I am sorry but because the book did not grab me as other books usually do, I did not finish it.
What a shame. The cover was great!

I absolutely loved this unique spin on King Arthur. Based on the characters’ names I kind of knew what would happen but the author changed up the scenes enough that I was still fully entrenched in the story.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book!

This seemed like it would be the perfect book for me but honestly I was rather disappointed. I couldn't connect with the characters and it was at times confusing. I feel like this might be better for a younger audience, and I'm sure it could be a hit for many- just not me.

This books should be perfect for me according to the blurb. Unfortunately I found it a bit too confusing and it didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I am a fan of all things Arthur/Merlin/Lady of the Lake generally. This book had a different take which included both dinosaurs and inter-planetary travel. Some of the story was a little disjointed, some characters who seemed interesting never got developed. The reason for Mordred's betrayal was never made clear. The love story between Arthur and Guinevere was juvenile at times. Could have been a great read but needs some changes.

Rise of Knight and Sword (One Sword Saga) by Miriam Wade is a retelling the mythos of the Arthurian legend in a new, steampunk setting. The thing that attracted me the most was dinosaurs. But that was not the main part of this story. The blurb is very promising but that does not reflect in the story. It was beating around the bush but nothing was moving ahead. The characters were not fully developed and felt very felt. The relationships between the characters wasn't even clear and not sure in which direction was it moving ahead.
________

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review!

#riseofknightandsword #netgalley

I had a hard time getting into this book and had to stop reading. I can't give a fair review, because I simply couldn't keep reading it.

I lost interest in reading this story. Sorry. I'm sure it's a great book but I currently won't be reading it. Sorry sorry sorry.

I received this and as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to GenZ Publishing and NetGalley for giving me access.

Let me open up with saying that this just wasn't for me.

Dinosaurs? Yes Please!
Steampunk? Check!
Guinevere and anything based off Excalibur? GIVE ME!

Put it all together and it just becomes a hot mess.

I had high hopes for this one because it checked several boxes for me. Alas, no. I was confused and left wanting more world/character building. For being a debut novel, the premise was great, the execution was just a bit lacking for me.

I have a problem and the problem is totally me and me alone. I did not like the third person omniscient POV, with practically every sentence starting with Guinevere it was just to much and I can't take it. I will not be sharing this review anywhere else as I fell it is me having the problem and others may really like the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. All spelling and grammar errors are totally my own.

"Avalon, city of kings. Sky towers and airships dominate its skyline, dinosaurs roam freely throughout its parklands, and bounty hunters lurk in its shadows.

Guinevere has always lived on the outskirts of Avalon, working as an archivist in the central library. While corruption runs rampant throughout the city, her life is fairly mundane and predictable. That is, until she discovers the map to Excalibur and uncovers a plot to usurp the throne.

Finding herself on the run from these would-be king-slayers, Guinevere sets out to find the mythical sword. But with no one to trust and no where to hide, she must form an uneasy alliance with a pair of notorious bounty hunters.

"My future, and the future of Avalon are forward."

Rise of Knight and Sword is the first installment of the One Sword Saga. It reimagines Arthurian legend in a steampunk fantasy world at the height of the 1920's. Follow Guinevere and crew as they face off against smugglers, wild dinosaurs, hidden motives, and mistrust."

This ticks all my boxes, 1920s, Camelot, Steampunk!

I was granted complimentary access to an eARC of Ride of Knight and Sword by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to be approved for this book because it sounded so promising. A librarian in Camelot who answers the call to adventure? Sign me up! Alas, I've been trying to finish this book for over a month, and I've decided to throw in the towel. The opening chapter is painfully slow as Guinevere goes about her morning routine in far too detailed mundanity. Then we get past that and start to see the world we're in. Camelot has been made into a modern world full of technology and real-world 21st-century luxuries and worries but we're going to go on a King Arthur rehash adventure and there just so happens to be inconsequential dinosaurs wandering around? Arthurian legend usually has dragons, I'll give you that, but dinosaurs with no purpose? They just exist in this modern fantasy world and nobody cares? Make Arthurian dragons based in prehistoric life, sure. Tell me a story about what Camelot has become in the many centuries since Arthur, sure. Rehash King Arthur but in modern times with modern tech, sure. All of the above at once? There's too much going on and we've somehow focused on the more boring details of it all.

I try to include positives in my reviews even with I chose not to finish, or slogged through but didn't like what I read, but I'm struggling with this one. I see from the current Goodreads average of 2.16 stars after 33 reviews that I'm not alone in this. I will say the cover design is spectacular and the reason I looked at this listing in the first place. I do think some of the concepts in this book are strong, and with a serious tear-down by a developmental editor, it could become something great. This author has good ideas but needs someone in the pre-publication process (the earlier the better) to be brutally honest about what isn't working.

🍁This is a honest review. I received the book from NetGalley

🍁All my opinions are my own.

—————————————————————

🍁Synopsis: Avalon, city of kings. Sky towers and airships dominate its skyline, dinosaurs roam freely throughout its parklands, and bounty hunters lurk in its shadows.

Guinevere has always lived on the outskirts of Avalon, working as an archivist in the central library. While corruption runs rampant throughout the city, her life is fairly mundane and predictable. That is, until she discovers the map to Excalibur and uncovers a plot to usurp the throne.

Finding herself on the run from these would-be king-slayers, Guinevere sets out to find the mythical sword. But with no one to trust and no where to hide, she must form an uneasy alliance with a pair of notorious bounty hunters.

"My future, and the future of Avalon are forward."
—————————————————————

🍁Review: I give this book 1,5 stars.

🍁It sounded so good. A Arthurian retelling, set in a world where dinosaurs roamed the earth. But is a retelling, but that’s just it. The characters aren’t interesting. The dinosaurs are well not really in the story. And omg why is there so much drinking in this book. Every event that happens there’s alcohol poring through the pages. And if it makes sense for the story that’s oké, but it doesn’t. You will meet gwen, arthur, mordred, merlin and lancelot in the story. See some fighting and a some puppy love. But if your bored in a chapter and skipped a couple off pages you’re not really missing anything.

This book I did not know going in that it was a debut novel but it was easy to tell once I started. And it was easy to tell because the book had a great premise but everything was so vague and there were certain things that were overly detailed. This book also did a lot more telling than showing. The world building was not great, we were told the few places that Guinevere goes to like the library but it didn’t get a great description, I couldn’t visualize myself there. And the period that this book is set in I have no idea when because people are using guns and then there are dinosaurs. Yes, dinosaurs, I wish more was done with them because I didn’t feel like they added anything. One of the big problems in the story was how it dealt with Guinevere’s assault, after it happens both Arthur and Mordred acted like she wanted it and then a little while later they have no memory of it. And not only that but there was a moment where Arthur had to be pulled away from Guinevere because she and others thought that he was going to physically assault her. And the messed up thing is that Guinevere takes the blame and apologizes, and then they continue on together and moments earlier they were all lovey dovey. The characters felt very one dimensional and needed character development to make it so readers can connect with them. Because they follow the formula of all the cliches and stereotypes. And their dialogues did not sound right to me. Overall, I feel this book had a lot of potential but it needed a lot of editing.

I really wanted to love this because the idea seems brilliant. A retelling of the classic King Arthur tale set in a medieval/steampunk/modern mixed era and focusing on Guinevere. So many elements there that I was so ready to love. So many ways it went wrong.
Wade has a tendency to get excited over her ingenuity in worldbuilding and taking forever to describe little details or elements that have no bearing on the story. They're cool details, but you get taken completely out of the story for an entire paragraph on a random world detail.
I might have gotten over that eventually as a tick of the writer, but the thing that made me give up on anything beyond just finishing it was how flat and uninspired a character Arthur is. He's the male version of the much-hated caricature female love interest: unexplored background, emotions only appear when related to the heroine, seemingly only there to give the heroine emotional actions. I get that we're focused on Guinevere, but a flat Arthur in an Excalibur tale is just wrong.
Overall, an excellent concept and some fun details but (I'm sorry, Wade) uninspired writing.

Thank you NetGalley and Zenith Publishing for the read.

Before I jump into the review, I'd like to thank NetGalley and GenZ publishing for giving me an EArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rise of Knight and Sword came out to me as this fantasy/adventure that gave too many elements that didn't balance out well at the start of the novel. There were dinosaurs, a retelling of the Arthurian legend of Excalibur, and modernism-ish in a fantasy setting.

It would have a ton more potential for me if things were paced properly and given a tighter glance at all the things happening in this book. Some parts of the book were choppy, and the character development needed a ton more work. I found some of Guinevere's decisions between brash and impulsive. She sets on this journey to retrieve Excalibur, and later swears loyalty to a dude, she met along the whole adventure.

I honestly do think the story would've been amazing, if the writing was more engaging, and the characters are well-written out. There were so many blurred lines, that I just couldn't get hooked into it than I initially thought.

I am a huge fan of the Arthurian legend so I was very excited to get an eARC of this book. Unfortunately this book did not live up to expectations. The author definitely has a great imagination and I did enjoy the plot with all its twists and non-stop action. However, the writing is just not good. Sentences are choppy. Descriptions are awkward and over the board. The characters are boring and barely sketched out. And what is up with all the whisky guzzling? I felt like I landed in the middle of a bad CW show. Anyway, 2 stars for the plot and the cover (I truly am in love with the cover - it is by far the best thing about this book). I do hope the novel goes through thorough editing before it is released.

Rise of Knight and Sword is a debut book for author Miriam Wade. This take on Arthurian legend is an interesting one, one that I haven’t really seen before.

I really enjoyed seeing Guinevere as an archivist and being the main focus of the story. I loved how in all instances she is a normal girl, working in a library, trying to earn enough money to get by and is suddenly going on a massive adventure. It was interesting to see Guinevere go on the adventure of finding Excalibur and meeting Arthur and other known people in the Arthurian legend along the way.

The world in Rise of Knight and Sword was definitely an interesting one. It is set in a modern day world but has dinosaurs with steampunk interwoven throughout. However there is no magic system in the world which is a big part for me in a fantasy book. Even though you have Merlin he is a fortune teller and doesn’t hold any of his amazing powers.

Arthur in this story is a smuggler and I loved different portrayal of the King as well as the way we are introduced to him. Mordred was a character that you loved to hate. He was a gruff bounty hunter and switched between being nice and mean to Guinevere.

The story is fast paced with not a lot of time passing with everything is happening. With this being the first book in the series it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here.

It did take me awhile to get used to the writing style which slowed my reading down. I am the type of reader that I can either read a book very quickly or very slowly and this book was one I read slowly.

Overall I found the story interesting and I do love an Arthurian retelling. I am interested to how the series progresses.

I received this novel via netgalley with thanks in return for an unbiased review.


UGH.

My style of reviewing typically commences with a quote I have found interesting or intriguing. The lack thereof should be somewhat indicative of my personal thoughts towards this book.

Disclaimers: I am an honours holder in ancient history (inclusive of archaeology) I am a totally myth nutcase, so please understand that I may come off as somewhat critical.

Let's get started.

my iteration of the plot:
Guinevere was a normal girl.
With a normal job.
With a normal life.
and then she found a document, a document whose worth and value could cause immense danger in the hands of the wrong person.
The quest to find Excalibur. The sword of power.
So she ran. As fast as she could.
Fate had a different plan for her as she landed in a space she never fought she would and met people she never saw coming into her life.

Okay, even I know my iteration was bad. GUYS, this book was ughhhhhh! I didn't like it. at all.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm open-minded to readaptations of mythological histories that are so near and dear to my heart.

BUT....pterodactyls...ichthysaur? really? And other assorted dinosaurs in an otherwise, kinda steampunkish-modern...convenience stores, I-don't-even-know-how-to-describe-it setting? no thanks.

The setting blew my mind (not in a great way, I could barely visualize and mentally engage in it). it was so left field for me. The entire time, I had one resonating thought in my mind, "just what the heck is happening here?!"

This book felt like a chore. I'm sorry to be harsh but it was an effort to even read 15% of it.

I also don't know how I felt about a meek and naive sky pirate/art thief Arthur. A cyborg-sounding Mordred. And a somewhat sexualized-taro card reading female merlin. Not my cup of tea.

And the characters themselves? UGHHH! No, no no. The end.

Do I recommend it? No.

Do I think that my word is the law and therefore you shouldn't give this a try? Nope!

Do I want to read the follow-up book of this saga? probably not.

Did I like anything in it? The writing was good, I think this author has great potential.

Stay awesome,
Emmeline
The Book Herald

Thank you to Netgalley and Zenith Publishing for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Guinevere has a normal life until the map of finding Excalibur arrives at her library. Although they are not sure the map is actually legitimate, one thing is clear: it can fall in the wrong hands. So she takes the map with her and runs away, ending up in a ship she doesn't know with bounty hunters she will have to trust.

I am not really a fan of historical stories, or retellings, or King Arthur so I haven't read a lot about Arthur or Excalibur, but this book is set in a futuristic world and the cover is gorgeous so I gave it a try. One thing I wasn't expecting are dinosaurs, I have to be honest and say I don't like dinosaurs, in general, I found that they didn't give anything to the story, moreover, it gives confusion to the whole story, where am I? Past? Future? What kind of world is it? Without dinosaurs, everything would have been easier to understand. What are they for? Is it a try to do something original? I found the story original in itself, dinosaurs were not necessary, taking in a count that they have like two important moments in the whole book that could be replaced with anything else.

The book is well written, the story has really good points but I found it kind of slow, especially the beginning full of description, I would have loved more establishing of the characters in the beginning before everything starts, maybe get to know a little bit more Guinevere before her running away, watching her interacting with people.

The characters are kind of weird, at least the interactions they have with each other, Guinevere acts like a superior human being when she is with Arthur which makes me hate her a lot. Arthur, on the other hand, is more like the typical male character who hasn't ever talked to girls and doesn't know how to communicate with her and he is nearly obsessed and adores her out of nowhere it is the weirdest love at first sight I've ever seen. I just... I don't get it, these two are weird, and then there is Mordred which is the only normal character in the book, he got reasonable reactions, even if I don't like how he acts.

What annoyed me the most was that I felt like the last four chapters were too fast and the characters were not themselves at all, a lot of information and actions in a short period of time that was kind of forced. Also, I think that the book could have finished before them or maybe give them more pages to develop and understand exactly why and what is happening.

I liked the book, although it was slow reading, it was fresh and new, it is something I wouldn't read like ever and I was gladly surprised, but I can't help thinking that changing a few things in this book could achieve a whole new level.