Although I enjoyed this a lot, for once I have to say that it would have been better as a shorter story. I feel way too much narrative time was spent in walking (or riding) from one place to another. The romance was strange because on one hand the banter and tension were fantastic but on the other there weren't enough "clues" to suppose that Kai and Wright were truly in love with each other. The ending was too abrupt for my taste, but I loved the secondary characters too

4.25 Stars. I ended up enjoying this more than I hoped. I would consider this a novella, but it’s long enough and the story felt complete. None of that annoying rushing feeling you can get in short novels. The best way to describe this would be post-apocalyptic fantasy.

The world has been plunged into a second Dark Ages. After a chemical was released, into the air and oceans to break down plastic, it got out of control and poisoned the Earth. The people left are living in parts free of poisoned lands owned by Lords with knights to do their bidding. One of the knights is Ser Wright. Wright has trained and spent her whole life in duty to her Lord. When he sends her on a quest with three others including a rival knight, Wright must decide if duty or doing the right thing matters more.

I really enjoyed the fantasy mixed with elements like old cars and buildings. It was very easy to sink into this world without having to read a ton of world building. I think that is a reason why this shorter length book held up so well. Everything is pretty clear and reasonable, I wasn’t lost at all.
This is a quest book, so it did slow down at times due to all the traveling, but the slowdowns did not last long. There was plenty of excitement to keep me flipping the pages.

There is a romance. I actually liked that part quite a bit. It’s a real enemy to lover’s storyline with plenty of sexual tension. Almost like two little kids that would rather pick on each other and fight than admit their feelings. It totally worked for me. And again I thought it worked well considering it was a shorter story. Of course I would have loved more, but I was content with it.

The main storyline is wrapped up with a satisfying ending, but the author did leave the possibility to make this into a series. I really hope Ellis considers it. There are more adventures to be had and I would love to read them. I absolutely recommend this to fantasy fans and readers that like post-apocalyptic stories.

I had many thoughts while reading this rather exiting story. Two main ideas swirled in my mind: 1) I rather like reading stories set ‘after’ some event has happened and people are living long after ‘now’ (the reader’s present) without a lot of knowledge of what the past was like (see: Larry Niven’s Destiny’s Road (though that one isn’t actually on earth); Jack McDevitt’s Eternity Road; etc.); 2) this story seemed like a continuation, centuries later of several stories I’d read (then, when the boat was mentioned, it seemed like a continuation of a television storyline, but I can’t say more about that specific one without spoilers). Specifically I mean a continuation of a story like Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason’s Ill Wind when an oil tanker crashes, oil is released (lots of it), an almost untested substance is released to ‘eat’ the oil and . . . it does so remarkably well, all over the earth, plunging the world into an apocalyptic setting worse than what would occur with the lack of oil around (since the ‘released substance’ had a tendency to eat things like plastic as well, if I recall correctly). Well, this specific story here, the Knight one, is like that story, 100s of years later.

But what, exactly, beyond the vague words used above, is this specific story about? It’s a story of knights on a quest, but not in medieval times, not to find the holy grail, but on a quest in a future world, 100s of years from now, when an ‘event’ occurred that dramatically altered ‘our’ world. Some hints are dropped along the way in the story, but I’ll not spoil things here and now.

What’s this quest? Well, first off, the story opens with Ser Wright wandering to a neighboring Lord’s land to retrieve a spy, one Ser Kai. Kind of a straight forward quest – go there, get person, and return home. But this is how the story opens, and how the reader begins to learn about this changed world. A world of knights in armor on horseback, a world with swords. And a world with pistols (see, it’s the future, not the past this story is set). Also a world with ruins all over the place, like cars, and buildings, and the like. But I distracted myself. This first quest leads to Wright picking up another individual, named ‘Silva’, a mercenary. And leading said person back to her Lord.

Which leads to the actual main quest for this story, and the reason why I labeled these journey’s as ‘quests’. For, you see, Kai had been over in the neighboring land as a spy, but not in preparation for an invasion or something like that. But to search and find if a particular ‘facility’ is, in fact, located within that neighboring Lord’s domain. A facility a scholar, here called an ‘Alchemist’, named Preston has discovered in his research. All this being noted to say why they are going on this quest and why this is a ‘quest’. For they are after an almost mythical ‘item’. Like any good quest. Here that ‘mythical item’ is a ‘cure’ for the ‘curse’ that spreads upon the land and consumes things. And scars and marks, and can kill humans.

So that’s what the story is about – two knights (Kai, Wright), a sell-sword (Silva), and an alchemist (Preston) on a quest to find a mythical ‘cure’. Of note: Kai, Wright, and Silva are all women. And all knights or equivalent. And there’s nothing ‘odd’ about that in this world, for a woman to be a military type person. (though before ‘you’ think the world is structured a certain way, as I was beginning to think, there are in fact male knights running around, and Wright’s own lord is male (though Kai’s is female)).

The characters? Nicely created, fully figured. Hmms that might mean something else. Well, they have fully created personalities and . . stuff. But what about romance and the like? Well, I do not wish to reveal everything, since it takes a little bit of time for the people themselves to realize their own thoughts and desires, but there is a romance in this story. Between two women. And sex. Depending on definitions, it’s lightly graphically described.

A riveting, action packed adventure with romance and bits of humor here and there (though the humor came a little late to the story and was somewhat surprising to see suddenly spring up (not in a bad way)). A quite satisfying read.

Rating: 5.00

January 29 2018