mess and Lam and Val are still smart and as sexy as ever. In this different period we experience new yet similar problems with these characters as they grow. I just love them.

World building
Not a ton of time is spent on flushing out the whole of medieval Europe, but there is still the new creation of Camelot and enough difference that i still got syfy feelings rather than historical drama feelings.

Plot or characters?
I would say this is a character driven story. Yes, there is a big corporation, but as with the first book we are really focused on the characters, their feelings, their pasts, and how that is all coming together to create this great story.

Diversity
There is so much! We got our intersectionality! Ari is a gay woman of color, Lam is a nonbinary character of color. We have LGBT+ characters everywhere with some discussions of gender throughtout. It's good stuff. This story definitely focuses on the LGBTQ+ aspects rather than than the racial aspects, but we got hints.

I love this book so much and while i should have read it earlier i think i needed it more now than i did before. If you want to read a queer arthurian retelling full of characters of color and LGBTQ+ than i think you will fall in love with these characters as much as i did!

I read the first book Ion this series and gave this book a try as well. I just don’t like this genre of book. Outer space and aliens are not in my wheelhouse. I know other people who have read it and loves it. To each their own is my saying a reader and I am glad there are authors who wrote books or a vast knowledge base etc.
thank you

Like the prior entry in this series, I found this book to be well-intentioned but it ultimately fell flat for me. There was just something, and I can't quite put my finger on what, that wasn't quite there in the writing, perhaps in the pacing of the plot? The characters are really cool, and the gender-inclusivity is refreshing. I had hoped to like this installment more than the first but wasn't able to.

Did not finish because of time commitments, however, did purchase for my collection as I already have the first one.

I waited approximately one year for this book, and I devoured it in under twenty-four hours. What a ride! Sword in the Stars picks up where Once & Future left off, with our heroes stuck in the actual Camelot with the fate of the future hanging in the balance. They must steal Arthur’s Holy Grail in order to save their own timeline, without skewing the original time line too much, of course, which proves to be even harder than they imagined.

This book is like when you go home at Christmastime and go out for drinks with your very best friends from growing up. You drink, you laugh, sometimes you cry, and you catch up with these people you value so much. I was so happy to return to these characters and their adventures. This story is everything I love about reading. Queer characters whose sexuality and gender are valued but definitely not the most important part of the story, those among whom chosen family means more than life itself. It’s a GREAT choice to kick off Pride in 2020, and an excellent reminder that even when the world is going to hell, there are those who will go through it with you and for you.

I still need to make a tshirt with everyone’s name, Helvetica style. There are so many twists and turns in this book, and I am astounded at Capetta and McCarthy’s ability to weave such a complex tale together to include so many elements of classic lore into an utterly original story for our time. When I pitch this story to friends, I bill it as gender bent King Arthur in space with teenage Merlin, and that’s all they need to know to seek this book out.

Do yourself a favor if COVID and racism and homophobia and all the other garbage of this year has you down, and pick this one up. Also, if you haven’t read the first one, definitely start there or you might be a little lost here. Thank you to both authors for this lovely story I love so much, and for their Instagram accounts that bring me so much joy.

This book was fabulous! I love stories about King Arthur and this one was fabulous. This teen packed story was action-packed and fun for everyone!! The genderqueer romance was perfect and everything set in space was oh yes please!! It was fun and just what I needed!

There is alot here that's good, particularly with regard to cycles and the passage of time, but the number of characters who are queer/trans/questioning made for some wildly difficult to follow pronoun use. I think the ideas these authors have are a bit ahead of the language we have to describe them.

I wanted so badly to enjoy this book despite its flaws, the way I did with Once and Future. Unfortunately, it was a tough sell.
Book 1 tended to be a little preachy about queer politics, but you see so little positive representation that I could look past it. Sword in the Stars began with so much of this that I wanted to skip through the first quarter of the book- positive representation can be done without destroying narrative...the choir’s already heard it and it is so heavy-handed that I can only imagine it driving away those who need to hear the message most.

That said, the adaptation of Arthurian legend was absolutely amazing. When McCarthy and Capetta get into it, it’s really fantastic. Ari and Gwen are even more heroic than ever, the complex time travel isn’t muddy, and there are so many heartwarming and heart-wrenching surprises. .

Overall, you can probably let O&F be your only foray into the duology...but keep an eye on these writers.

I had to DNF at about 35%. I loved the first book so much, but I couldn’t take the way the authors were basically trying to cram things down our throat. While I get what they were trying to do and I think that it very important, I didn’t like how they did. I felt like they think their readers are all ignorant, horrible human beings. Will not read anything else from either of them.