I really wanted to like this book. The variation on the hunt to find Excalibur was a fun idea but the execution made it difficult to become attached to the story. I wanted more character development and left not really knowing the characters beyond their sexual tensions. The book has a few typos and is both overly descriptive and lacking in the details needed to create depth.

Wow.

“Rise of Knight and Sword” is an interesting take on the lore of Camelot as Guinevere finds a map hidden away in a box of artifacts and sets off to find Excalibur with the help of an unlikely duo.

I don’t know where to begin.

Let me start by saying that I appreciate the attempt here at giving the story we all know a sci fi twist however the execution was not as successful as the idea itself.

There’s not a lot of time given to organically build the story, characters or their relationships and a lot of what happens plot wise happens so fast that you almost get whiplash trying to keep up. From the very beginning I was lost trying to understand a world where the descriptions of her home, self and morning routine sound very modern day contrasted quickly with the sudden introduction of pterodactyls before she is handed a map that shatters her world, again no real build up as to why other than the city is big on tourism and not helping its actual citizens, and then we have spaceships?

For me I like to see growth and some exposition before we dive head first into the overall arc which never managed to happen here, there is very little structuring outside of point a and point b and I spent more time side eyeing the narrative especially when it came to the trio as they kept flip flopping on so many things with the biggest being a sexual and physical assault where she gets yelled at by Mordred for showing anger towards Arthur for suggesting she wanted it prior to seeing the bruises and then a handful of chapters later she brings it up again and they both act like this is new information? And Arthur was just the absolute worst which isn’t a new thing for me with the recent reimagining of this tale but my god did this guy need a solid punch to the face for his mood swings and the way he treated Guinevere to the point that in one scene he had to be pulled away because she along with everyone else expected him to become physically violent with her literally three pages after being happy and affectionate which is not okay nor romantic at all and she is the one who has to apologize and take all the blame? Absolutely not.

The relationships themselves are one dimensional and cartoonish at times with insta love an obsession with her beauty and nothing else along conversations that should be happening after a longer period of time than what we get on the page. This isn’t a new dynamic where we have our heroine stumble into a position far outside her comfort zone and try to make the best out of a bad situation and rise to the occasion over the course of the novel as the journey is what keeps us readers coming back to explore and grow with them but with this take there is none of that and I was pretty disappointed.

There’s a lot of moments here that I wish I could show to fully explain my confusion with the story as a whole but I think this book needed a few more drafts to fully flesh out every aspect. I can’t tell you a single defining characteristic for this version of the infamous Camelot characters and while the plot again had some potential with the genre bending it was never going to be successful for me as there was no real way for me to connect with them and the task at hand which was a shame.

I hope I am in the minority as I hate to dislike a book and see it do poorly but overall this was a giant misstep for me.

This book was really good and I read it in a day. I am not sure if it is one I would read again though. The plotline was decent but I could never fully connect with the main characters.

An interesting novel, which grows on the reader very quickly. Guinevere is an archivist who discovers a map leading to the legendary sword, Excalibur. She has to run with it, gets away, and then finds that she has a bounty on her head. What happens next I leave to the reader to find out, as I don't wish to spoil the ending.