This book was not good. The writing was bland and confusing. Plot was weird and vague and it read like a promising outline, but when it came to the craft of writing it just wasn't there. I do not recommend.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

DNF. I was very intrigued by the description but this book just fell very short for me. The world building seemed unfinished. There were way too many things going on. I wasn’t interested in the characters. Needs some work to deliver on the promise.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Supposedly a retelling of King Arthur, Rise of Knight and Sword’s claim is thin at best.

Where To Start….
This novel had so much potential, but it ultimately fell flat.

Let’s be blunt; it wasn’t good.

This was a DNF book.

It was that bad.

Rise of Knight and Sword markets itself as a steampunk retelling with the dinosaurs of King Arthur. I was also excited about the steampunk and iffy, at best, on the dinosaur aspect. But good writing and storytelling can take anything and stun the reader into silence.

So I gave it a shot.

My first disappointment came with the lack of steampunk. I was excited about steampunk and, instead, was handed cyberpunk. Nothing against cyberpunk, I like the genre, but it didn’t work here, and it was not what was marketed.

We have a writer who does not seem to understand the difference between steampunk and cyberpunk. This did not bode well for me.

Next, there was a lack of world-building. As a result, I could not grasp the world we were supposed to be in. I love the original Jurassic Park movie and enjoyed everything that followed. Still, when the dinosaurs entered the plot, I was left bewildered.

Why were they there? What purpose do they have for the plot?

It did not fit.

So Much Potential…
There was a lot of potential in Rise of Knight, and Sword. Guinevere works as an archivist and discovers something that can lead her to Excalibur and destroy Uther’s rule. She’s a little brainy; she’s sure of herself. There was a lot of potential to develop her character and dynamics, especially when the story took an Oceans 11 turn for storytelling.

Having Mordred and Arthur be best pals collecting bounties and smuggling for Morgan Le Fey has lots of potential. But the storytelling lacked substance; it lacked world-building to ground the reader in the story. So while there was some potential, it was just squandered on the oddness of it all.

Final Thoughts
Rise of Knight and Sword had so much potential but failed with poor world-building and a weird mix of genres that did not work; this was a disappointment.

I was intrigued because this was a novel about Guinevere. However, it was a very odd retelling set in a weird setting. The characters were also stereotypical. The bad guy had no motivation for why he did evil things. Thus, it had potential but it was not well-executed!

Miriam Wade's Rise of Knight and Sword is the first installment of the authors One Sword Saga. It reimagines Arthurian legend in a steampunk fantasy world at the height of the 1920's. Guinevere Cornwall has always lived on the outskirts of Avalon, working as an archivist in the central library. She studies manuscripts, preserves them, and translates them. One manuscript in a particular is of great importance to her. The location of the fabled Excalibur sword which is said to give the bearer right to choose the legitimate ruler of Camelot.

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 from the current King Uther. In her quest to retrieve Excalibur, Guinevere meets Mordred and Arthur, two bounty hunters on the very edge of the law who will tag along as she follows the map and tries to save Avalon from the hands of those who want to corrupt it. But hot on her trail are Rangers loyal to the corrupted Ranger's leader Gorlois who would do anything to hold Excalibur.

Arthur Pendragon is a former Ranger, and now partner with Mordred in their bounty hunting business. 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. When Arthur discovers Guinevere onboard his ship the Hengroen, he finds himself not only stunned by her beauty, but intrigued at the possibility of finding the legendary Excalibur.

After all, there is something definitely wrong in Camelot, and when the King is usurped from his throne, it means that a new King must be chosen. Arthur and Guinevere must face off against smugglers, wild dinosaurs, hidden motives, betrayal, mistrust, and a group of Knights whose names are Merlin, Lancelot, Gawain, and Galahad. All of these characters have been rewritten to fit into a steampunk world with dinosaurs roaming the wild, so the story felt completely different from other Arthurian legends, and I've read a ton of retellings over the past ten years.

The reason for the rating is this: Insta-love. Arthur immediately falls for Guinevere even though every rich female in the land would love for him to choose them. The pacing is all over the place. The ending is absolutely predictable, and I have no clue what happened to Clash of Love and Realm which was supposed to be the sequel. With a little research, I've read the sequel "might" be released May 24, 2022. We'll see.

I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't think it was right to review a book that I didn't finish.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this eARC for review.

I really liked the concept, but the delivery left something to be desired. There was both too much going on, and not enough description. It seemed as if there was a need for more self-editing.

I had such high hopes for this but I was sadly let down. I love the premise. I can't get enough of retellings and would honestly love more dinosaurs in books. I think this suffered from too much going on - the Arthurian legend, a fantasy world with modern technology, and dinosaurs. There's a lot of pages of nothing that really could have been edited down.

The characters are typical YA characters. Guinevere is just so fierce and intelligent, yet nothing she does really shows that. Of course she's gorgeous and everyone has to point it out, naturally Arthur is taken with her right away. The dialogue didn't feel natural so it was difficult to connect with them.

There's good potential in the story, I think a good edit will make a huge difference.

I just wish the dinosaurs had an impact on the story and weren't just in the background. I love dinosaurs.

The retelling seemed very interesting when i read the blurb.
But i did not like how the retelling was made and Arthur was annoying rolling his eyes almost every chapter, at least it felt like it. Our heroine was trying too hard to be fierce and outstanding? wich, made it even harder to like her.

The idea behind this story was nice, but the execution just feel short for me. The writing had some issues and the characters were flat and lacked good character development.

I struggled so much to get through this book. The premise is great, I love retellings. But, there was just so much going on. I had a hard time relating to the character and they just felt bland and one dimensional. You can definitely tell this is a debut novel.

This is a pretty good fantasy novel. It was middle of the road for me as far as world building and characters. I appreciate the retelling of Arthurian legend but I feel like it's been done much better recently so this just wasn't for me.

The love the Arthurian legends and try to read everything I can get my hands on. This unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I’m not a fan of steampunk but I wanted to give this book a try anyway.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC.

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Unfortunately, this book was a DFN for me.

This was not my favorite retelling of Arthurian Legend. While it gave me Astroknights from Poptropica vibes, I just don't know if steampunk works well with Arthurian Legend for me.

Of course, nothing against the book itself--I just am not a huge fan of steampunk.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I have always been a fan of the Arthurian legends so I was excited to get my hands on this book. This is the story a bit reinvented. I love steampunk and this mixed those fantasy and sci-fi elements together so well. I know this is a debut novel and it was wonderfully done. It is a different way of going on the journey for him to become king and actually sit on that throne and Guinevere has always been a little off putting in most of the tales, but I did not feel that in this book as much as I have in other ones. I like that she was smart and worked in a library. I want to read more by this author.

From the first chapter, it was obvious that this was a debut novel. In theory, the premise sounded like it had potential, but the execution of it was so poorly done. It was bland and full of cliches. I really wish I had something positive to review with, but unfortunately this book just needs too much work.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
Some interesting ideas behind this story but it sadly failed to deliver. The author was trying to do too much and include too many genres that it didn't synch well together.
An OK read.