Member Reviews
Perilous Times reimagines Arthurian myth with undead knights who rise up from beneath magical trees to protect the realm in times of peril--and there is no time more perilous than the near future of climate change the book depicts.
For a book marketed as funny, this was a lot more depressing than I expected--although maybe that's a given with any book tackling a subject as heavy as climate change. Fortunately, the initial unrelenting awfulness of the book's near-future world did give way to a hopeful ending, with some lovely messages throughout. Overall I enjoyed this one--especially the second half, which did have some very funny moments as well as some wonderfully epic scenes that were worth sticking around for.
This book is a very different take on Arthurian legend. There have been a lot of books centering on the lore lately, some of them less clever and fresh than others. Perilous Times is one of the fresh ones.
It's bizarre, to be certain. The Arthurian knights are resurrected from underneath their burial trees every time Britain is in peril. They've seen a lot of wars. This time, the peril is global warming and the fallout from that, both political and social, and beyond. It's told in multiple POVs, though the knight Kay, Arthur's brother, is who I considered the main MC. I was rooting for him from the word go. Lancelot was a little harder to love, but he grew on me. Mariam is a unique non-knight perspective I enjoyed with a great character arc.
Perilous Times is an enjoyable ride, with fantasy elements you'd expect to see in an Arthurian story combined with some of the very real issues of today.
DNF Unfortunately, this book did not do anything for me. The premise seemed awesome, but I just could not get into it at all. I will try to circle back at a later date and try again, but for now I am going to take a break from it.
New review will follow if the second time around goes better for me.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for me honest opinion.
Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee is a novel that takes the well loved Arthurian legends and applies their themes to modern concerns.
Between a feminist slant and climate change focus this is a book for readers who like their fiction to reflect the society around them a bit more directly than most fantasy.
Pacing is slower so I do recommend this as a book to read when the reader really has time to sit down with it,
Didn’t know what to expect starting this book, but I liked it! It’s an entertaining read. I was doubting the mix between Arthurian retelling and climate change, but the writing was very fluid. The world building didn’t feel forced at all, it just meshed all together. I loved the humor and banter of characters.
A modern telling of King Arthur and the knights of the round table
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Sir Kay and the other Knights of the Round Table have all been sleeping for the last fifteen hundred years or so, waking only when Britain is in peril and they are magically summoned to assist in protecting the realm. Kay wakes this time to find himself in a strange future — the whole earth is dying as humans continue to poison it with the waste of industry, and every faction is warring against each other to further their own radical beliefs. It's hot, swampy, and instantly dangerous, as Kay helps a young woman running from the mess she just made in the name of her all-female eco-warrior extremist group. As he spends time with her though, Kay starts to see that Mariam may have the right idea about how to help the realm. As they quest onward to Manchester, they'll come across a sort-of evil Lancelot, Christopher Marlowe (still alive, yes), a gigantic dragon, a maybe-evil sorceress, a racist squirrel, and a hippie selling magic mushrooms who looks a lot like Merlin. They're all racing to find Excalibur, whether to wake King Arthur with it or to keep him slumbering in Avalon. Arthur could be the force that turns the tide once and for all — but which way will he turn it?
This story pleasantly surprised me! It's lengthy, but the pages flew as I was sucked into the story and the characters. It is a fantastic combo of dystopian future, zombie Camelot, and Arthurian lore that I found fully irresistible. I can't believe that this is a debut novel, either! There are plenty of funny moments, as well as some sobering truths about the state of the world and the potential future we may encounter. I absolutely loved the author's rendering/reimagining of all the Camelot characters, as he took liberties with them that made them really unique and memorable for me.
I rarely say this, but I wish this book had been longer or had been extended into a duology/trilogy, because I feel like there is so much more that could have gone on with this narrative! The ending felt a bit rushed for me, but maybe that's just from my desire to live a little bit longer with these characters.
I definitely recommend this one if you're at all into Arthurian legend, because it's such a fun and distinctive take on the traditional stories and characters we're familiar with. I love the combination with dystopian sci-fi as well! Thank you to Thomas D. Lee, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.
Overall good book, highly political, showing the problems of today in a dystopian near future mixed with some Arthurian fantasy elements. Although advertised as a fantasy book it’s focusing more on real life social inequality, environmental change, immigration and other political topics, sometimes subtle between the lines, sometimes straight on. Lee shows that the human race hasn’t changed in millennia, divide and conquer works still fine and the single person can despair and getting lost being confronted with the size and complexity of modern world problems, but despite this more earnest tone there are funny bits sprinkled throughout the book. My only critique is that the message of the book is contradictory in some cases and some of the side characters lack personality/ feel a bit stereotype.
I started really getting into the story line and then it took a turn and lost me. I enjoy a good King Arthur story but they lost me. I did not finish it.
Knights, King Arthur, global warming, magic, greed, Merlin and the many branches of the tree of life. You're in for a ride as the knights crawl back to life from under their tree of life to battle once again when the earth is peril. Never boring.
This is a feminist, subversive, yet very fun romp of a climate change fight with magic, Arthurian knights, dragons, and a redeemed racist talking squirrel. I really liked the take on how waiting for a hero helps absolve us of responsibility and agency. Women don’t need to wait for a bloke to save the day! They can grab the magic staff for themselves and create change!
Look, some smaller minded people are going to find this book preachy with its (very accurate) takes on climate change, capitalism, xenophobia, and rich men making things worse. But I loved it. Mariam was a great heroine. And I loved the look at Arthur as actually kind of terrible.
I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a requested copy to review. All opinions are my own.
I dove into this book solely on colorful vivid pictures of the snake cover that I saw online. A book as gorgeous as this one was intriguing to me, even though I doubted mixing Arthurian legends, dystopian futures, and humor would work. But I was wrong.
This book is five out of five stars for me on enjoyment alone! Comparable to Neil Gaimen’s “American Gods” and “Good Omens”, this story takes myths and legends, interweaving both into future times. Sir Kay wakes up in the future and runs into Mariam. Both have been busy saving the world, but both have been living in different centuries. To see centuries collide, and these two characters try to get along was priceless. It’s full of things I love the most in life - deadpan humor, villany, wit, adventure and sarcasm.
The Lady of the Lake and Merlin, two of my favorite characters in Arthurian legends were written into this story too. Seeing this all in a new light was very entertaining for me. It held my attention and kept me laughing the whole way. I would buy this book, and include it in all libraries. Many will enjoy it!
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books via NetGalley for this arc. I voluntarily read it and all opinions are my own.
Perilous Times is a King Arthur retelling where Merlin enchanted the knights to rise when England is in peril. Indeed, they were summoned for many of the major conflicts in British history. At the start of this book, Sir Kay awakens to find England plagued by the impacts of global climate change, corporate greed, some of their land being sold off to China, and the army has been privatized. He stumbles upon a climate change activist named Miriam, and the two team up to help save England. (It's way more complicated than that. Politics come into play. Alliances are questioned. But you'll have to read the book to get all the layers. ;))
While I should have loved this book based on the description, in reality, it fell a bit flat for me for two reasons. 1. I love out of time books because I love the see the main protagonist acclimate and survive in a time period that's not their own. In Perilous Times, we didn't get much of that since they'd experienced the world at different points in time since their deaths. We got the barest touches, hints to changes in the past, but not the full experience that I was expecting when I read the blurb. 2. I thought the climate change warnings were too preachy. We desperately need to make dramatic changes to curb climate change, a lot of which is tied into corporate greed (see above), however people who deny it or succumbing to corporate greed are likely not to respond if they feel they're being preached at. (I realize this is totally subjective, but I'm sharing it in case others feel the same way.)
Pros:
-Clever premise
-Mentions all the big Arthur players, Arthurian lovers will enjoy seeing their names
-The dialogue was well done
-The author did a great job at world-building
-Dragon
Cons:
-A bit too slow paced
-Lacked some interactions I was hoping for
-Felt preachy at times
Overall, I think Perilous Times is a well-written book with an interesting premise, but it just wasn't for me. In fact, I DNF'd the book about halfway through. However, I'm not docking this to my DNF ratings because I can objectively see that it is a good book and my reasons for not liking it are extremely personal. If you like the Arthurian legend and are okay with a bit of preachiness, this book might be for you!
Disclosure: The publisher provided me with an arc. (Thank you!) All views expressed are my own.
I received an advance copy via NetGalley.
I've felt largely burned-out on Arthurian rewrites since I was a teenager, lo those many years ago. And yet, something about the concept of this one hooked me: Arthur's knights reawakening in response to the climate emergency. Even better, the book absolutely lived up to the high concept. It's dark and gritty and laced with dead-pan humor, fantastical and wry all at once.
The two principal characters are Sir Kay and Miriam. Kay was more accepted with his black skin back in the 6th century than he has in his recent returns, clawing from the dank earth beneath his assigned tree, ready to fight on Britain's behalf both at home and abroad. This time, he awakens as a nearby structure is being attacked by Mariam, an eco-terrorist. Their hesitant alliance occurs as other immortal figures are also in motion--Lancelot, Marlowe, Nimue, and others.
This book delivered constant surprises. The near-future setting of heat, mass flooding, and devastation feels disturbingly plausible. Kay is such an incredible character, a man who has suffered much across many lives and still mourns for his wife after over a thousand years of separation. Lancelot--I won't give anything away, but wow is his character arc incredible. Even though the central concept is about the Knights of the Round Table, it really centers on Mariam, which is only right. I felt leery about her at first, but through Lee's immersive writing, I came to know and understand her.
Kay, an immortal knight of the Round Table has risen again to save Britain from peril,
never knowing what changes have occurred since the last time. He joins forces with Miriam, a climate change activist. As they deal with different factions, old friends and foes of Kay's come into play.
Different points of view presented, an interesting twist on the Arthurian legend.
#PerilousTimes #NetGalley
For whatever reason this one just simply didn't find an audience with me, I couldn't really find one reason why I didn't like it other than I typically read two to three books at once and this one was the lesser of the group I was reading so it really didn't shine as brightly as the others and fell away to the DNF pile.
Perilous Times is an intriguing story that combines historical characters, mythology and sorcery with the modern day issues of climate change, xenophobia and greed. Pairing Knights of the Round Table with regular people trying to make a difference is an unique and creative approach - especially when magic is introduced - to telling a cautionary tale about problems we're facing today.
If you're looking for a book that takes mid-evil knights, dragons, sorcerers, and gods and puts them in contact with today's society to combat climate change, racism, sexism and corporate greed, then this is right in your wheelhouse. It's a genre-busting novel that is entertaining for the right audience.
Strong points for originality! Mixing Arthurian legendary characters cleverly reimagined, dragons and a dystopian climate disaster plotline with dry humor and witty banter. The characters were well-developed, the writing was smooth, and the pace was moderate. I particularly loved the dragons, and Barry, as a squirrel. Overall, an enjoyable read and distinctly different from anything else I've read.
If you enjoy the stories of King Arthur and his knights, this will be an enjoyable read for you. An interesting twist that includes magic.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I thought this book was really good! It was a little slow but I quickly found my rhythm. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy high fantasy.