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A review by snowreo
Once & Future by Cory McCarthy, A.R. Capetta
5.0
any time i pick up a book that starts with “james patterson presents” i know it’s about to be bomb as HELL.
i impulsively picked up this book at my local barnes n nobles because i had just finished merlin and my heart was yearning to go back to camelot. i also have been wanting to get more into a sci-fi. so obviously this was the perfect choice! i was weary as i think the beginning of this book starts really fast and may be hard to latch onto but im so glad i kept going. because i can say this is certainly one of my favorite reads of year.
the representation! an arab wlw mc, a gay mc, a wlw love interest, a black nonbinary side character missing a hand, a black gay character, an ace side character. it was lovely seeing the legend of king arthur just a little more diverse. and on another note with the characters, their banter was amazing. the dialogue and the jokes flowed really naturally and didn’t feel forced. plus, found family for the win. it was also really easy to see their motivations and their backstories, and to understand who they were.
i love how themes of capitalism and consumption, imperialism, gender and sexual identity, and climate change were introduced and adapted to fit the universe. it was an excellent piece of world building
the one thing i had a hard time with is gwen’s characterization. don’t get me wrong, i don’t dislike her. i also understand why being vulnerable and sharing her last is hard for her. but it just didn’t make sense to me that she would willingly offer all of her life story to kay, who she had only been intimate with out of grief and the sake of conceiving a child, and not ari, the woman she claimed to be in love with and whom she is married to.
also not that this is a bad thing but just a note when [redacted] died i felt my heart crush into a million little pieces. my boy
all in all it’s a lovely book and i cannot wait to pick up the sequel
i impulsively picked up this book at my local barnes n nobles because i had just finished merlin and my heart was yearning to go back to camelot. i also have been wanting to get more into a sci-fi. so obviously this was the perfect choice! i was weary as i think the beginning of this book starts really fast and may be hard to latch onto but im so glad i kept going. because i can say this is certainly one of my favorite reads of year.
the representation! an arab wlw mc, a gay mc, a wlw love interest, a black nonbinary side character missing a hand, a black gay character, an ace side character. it was lovely seeing the legend of king arthur just a little more diverse. and on another note with the characters, their banter was amazing. the dialogue and the jokes flowed really naturally and didn’t feel forced. plus, found family for the win. it was also really easy to see their motivations and their backstories, and to understand who they were.
i love how themes of capitalism and consumption, imperialism, gender and sexual identity, and climate change were introduced and adapted to fit the universe. it was an excellent piece of world building
the one thing i had a hard time with is gwen’s characterization. don’t get me wrong, i don’t dislike her. i also understand why being vulnerable and sharing her last is hard for her. but it just didn’t make sense to me that she would willingly offer all of her life story to kay, who she had only been intimate with out of grief and the sake of conceiving a child, and not ari, the woman she claimed to be in love with and whom she is married to.
also not that this is a bad thing but just a note when [redacted] died i felt my heart crush into a million little pieces. my boy
all in all it’s a lovely book and i cannot wait to pick up the sequel