I received an arc of this book from NetGalley. Mild spoilers below.

In the near future, amidst climate change and political havoc, Sir Kay of the Round Table returns from the dead and crawls out from beneath a tree beside a fracking plant. In this world, the knights of the Round Table return from the dead when England is most in need, resulting in immortal knights that have fought at Waterloo, in all of the World Wars, and are awakened now when climate change threatens the world, and pollution summons dragons.

I love the premise of this book so much, and generally found it incredibly fun. I think this will also be a very fun audiobook. The antics of the knights have a tendency to overshadow the stories of the activists like Miriam, but I also find that they can be a welcome respite from the general feeling of climate doom. I think some of the dialogue could stand to have been edited down in many places, and there is a tendency to meander, but overall, a good time!

In times of peril immortal Knights of the Round Table return from their rest to help manage the threats in Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee.
Sir Kay makes his way from beneath the earth yet again to serve Britain against whatever peril now faces it, but Kay finds the resurrections to be increasingly tiring; having fought in many battles and wars throughout the past thousand or so years he’s returned to strange new worlds with new technologies time after time but this is yet another version of the world, strange in novel ways with the rising water levels, privatized armies, and magical oddities running amok where they ought not to be. Mariam has devoted her life to endeavors aiming to better her country and the lives of those who reside there and her latest effort to disrupt a fracking rig has gone slightly awry, leading to the fiery explosion of the rig and the release of a dragon, neither of which is ideal. Paths intersecting, Kay joins Mariam on her mission as part of the feminist ecoterrorist group she’s a part of while he figures out what his broader objective should be and why strange things seem to be happening now that haven’t in the past when he resurrects. As the two go on a quest through the land it is soon apparent that something grander is at play as Kay and Mariam learn of ancient powers pulling the strings to suit their agenda regardless of the impact it will have for ordinary people and the pair devise plans to try to thwart the worst from arising.
With an exciting concept that mingles historic Arthurian legend with contemporary-to-mildly futuristic events and concerns with writing that incorporates clever humor, a magical story unfolds with characters questing throughout the land in an effort to save it from dystopian ruin as a result of the actions of corrupt powers and corporate entities whose attitudes have greatly impacted the planet’s climate while also facing existential matters of a more personal nature. The narrative is composed primarily of close third person perspectives of Kay and Mariam, with occasional moments coming from Lancelot and Marlowe, which while helpful in filling out the story to address the motivations behind actions and behaviors were so infrequent that they resulted in a slightly off-kilter feeling; the brief exploration of the backstories of the knights was quite interesting and it would be intriguing to have more on that aspect of the story instead and exploration of the characters’ backstories could have helped to flesh out the logic behind the baddies’ choices beyond selfish greed. The way that characters were presented, especially the historic figures, drove home the ideas of being able to achieve great change when working as a united front and that people, and history, tends to be multifaceted and judging it on one aspect or with a rosy, nostalgic lens has its dangers.
Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have been loving fantasy lately, so I thought that I'd love this. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I didn't enjoy the dystopia vibes and the political talk non-stop.

However, that's exactly what the book says it is, so I'm not faulting the book for any of that. It just wasn't my vibe. The writing and concept were great!

Thank you so much for a chance to read this!

Thank you NetGalley, Random House, and Thomas D. Lee for the opportunity to review this ARC of Perilous Times.

I love a good apocalyptic dystopian novel, and fantasy is my preferred genre for pleasure reads - so it was a lovely surprise to discover that Perilous Times was both in a way completely unexpected; imagine the cycle of Desolations from Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, but set on our world perhaps 20 years into the future.

This was a fun, thought-provoking, and well written adventure.

Set a few decades in the future, Britain is in peril, there are climate wars, and the world is on the verge of collapse. Centuries before this, we discover the knights of the round table have made an agreement with Merlin in exchange for immortality to be resurrected to help save Britain from destruction. This was a fantasy tale with fun historical characters mixed in, and I adored it! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy.

**Thank you, Netgalley and publisher, for giving me an electronic ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee was a great read, I enjoyed the characters and the setting. It feels like something that could happen if magic was real. I would love a prequel with the Knights during the wars and their relationship with one another.

For an actual review of the story, this will be no help, because the book started in 3rd person present, which I hate, so I didn't get far at all. Maybe that changes further on, but I couldn't do it. Reading 3rd person present is like fingernails on chalkboard for me.

clever!! i'm such a sucker for man-out-of-time stories I'll bet it has to do with my childhood enjoyment of rip van winkle. anyway, very well written and voicey in the best way

I liked the concept and the message more than the execution. I think the fight scenes could have done with quite a bit of editing but hey that's me, some people may like the action more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC!
The concept of this story sounded interesting- Knights of the Round Table coming back from the dead whenever Britain is in peril and needs heros. It was more dystopian than I was originally expecting - set in a future where the earth is being destroyed by climate change. It took me awhile to get into the story, and once I did get to the action I felt like the conflict was resolved too easily. I found I was more interested in the knight’s backstories than the actual plot of the book. I did enjoy the humor and was interested in each POV character, but I was a little let down overall.

I was given this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall I really liked this book, it did seem a little heavy handed on the climate change side of things - which is to be expected since that was exactly the problem with the world they were dealing with, it just felt it got a little bogged down and preachy at times. I do with the author would have flushed out the characters a little more, I didn't really connect with much of them but I found the backstory of the Arthurian knights fascinating.

Honestly, I want a prequel, I want to hear about Kay and Lancelot in the world wars, that would be a great book.

Author Thomas D. Lee has excellent story-telling skills that could net him five star reviews all day long. He knows how to keep a reader engaged, develops complex characters with flaws while making them likable, and can weave a plot. His dialog is well done with an appropriate smattering of humor.

Unfortunately those skills are nearly wasted on this über-niche ecowarrior take on the Arthurian legend. Lee makes inclusiveness unwieldy, creating unnecessary characters just so he can cover all of his PC bases. The book is so preachy that it must be assumed the reader is considerably below average intelligence, otherwise he could have gone more than a few pages without a diatribe against “Big Business” and “The Man.”

Had this been written with the general reader in mind, Lee could have racked up 5-star reviews. As it stands it gets 3-1/2 stars from me. While Lee makes valid points and great observations about human nature, he is far too philosophically heavy-handed in this book. My thanks to Ballantine Books via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are strictly my own and offered without recompense.

#periloustimes #NetGalley #ifcatscouldread #rescuedismyfavoritebreed #bookstagram #catstagram #catsandbooks #booksandcats #kindlesallthewaydown

This book was interesting, I enjoyed it I wouldn’t say it’s a new favorite or anything but I did like it and it was a good read.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

I'll admit it took me a while to get into the premise of this story. Once things got rolling and I bought into the return of the Knights of the Round Table to an almost apocalyptic future England then I was hooked. In a short summary take one part Arthurian legend, one part global business planet domination and destruction and one part "Wall-e" from the kid's movie a few years back add a dash of gay pride and treatment of refugees and you're off and running. It certainly helps to have some background knowledge of the Arthur/Camelot/Merlin tales since they are alluded to but not explained. An interesting read for a limited audience.

If someone handed you a fantasy novel with an Arthurian theme -- Lancelot and the Round Table and all that -- you would have certain expectations about the characters and the world they live in, right? Well, this debut novel is certainly “Arthurian” but I guarantee it’s not what you would expect. Not even close.
The main protagonist is Sir Kay, who in the stories was Arthur's seneschal and sometimes his half- or step-brother. Here’s he’s portrayed as Black -- there were plenty of Black people in pre-Saxon, he says, but their presence until after the bigoted Normans showed up -- and he’s regard himself as any sort of hero. He just tries to do his job and get on with things. The job of him and his fellow deceased knights being to sleep away the centuries, each under his own magical tree somewhere in Albion until the country needs him again. (Arthur sleeps, too, but England’s leaders have always tried to avoid summoning him unless absolutely necessarily because the Once and Future King is a bloodthirsty handful.)
So the magical knights have fought at Hastings, at Agincourt, on both sides in the Civil War (summoned by both the Stewarts and Cromwell), and in both world wars. Well and good, that’s what Merlin cast his elaborate spells to accomplish, but more recently, Kay was awakened to protect Britain's imperial interests in the Far East, and he doesn’t feel that was what he signed on for. Along the way, another immortal was added by non-Merlin means -- Christopher Marlowe, Elizabethan playwright, government functionary, spy, and assassin, who for four hundred years has served as a very efficient intermediary between the Round Table knight and the nation’s masters.
But now, a couple of generations in our future, Britain faces quite a different sort of crisis, and the newly awakened Kay is puzzled about how he’s supposed to help. The climate is changing and sea levels are rising, so it’s too bloody hot and much of the country is now flooded. The government has privatized the military and many of its own functions, and has sold off Essex to the Chinese for ready cash. There are a number of revolutionary groups struggling against the government, the corporate agents of climate change, and each other, and Kay falls in with one of those groups quite by accident (a small group of radical female environmentalists firebombed a fracking plant near his tree).
Kay doesn’t engage in politics if he can help it, his loyalty is to England itself and to its people, not to sectarian politics, so he jumps right into things, broadsword in hand, and it takes him a while to begin to understand just what’s going on. There’s also that huge mother dragon he needs to deal with that was created by magical tensions in the explosion, but slaying dragons is something he’s skilled at. He’s also going to have to figure out what to do about Lancelot, whom Marlowe has summoned, picked up in his “quad-pod” flyer, and taken to London for a briefing on what the politicians want him to do about those radical environmentalists. Lancelot, who (like Marlowe) is gay and has a thoroughly jaundiced about his own history as a fixer for the powerful.
It’s all very original, both in the author’s re-imagining of Arthur’s knights and in his take on the surrounding legends and what they might mean in today's world with its very different problems. The humor is sly and decidedly British in style and the narrative moves right along very smoothly and competently, even though this is a first novel. (Lee is still young enough to be pursuing a Ph. D. in creative writing.) Definitely an author to watch.

I'm really hoping that there will be a sequel to this. You spend just a handful of days with these characters but become fully invested in their stories. A wildly creative interpretation of past and future through the lens of mythology. When you have nothing left to lose except everything why not believe in a couple of Arthurian knights to help save the world.

Only lost a star for me because at certain points it feels as though it gets a little over scrupulous. Some passages get pretty depressing and I understand that it comes with the subject matter but the characters are so great it seems it would be better conveyed through dialogue or action rather than paragraphs.

Loved the story and would gladly recommend. Look forward to seeing if these characters get to continue their journey.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Kayla who is a knight has traveled to a different realm which is like no other he has experienced. It will take alot to figure out what he needs to do to adapt to this life.

First, let me say I normally do not read the Fantasy genre. I was asked to review this book, the plot in theory sounded interesting – imagine Merlin granting Knights of the Round Table immortality in exchange for agreeing to sleep under their oak tree until Britain is in peril and in need of saving. This is how the story begins, we meet Kay, a Knight from the days of King Arthur, who happens to be his younger brother. Kay awakens and climbs from beneath his tree to see a world under siege. I really was intrigued with this story but as I got into the story, the agenda of the author started to spill into the story rendering it difficult to finish the book. While I can understand, when an author wants to take stories, legends that have been told and reinvent them, what I couldn’t appreciate was how many agenda plot points were in the story. Let me count the plot points – Lancelot is gay, men of Anglo Saxon heritage are racists, hateful, violent war mongrels, Morgan Le Fay – still self-preserving has kindness in her, the earth has been destroyed by climate change ultimately the fault of the men, men who are fighting among themselves to maintain and gain power, Merlin is a mushroom growing drug dealer, and finally the women are warriors who are going to right the wrongs. The one character I did like was the female lead – Mariam. Mariam was interesting, she wanted to change the world but didn’t realize she could or what a nature leader she was. She doubted herself, she felt flawed and at times took the easy solution to a problem only to discover it wasn’t the best solution. It was this character and her growing development that kept me reading this book. The writing is fine, the story, although slow at times, does a good job of coming together and if you enjoy fantasy, then this reimagined story might engage you. I, however, found the story difficult to read.

Brilliant! I loved how Thomas D. Lee mixed Knights of the Round Table and environmental damage. The entire book is clever, fast paced and bloody brilliant. Well done!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for this title.

This books is well written, and while fantasy, seemed different than other titles I've read in the genre. I will say that the quality of writing is good for this book, but unfortunately it just wasn't quite what I was looking for.

If the premise sounds interesting, then I would say to go ahead and try it out. Unfortunately, this one just didn't resonate with me.