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A review by thebooknerdscorner
Sword in the Stars by Cory McCarthy, A.R. Capetta
4.0
Ari, Merlin, and the rest of the gang have jumped back to ancient Camelot and are now faced with trying to avoid breaking the time continuum itself.
Ari Helix may have been able to stand up to the corrupt Mercer Corporation, but that doesn't mean that her life has gotten easier. In order to save the universe, Ari must go back to the past and steal King Arthur's Grail. Faced with the past versions of Arthur and Merlin, Ari and Merlin are stuck in a nasty situation in which every decision could affect the future as they know it.
I was a bit hesitant whether this book would be able to stand up to the first book in the series. Though it may not be as good as the first, it is still a very solid addition to Ari and Merlin's story that fills in a ton of blanks and answers questions that I had never even dreamed of thinking up.
One of the highlights of this book was how far it pushed the ambiguous nature of the King Arthur mythos. Many parts of his story change from version to version, which allowed the authors to really play with how King Arthur's life goes down. Some of my favorite parts were how the Lancelot and Gweneviere arc plays out, the secrets behind Merlin's elusive past, and why the Lady in the Lake is so bitter against everything. I feel that Capetta and McCarthy really took Arthur's story into their own hands and made a really creative narrative that both gives tribute to the original story's greatness as well as completely made it their own.
Despite there being less space travel in this second installment, this book definitely felt more sci-fi than the first one. The way that this book plays with time travel and the time continuum broke my mind at moments, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't brilliant the whole way through. I love the fact that Merlin is some crazy time wizard and the way that this fact connects into his past as well as the events that go down in "Once & Future."
The ending to this book was actually much less tragic than I thought it was going to be. This was honestly a huge relief, and it didn't even disappoint me. Some things wrapped up a little quickly, but I was mostly satisfied with the events that occurred in the last few chapters in this book. And hey, I'm just glad they gave us all the dirt on Merlin's patchy memories and his unexplained past. Also, Ari and Gwen even get the happily ever after they deserve (despite some of the odd things that they are stuck to live with forever), so that was a huge relief!
Overall, "The Sword in the Stars" was a great conclusion to this wonderful duology that retells the myth of King Arthur in a fun space opera with plenty of time travel shenanigans. I really came to care about Ari, Merlin, Gwen, and the rest of the gang in this series, and I am glad that most of them got the happy endings they deserve. The humorous writing, the queernormative universe, and the crazy time travel elements are some of my favorite parts of this series. I really enjoyed these books, so I am really curious to see what else these two have written and if I would like their other work just as much.
Ari Helix may have been able to stand up to the corrupt Mercer Corporation, but that doesn't mean that her life has gotten easier. In order to save the universe, Ari must go back to the past and steal King Arthur's Grail. Faced with the past versions of Arthur and Merlin, Ari and Merlin are stuck in a nasty situation in which every decision could affect the future as they know it.
I was a bit hesitant whether this book would be able to stand up to the first book in the series. Though it may not be as good as the first, it is still a very solid addition to Ari and Merlin's story that fills in a ton of blanks and answers questions that I had never even dreamed of thinking up.
One of the highlights of this book was how far it pushed the ambiguous nature of the King Arthur mythos. Many parts of his story change from version to version, which allowed the authors to really play with how King Arthur's life goes down. Some of my favorite parts were how the Lancelot and Gweneviere arc plays out, the secrets behind Merlin's elusive past, and why the Lady in the Lake is so bitter against everything. I feel that Capetta and McCarthy really took Arthur's story into their own hands and made a really creative narrative that both gives tribute to the original story's greatness as well as completely made it their own.
Despite there being less space travel in this second installment, this book definitely felt more sci-fi than the first one. The way that this book plays with time travel and the time continuum broke my mind at moments, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't brilliant the whole way through. I love the fact that Merlin is some crazy time wizard and the way that this fact connects into his past as well as the events that go down in "Once & Future."
The ending to this book was actually much less tragic than I thought it was going to be. This was honestly a huge relief, and it didn't even disappoint me. Some things wrapped up a little quickly, but I was mostly satisfied with the events that occurred in the last few chapters in this book. And hey, I'm just glad they gave us all the dirt on Merlin's patchy memories and his unexplained past. Also, Ari and Gwen even get the happily ever after they deserve (despite some of the odd things that they are stuck to live with forever), so that was a huge relief!
Overall, "The Sword in the Stars" was a great conclusion to this wonderful duology that retells the myth of King Arthur in a fun space opera with plenty of time travel shenanigans. I really came to care about Ari, Merlin, Gwen, and the rest of the gang in this series, and I am glad that most of them got the happy endings they deserve. The humorous writing, the queernormative universe, and the crazy time travel elements are some of my favorite parts of this series. I really enjoyed these books, so I am really curious to see what else these two have written and if I would like their other work just as much.