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A review by jonknightknighthunterbooks
Blackheart Knights by Laure Eve
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
A slightly silly, slightly spicy, cyber-medieval action romp.
The structure is neat and keeps up the pace, though the ending feels a little rushed. And in retrospect, the first person POVs that make up one timeline are somewhat torturously designed to stop the protagonist thinking about her motives or ultimate goal, since that's all juicy reveals for the endgame.
Future London is a set dressing, with just enough detail to justify celebrity gladiator-knights, designed to provide trial by combat, but not quite enough detail to make it feel grounded in real London. (Split radially, into 7 sectors!? Hah!) That said, the Knights and their e-bikes are undeniably cool.
I'm not convinced that the King Arthur parallels were particularly helpful. If you're going to use so little of the source material, I'd be inclined to make it an inference, rather than reuse 3 character names but no more. (This _might_ just be me being dense/not familiar enough with the particular version the author was drawing on.)
The structure is neat and keeps up the pace, though the ending feels a little rushed. And in retrospect, the first person POVs that make up one timeline are somewhat torturously designed to stop the protagonist thinking about her motives or ultimate goal, since that's all juicy reveals for the endgame.
Future London is a set dressing, with just enough detail to justify celebrity gladiator-knights, designed to provide trial by combat, but not quite enough detail to make it feel grounded in real London. (Split radially, into 7 sectors!? Hah!) That said, the Knights and their e-bikes are undeniably cool.
I'm not convinced that the King Arthur parallels were particularly helpful. If you're going to use so little of the source material, I'd be inclined to make it an inference, rather than reuse 3 character names but no more. (This _might_ just be me being dense/not familiar enough with the particular version the author was drawing on.)