high fantasy – Dr JoAnn LoSavio

Perilous Times: A Novel by Thomas D. Lee

This was, by far, the most imaginative novel I have read this year. This is speculative fiction at its very best. Perilous Times will keep you hooked from start to end.

The novel opens with a strange awakening. Kay, an Arthurian knight emerges from the earth, no longer a corpse, but alive and tasked with a mission to save Britain – only he has no clue what this means or what he has to do. Immediately, he becomes entangled with a young woman, Mariam, who is on her own mission: to rid the world of corrupt corporate leaders who are poisoning the world and leading its few remaining inhabitants closer to environmental ruin.

The novel is set in the near future, when our climate has been so altered that most of Britain is now underwater and our environment is a grey wreck. Small bands of people live in squatter-like conditions and even smaller bands of rebels have formed to bring order to the world.

Fracking and profit-greedy corporations run public operations. A magical cadre operates on the highest level of corruption and government, and they have a secret weapon: King Arthur and the immortal knights of his roundtable.

But… this all it seems? This is a world stripped of romance and chivalry, and the knights of this mythic time are no less human than those they are tasked to save.

I will leave my description there. If this has not intrigued you yet, well… Hmph.

The ending will also put you in a spiral.

Lee also delivers the story with tremendous skill, the right dollop of humor, and the perfect dry drip of British snark. This novel is a joy to read on multiple levels.

Book One of the Jake West Trilogy

Jake West: The Keeper of the Stones by MJ Webb

As I delve into self-published and independently published novels, I am also exploring outside my usual genres. I won a giveaway of this trilogy from a FB Group and was thrilled to have a chance to read a fantasy, Young Adult series.

The Keeper of the Stones introduces readers to the world of Rhuaddan, another world that exists in parallel to our own. It is a world torn to shreds by war, and Jake West belongs to a rare clan of humans who have been blessed — or cursed — with the ability to travel between this world and our own. Jake and his friend Ben discover this rare talent while rummaging through Jake’s grandfather’s attic. The results are catastrophic — and adventurous! The novel leads the reader into a world of high fantasy, a quest-driven journey of these two human boys through a non-human world as they seek to protect stones which could lead to the destruction of worlds. I will leave the reader to discover the consequences and ending themselves (hint: there are two more books in the series!)

This Jake West novel would appeal to those who enjoyed the classic, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and the rest of the Narnia novels, as well as those who appreciate the classic fantasy realms in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels. The Jake West trilogy draws from both of these classic series, producing a narrative along similar lines; though, of course, the world of Rhuaddan is unique.

The story aside, Webb’s prose is smooth and error-free. Some parts feel plodding, offering — in this reader’s view — a little too much exposition that does not add to the characters’ development or the development of the story. Its pacing was slower than this reader would have liked; in several chapters I wished for less exposition and world-building, and a more rapid unfolding of Jake and Ben’s story. But, this is likely because world-building is not a particular favorite subject; fantasy is not my cup of tea in general. That said, Webb provides ample world-building and a fully fleshed out landscape for the fantasy reader; as a historian I deeply appreciated the attention to Rhuaddan’s past to understand its present. Overall, Webb’s writing is sound and its language is well-suited to its audience of young adults.

Now, onto Book Two…