Once & Future

This book is a riot! Ari is our main character, and she's King Arthur reborn, as these stories always go. Merlin is aging backwards, as he often is, and he wakes up this time as a teenager and groans. It's pretty hilarious. Arthur's knights are various characters, of various ethnicities and sexualities. This is a HELLA queer book, and it's great. We get bi, lesbian, gay, pan, omni - honestly it seems that in this future, people have just accepted that you'll love who you will love, gender be damned. One of the knights is even ace!

There is going to be a sequel, though I'm not sure when it's scheduled to be released. Not soon enough, is the real answer, in my opinion!

I realize I haven't said much about the actual plot, but - really. It's King Arthur and her knights, as queer teenagers, in space, fighting a giant corporation. That's really all you need to know. Go read it!

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

“We can play battles and knights and kings, but in the end, we just want to exist”

I'm so annoyed at this book because I really liked it but there was just one plotline from it that I absolutely hated. But to start off with what makes it so great:

Arthur retellings are one of my favourite retellings of all time purely because I was (still am) absolutely obsessed with the tv show merlin. So finding a queer and sci fi version of this was just so amazing. Not to mention this book is funny, light hearted and filled with action as well as vulnerable moments, flawed characters and easy to understand politics

However, if you were not familiar with the story I feel like the book would be a little too confusing. It's a YA/children's book so it's not overly complicated which you might love but you might also hate, so it definitely depends on the reader. The most annoying thing about the book though is the writer's plot choices:

Because who decides "oh my former partner is dead so let me make a baby with her adoptive brother because he was the closest thing to her"

Maybe it's just me but I was kinda horrified when it was revealed

Regardless the majority of the book I really enjoyed and am looking forward to reading the sequel soon