Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee
In Perilous Times, an immortal Knight of the Round Table faces his greatest challenge yet — to save a politically divided and rapidly warming world. Sir Kay, once a loyal companion of King Arthur, finds himself in a new reality where rising oceans, privatized armies, and foreign powers ruling Britain have become the norm. When he meets Mariam, a fighter against the broken system, they embark on a journey through a strange and dangerous land. As they confront dragons and Kay's old foe Lancelot, a magical plot of apocalyptic proportions unfolds. In this contemporary Arthurian retelling, Excalibur becomes the key to finding a true leader. With a cast of reimagined characters including Merlin, Morgan le Fay, and the Lady of the Lake, Perilous Times is a subversive and humorous fantasy adventure.
From the beginning, I loved the way Lee stitched together pieces of the Arthurian legend, injected with some freshness, with a near-enough-future to be recognizable. The emergence of Kay from the ground in the opening salvo is exactly the hook to pull you into, what is basically, a fantasy road trip adventure. Lee's dry humor is part of that newness, and he wields it with a practiced hand that added a wonderful dimension to these characters, particularly the ones resurrected from a much older tale. Kay is a fantastically developed character, with a grounded quality that made him feel as ancient as he was written. The addition of Mariam, a present-day fighter, rounded out Kay while allowing his tethered connection to the time in which he's awakened be best explored and relayed to the reader.
However, following their wonderful introductions, the narrative lost steam throughout the middle third of the book. While the bones of this story were really great, and I absolutely cared about the characters, their outcomes, and the unfolding events, the lost momentum never quite recovered in the last act. Part of the problem remains the thorn in my side that is present tense.
The choice of present tense for this narrative created a juxtaposition that interrupted the natural forward propulsion of the road-trip plot. With a plot-driven story, there is an inherent desire in the narrative itself to move forward, to propel characters towards their end destination. The use of present tense here, despite being handled better than by many authors, generated a false sense of urgency that paradoxically slowed the narrative down to a crawl, particularly in the second act. This created a sense of narrative weight that, rather than adding depth, resulted in a feeling of stagnation that hindered the story's natural momentum.
While I understand the appeal and rationale of deciding on present tense to convey the timeless or immortal nature of the characters, I have often found that this decision stifles a story that is, at its core, about journey and movement. The immediacy of the present tense might serve to highlight the actions and emotions of the characters in the now, but it can also tether the story too tightly to each moment, restricting the narrative flow and, in this case, undermining the forward motion that is central to a road-trip tale. In fact, part of the slowness in the middle could potentially stem from too much being crammed into the small space of the second act only to be impeded by the tense choice. Dare I suggest that this might have been better served as a duology — with past-tense narratives, of course?
That being said, I did enjoy the characters he created and the ways in which he sought to expand and develop their personalities. Lee handled the agelessness of both Kay and Lancelot, along with all the long-standing feuds and disagreements, particularly well by having them viewed through a variety of points of view changes. He struck just the right note to signify how old they are and convinced me of the ability given to them by Merlin to adapt quickly to the new and changed world in which they constantly find themselves. Kay was especially fantastic as the world-weary warrior.
A captivating Arthurian retelling, Perilous Times skillfully blended familiar legends with a near-future setting. Lee's adept use of dry humor and well-developed characters, Kay being the tired star of the show, brought depth and richness to the narrative. Although the story lost momentum in the middle section and the use of present tense hindered the flow, the characters and their interactions kept this debut above water. Despite its flaws, Perilous Times delivered a fairly entertaining fantasy adventure. I look forward to what this debut author has in store next.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
