Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Perilous Times

I couldn’t resist the lure of this book. A little bit Prachett, a little bit of influence from the BBC’s Merlin TV show (if you know where to look), a plot that simultaneously does and doesn’t sound like a good Arthuriana tale (which are usually the best ones!), an admonishment against the older generations (ancient, even) for their inaction and misdeeds, and a rallying cry for the younger generations to not let history repeat itself once more and that if no one else is going to step forward and take up the mantle of leadership then it’s up to you to make sure it gets done instead of just relying on someone else to solve the world’s problems. It’s a call to action, to do something, even if all that something amounts to is a willingness to try.

Some reviewers are calling this a feminist take on the King Arthur legends. I beg to differ. It’s actually just a reflection of reality. There are more women on Earth than men. More females live past the age of 10 than males, which is 1.1 males born to 1 female babies born, on average. That 10% is accounting for the male mortality rate before the age of 10. Men also die earlier than women, on average. Wives tend to outlive their husbands, and so on. Since this book takes place in the future, who knows what the demography looks like? How many kids are people having? What’s the population pyramid look like? Do they even take the census anymore? Are kids dying in larger numbers earlier in life due to the dire climate conditions? Are people dying younger? Even in the present day, younger generations (or even me, a Gen-Xer) are sick and tired of old white men being in charge of everything, sitting around and talking about making laws but never actually making them; or, if they do, those laws aren’t the laws that really need to be passed and enforced.

Every nation is a swamp full of pollution, and every generation ends up just passing that pollution on down because problems like global climate change are complex concepts our minds can’t entirely wrap themselves around without first learning about global competence concepts first. The generations coming down the line in more liberal countries are already being taught about global competence, but in capitalist strongholds like the US we can’t even agree that every person is a person no matter what, so it’s no surprise global competence isn’t high up on our list of things to teach the kids (not that books teaching it wouldn’t just end up being banned someplace by some people anyway).

This book teaches all these lessons and more, with a great deal more wit and a lot less of a dour outlook than I just painted. I’m a pessimist through and through, but books like these make me smile and hope that eventually the old white people (for clarification, I’m white) who keep trying to fight to stay in office long past their expiration dates will eventually lose their power to make way for young people who are impassioned, ready to take action, and ready to lead so your average person can find it in them to look up to their governments again and to make the sacrifices that need to be made to make this world better for as many people as possible. It might be tough. It might hurt. It might mean a whole lot of compromise until we truly realize what works and what doesn’t. What matters the most is the willingness to put our differences aside and try.

You can’t help but love the characters in this book, both bad and good. Or, rather, not too bad and not entirely good. In this book all we have is people trying to survive. Sometimes that means doing stuff that’s not exactly nice. Sometimes it means doing something really messed up. Everyone is just trying to find a solution, even if that means doing unspeakable things.

Kay, Arthur’s foster brother, is the first character we meet. I can’t tell you how, because it’s a huge spoiler for the whole book. But it seems that Britain is in great peril, and he’s got to do something about it. That’s the vow he and select other knights of the Round Table made with Merlin over the dead body of King Arthur on the battlefield of Camlann. He’s straightforward, honest, chivalrous, gruff, and tends to go where the wind takes him. In his experience, he always ends up where he needs to be, somehow. He misses his beloved wife, fears Arthur ever coming back even as he misses the brother he once was, and hopes he never runs into Lancelot again because he hates that guy.

Mariam is the female protagonist of this book, and she’s splendid. She’s fed up. She’s frustrated with the world, with her friends, with every so-called “leader” who says they’re willing to work together to make the world a better place but somehow it just seems like history repeating, and no one but her seems to want to take any kind of solid action. She’s tired of waiting for someone else to save the day. She’s tired of watching the land and people die.

Lancelot is vain, complacent, and perfectly content to just follow orders. He hates the stories of him and Guinevere since he and Galahad had been committed, if secret, lovers. He doesn’t much care for valor, truth, or being straight with people. He’d rather just do as he’s told and look good doing it. He hates Kay as much as Kay hates him, if for different reasons.

Merlin is crazy as a loon, Arthur is an absolute boor, Morgan is chaotic neutral, Nimueh has her own sad story and agenda, and at some point Christopher Marlowe made a Faustian bargain.

The worldbuilding is absolutely apocalyptic and frightening, showing an all too possible world where global climate change has gone full-bore hellscape. You either have money and can live in skyscrapers far above the pollution or you live in tent cities or shanty towns. There is no middle ground.

There are puppets and puppet masters. It’s all about who’s pulling the strings.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All opinions, thoughts, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Arthuriana/Dark Comedy/Dystopian Fiction/Folklore Novel/Folklore Retelling/Literary Fiction/Paranormal Fantasy/Satire/Secret Society/Standalone Fantasy Novel/Urban Fantasy