CBR Bingo: Review
When deciding what book to read next, I often read reviews of the book to see what I’m getting myself into. What’s somewhat interesting about this one is that it was actually a negative review that convinced me to read it. One particular reviewer didn’t like the book because it contained “so much climate activism”, “brief meat shaming”, “transgender characters”, and “reverse racism”, which was only successful in making me want to read it.
Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee is an Arthurian take on climate change. It utilizes a common mechanism within the Arthurian mythology – the idea that a dead king and his knights will be resurrected/reborn when there is a sufficient need. Set in a near-future England that has been strongly impacted by climate change and political corruption, we follow two specific knights, Kay (adopted brother to Arthur) and Lancelot. Kay was last awakened sometime in the 1950s, and upon awakening in the book’s timeline meets Mariam, a young woman who belongs to a feminist eco-terrorist group. She’s recently blown up a fracking facility and inadvertently released a dragon. Lancelot was last awakened a bit more recently (no exact date given, but by context it’s likely to be around the 1980s as he knows how to use a Walkman but not a credit card) and has been summoned by his acquaintance Marlowe (Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, who has made a deal with a shady entity for immortality) to slay the dragon and hunt down Kay.
I really liked the writing in this, and it was frequently very funny. Both Kay and Lancelot have moments where their experience with the modern world is amusing (one of my favourites being Kay’s thoughts on the meaning of “secure fracking facility”). It’s also an interesting take on what we do about climate change. Kay is eager to help set things to rights, but he’s confused on the steps he needs to take to do so. Mariam and her group are well-meaning, but ineffective in achieving their goals (partially because they can’t decide as a group what their objectives actually are).
I love Arthurian retellings, and this was a fresh take on the genre. This is Lee’s first and only novel, but I’d pick up anything he writes in future.