e-Audio, 10:55:26
Narrated by: Lauren FortgangRelease Date: March 26, 2019Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Read from: May 12-May 17, 2019Once & Future, #1Source: Library (Overdrive/ Libby)TW:For fans of: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Space, Re-tellings, LGBTQIAP+, Fantasy, YA, Sparkly CoversI’ve been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I’ve always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.
Now I’m done hiding.
My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.
When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.
No pressure.
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I heard about this I was super excited because it’s an King Arthur re-telling and you don’t get many of those, you know? And then I realized it was set in space and I knew even more that I needed it. But after reading this, those two together made up to be a little confusing….
Ari finds Excalibur and is ready to quit being the girl who’s run from the Mercer corporation for most of her life. Now she is ready to fight back. She has to. All while also becoming the newest reincarnation of King Arthur, breaking Merlin’s curse, and trying to stay alive.
I have to admit, I have it bad for re-tellings. Anytime I see that there’s a new one, I HAVE to get my hands on it in some way! And this one was no different. I liked the way it was so close to the legend and I REALLY liked that they made it gender-bent. So basically, they made the Legend THEIRS. That’s my favorite thing about re-tellings. Letting authors put their own twists and seeing what they come up with is always so awesome.
However, I did not care for the writing style. If I’m being honest, it was pretty obvious to me that the story was written by more than one person. I felt like I could feel the switches and jumping around in the story. It didn’t help that I was listening via audio, so I found myself having to rewind and figure out what was actually happening. I just felt all over the place and I didn’t care for that.
The number one thing I liked about this was the representation! This was full of rep we haven’t seen much in YA and I AM LIVING FOR IT. And it’s all shown on the page. Looking at this aspect only, this book was incredible and I’m happy to be able to recc it later on to my teens.
I also really loved the audio of this. It was more of a production than a book with the sounds effects and more. Even when something was said over a loud speaker it seemed that there was some type of feedback like there would be on a real one. It was the one thing that kept me entertained because after not loving the writing style, had this not been included I might have checked out.
Maybe I’m the black sheep, but I’m not sure if I want to read the next book. I added it to my TBR, but if the writing style happens to be the same, I may opt out. This one for me was just ok and it made me disappointed because I wanted to love it so much more.
Ari finds Excalibur and is ready to quit being the girl who’s run from the Mercer corporation for most of her life. Now she is ready to fight back. She has to. All while also becoming the newest reincarnation of King Arthur, breaking Merlin’s curse, and trying to stay alive.
I have to admit, I have it bad for re-tellings. Anytime I see that there’s a new one, I HAVE to get my hands on it in some way! And this one was no different. I liked the way it was so close to the legend and I REALLY liked that they made it gender-bent. So basically, they made the Legend THEIRS. That’s my favorite thing about re-tellings. Letting authors put their own twists and seeing what they come up with is always so awesome.
However, I did not care for the writing style. If I’m being honest, it was pretty obvious to me that the story was written by more than one person. I felt like I could feel the switches and jumping around in the story. It didn’t help that I was listening via audio, so I found myself having to rewind and figure out what was actually happening. I just felt all over the place and I didn’t care for that.
The number one thing I liked about this was the representation! This was full of rep we haven’t seen much in YA and I AM LIVING FOR IT. And it’s all shown on the page. Looking at this aspect only, this book was incredible and I’m happy to be able to recc it later on to my teens.
I also really loved the audio of this. It was more of a production than a book with the sounds effects and more. Even when something was said over a loud speaker it seemed that there was some type of feedback like there would be on a real one. It was the one thing that kept me entertained because after not loving the writing style, had this not been included I might have checked out.
Maybe I’m the black sheep, but I’m not sure if I want to read the next book. I added it to my TBR, but if the writing style happens to be the same, I may opt out. This one for me was just ok and it made me disappointed because I wanted to love it so much more.
Overall, I give this
