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Knights of Breton Court #1-3
The Knights of Breton Court
The Wire meets Excalibur in this stunning urban fantasy.
From the drug gangs of downtown Indianapolis, the one true king will arise.
The King Arthur myth gets dramatically retold through the eyes of street hustler King, as he tries to unite the crack dealers, gangbangers and the monsters lurking within them to do the right thing.
From the drug gangs of downtown Indianapolis, the one true king will arise. The King Arthur myth gets dramatically retold through the eyes of street hustler King, as he tries to unite the crack dealers, gangbangers and the monsters lurking within them to do the right thing. Broaddus' debut is a stunning, edgy work, genuinely unlike anything you've ever read.
Collecting the sensational urban fantasy series, and comprising all three King Maker, King's Justice, and King's War.
File Urban Fantasy [ Street Gangs | Drug Wars | Ancient Bloodlines | Dragon Rising ]
From the drug gangs of downtown Indianapolis, the one true king will arise.
The King Arthur myth gets dramatically retold through the eyes of street hustler King, as he tries to unite the crack dealers, gangbangers and the monsters lurking within them to do the right thing.
From the drug gangs of downtown Indianapolis, the one true king will arise. The King Arthur myth gets dramatically retold through the eyes of street hustler King, as he tries to unite the crack dealers, gangbangers and the monsters lurking within them to do the right thing. Broaddus' debut is a stunning, edgy work, genuinely unlike anything you've ever read.
Collecting the sensational urban fantasy series, and comprising all three King Maker, King's Justice, and King's War.
File Urban Fantasy [ Street Gangs | Drug Wars | Ancient Bloodlines | Dragon Rising ]
874 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
8 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 4, 2016
A confusing and disappointing read.
I was intrigued by the concept of the book, but swiftly put off by the inconsistent and wayward description, and lack of any coherent narrative. The book jumps from one character to the next without ever contextualising where they are and their relationships with the previous characters. There is no proper description of the setting, nor of the apparent villains of the story and their roles. By the end of the book I managed to gather that the 'bad guys' are both local gang leaders, but which gang, what the gang did, and indeed any further information was missing entirely. Flashbacks appear at random, killing off characters who then proceed to continue unscathed through the rest of the narrative.
The book purports to follow the fortunes of 'King', the Arthur analogue. However King barely features in the book at all. When he does, it is seemingly at random, with no clear goal or motivation. New details about his life are dropped in willy-nilly with not context, and his actual character is utterly bland with no proper characterisation.
Furthermore the language and tone of the narration is very difficult to follow. So thick is the street slang used that there is little chance of understanding what is going on.
The fantasy aspects of the book are also inconsistent. The Green Man clearly has supernatural powers, which appear approximately twice and raise no comment from bystanders. Cannibalistic trolls and zombies appear from nowhere, elicit no horrified reaction, and are never fully dealt with. Dozens of apparent hints are dropped to fantastical events, but few are ever followed up.
In short, the book's narrative is incomprehensible and seemingly non-existent. The characters are one-dimensional, the setting is poor, the fantasy elements are inconsistent, and what few gems of description there are (and there are few) are lost in mountains of unintelligible drivel.
Broaddus fails to do the very basic task of clearly establishing his setting, characters, and plot at the beginning of the book. In failing to do so, his novel is a complete mess. Not worth the read by any means.
I was intrigued by the concept of the book, but swiftly put off by the inconsistent and wayward description, and lack of any coherent narrative. The book jumps from one character to the next without ever contextualising where they are and their relationships with the previous characters. There is no proper description of the setting, nor of the apparent villains of the story and their roles. By the end of the book I managed to gather that the 'bad guys' are both local gang leaders, but which gang, what the gang did, and indeed any further information was missing entirely. Flashbacks appear at random, killing off characters who then proceed to continue unscathed through the rest of the narrative.
The book purports to follow the fortunes of 'King', the Arthur analogue. However King barely features in the book at all. When he does, it is seemingly at random, with no clear goal or motivation. New details about his life are dropped in willy-nilly with not context, and his actual character is utterly bland with no proper characterisation.
Furthermore the language and tone of the narration is very difficult to follow. So thick is the street slang used that there is little chance of understanding what is going on.
The fantasy aspects of the book are also inconsistent. The Green Man clearly has supernatural powers, which appear approximately twice and raise no comment from bystanders. Cannibalistic trolls and zombies appear from nowhere, elicit no horrified reaction, and are never fully dealt with. Dozens of apparent hints are dropped to fantastical events, but few are ever followed up.
In short, the book's narrative is incomprehensible and seemingly non-existent. The characters are one-dimensional, the setting is poor, the fantasy elements are inconsistent, and what few gems of description there are (and there are few) are lost in mountains of unintelligible drivel.
Broaddus fails to do the very basic task of clearly establishing his setting, characters, and plot at the beginning of the book. In failing to do so, his novel is a complete mess. Not worth the read by any means.
June 19, 2017
I'm a total sucker for Arthurian legend stories in general, and Arthurian re-interpretations in particular, so I really wanted to love this series about the Arthurian legend playing itself out again among street gangs in Indianapolis. Unfortunately, the execution didn't live up to the promise of the concept. The writing itself was decent, but the plotting was entirely disjointed, and the characterization was pretty weak. There were elements of magic and fantasy, but they didn't really fit in with the rest of the story. For the most part, the setting seemed pretty firmly in the "real world" of a neighborhood of Indianapolis, but then, occasionally, a random troll or immortal fey lord shows up and does something clearly magical, and...no one really comments on it. You would think there would be some sort of "WTF why is there a troll ripping people up" reaction, or an "ah, as was foretold in legend, the trolls have returned" reaction, but instead, there's just...a troll, and no one remarks about it at all.
It didn't grab me, and I gave up partway through.
It didn't grab me, and I gave up partway through.
February 2, 2013
OK, first off - quite apart from the book itself, there are several problems with this omnibus edition which could be very easily solved by a proofreader. Seriously. Typos, missing words, substitutions ("yes" for "eyes", etc)... just a little bit of attention before printing, folks, it makes a BIG difference. Very frustrating.
Onto the writing: sadly this series seems to be one of those great ideas let down by uncertainty of execution. On the plus side: excellent premise - and worth keeping/re-reading just for that - a diverse and (reasonably) well thought out set of characters who are engaging (if not entirely 3D) enough that their realistically flawed behaviour has a genuine emotional impact, and a genuinely brave and original take on the Arthurian framework. A brilliant little study in human frailty. On the other hand, the story/stories read as if Broaddus can't quite work out what to do about the overtly magical component of the mythos, and the way those aspects (trolls, magic powers, the Fey etc) are written in is sporadic, inconsistent, and eventually lacking in credibility - when it should be the core of what's happening, it feels handwaved; when it could be there and best serving the story as simply "understood", it distracts from the action. The author veers wildly between bringing it into clear focus as important, and letting events pass without sufficient comment or explanation; while this works better in the last two books (more consistently unexplained), the overall lack of centrality means that the reader is often left not quite sure about what has happened and why. Things feel rushed through, skimped on, at times. Simple familiarity with the Arthurian mythos is not quite enough to carry the story - we do need to see a bit more of *what actually happens* from time to time. I would LOVE to see what these books might be like with a slightly more strenuous editor at the helm... a "director's re-cut", as it were... a bit of tightening here and fleshing out there and this could be a real belter of a series. It's merely good, when it could have been *excellent*.
That said, there is enough strength of thought and real promise here to make one think that this chap will be worth watching in future; I look forward to reading more of his work.
Onto the writing: sadly this series seems to be one of those great ideas let down by uncertainty of execution. On the plus side: excellent premise - and worth keeping/re-reading just for that - a diverse and (reasonably) well thought out set of characters who are engaging (if not entirely 3D) enough that their realistically flawed behaviour has a genuine emotional impact, and a genuinely brave and original take on the Arthurian framework. A brilliant little study in human frailty. On the other hand, the story/stories read as if Broaddus can't quite work out what to do about the overtly magical component of the mythos, and the way those aspects (trolls, magic powers, the Fey etc) are written in is sporadic, inconsistent, and eventually lacking in credibility - when it should be the core of what's happening, it feels handwaved; when it could be there and best serving the story as simply "understood", it distracts from the action. The author veers wildly between bringing it into clear focus as important, and letting events pass without sufficient comment or explanation; while this works better in the last two books (more consistently unexplained), the overall lack of centrality means that the reader is often left not quite sure about what has happened and why. Things feel rushed through, skimped on, at times. Simple familiarity with the Arthurian mythos is not quite enough to carry the story - we do need to see a bit more of *what actually happens* from time to time. I would LOVE to see what these books might be like with a slightly more strenuous editor at the helm... a "director's re-cut", as it were... a bit of tightening here and fleshing out there and this could be a real belter of a series. It's merely good, when it could have been *excellent*.
That said, there is enough strength of thought and real promise here to make one think that this chap will be worth watching in future; I look forward to reading more of his work.
September 26, 2012
King Maker
the introduction to the story was good. We learn a bit about Luther (this version’s Uther), the neighborhood, and the changes and adjustments from the traditional Arthurian Legend. As the story starts, you may find it a bit slow, but I was still on board. Until the author used each new chapter to introduce new character’s. It got ridiculous. It was hard to keep track of who was who, what gang they belonged to (if any at all). If they believed in magic, if they were magical, or if they thought other folks were just weird. We get it, life sucks in Brenton Court and everyone has a sad story. There was no need to actually tell everyone’s story. Especially those who you killed a page after you finished telling their sad tale. The focus on King (Arthur) doesn’t come until the end of the book. Along with the magic and the battle of good versus evil. By then I was still zoned out, barely cared about any of the character’s, and hoping the second book would be better.
King’s Justice
The same issues that plagued the first book continued on here, to many character’s. Way to many new people were introduced, it was once again hard to keep track of who is who, and what is what. The only thing that is clear, once again, is that life sucks for everybody. The magic was definitely an after thought, and for an Athurian Legend it seemed King (Arthur) was forgotten about.
King’s War
The story is wrapped up nice and neat. It is a true trilogy, the tale ends here. There is no big twist. Although there have been variations of the Authurian Legend they all end pretty much the same way, and this story is no exception.
They best way I can sum up this series is if I was pitching it to Hollywood I would say its the Wire meets King Arthur set in modern day Indianapolis. The problem is it lacks the drama and excitement of The Wire and the magic and mysticism of Camelot. It was a failed attempt, but a great idea.
the introduction to the story was good. We learn a bit about Luther (this version’s Uther), the neighborhood, and the changes and adjustments from the traditional Arthurian Legend. As the story starts, you may find it a bit slow, but I was still on board. Until the author used each new chapter to introduce new character’s. It got ridiculous. It was hard to keep track of who was who, what gang they belonged to (if any at all). If they believed in magic, if they were magical, or if they thought other folks were just weird. We get it, life sucks in Brenton Court and everyone has a sad story. There was no need to actually tell everyone’s story. Especially those who you killed a page after you finished telling their sad tale. The focus on King (Arthur) doesn’t come until the end of the book. Along with the magic and the battle of good versus evil. By then I was still zoned out, barely cared about any of the character’s, and hoping the second book would be better.
King’s Justice
The same issues that plagued the first book continued on here, to many character’s. Way to many new people were introduced, it was once again hard to keep track of who is who, and what is what. The only thing that is clear, once again, is that life sucks for everybody. The magic was definitely an after thought, and for an Athurian Legend it seemed King (Arthur) was forgotten about.
King’s War
The story is wrapped up nice and neat. It is a true trilogy, the tale ends here. There is no big twist. Although there have been variations of the Authurian Legend they all end pretty much the same way, and this story is no exception.
They best way I can sum up this series is if I was pitching it to Hollywood I would say its the Wire meets King Arthur set in modern day Indianapolis. The problem is it lacks the drama and excitement of The Wire and the magic and mysticism of Camelot. It was a failed attempt, but a great idea.
November 27, 2012
An intriguing premise (the King Arthur story re-told as an urban gangster epic) is unfortunately marred by extremely amateurish and inconsistent writing. I had to give up after five chapters.
December 31, 2022
I tried. This is the second book by this author I've read, and I just don't get on with his writing style. The first book of his I read was a novella that clearly had enough going on in it to be a full novel, so I thought maybe the disjointed flow and awkward, confusing dialogue came from too much being crammed into too short a story. But this, the first book of a trilogy, has the same problem. Lack of dialogue tags, endless head-hopping, and sudden flashbacks (denoted in my ebook copy by nothing more than a slightly different font size!) made it almost impossible to tell who was speaking, how any of these characters were related to each other, or what was going on at all.
March 17, 2022
Poetic and brutal retelling of the Arthurian legend. Come for the legend, stay for the lyrical prose.
September 17, 2016
Where to start with this book? The opening chapters of the first book in the Knights of Brenton Trilogy were really good. They catapulted the reader into a unique retelling of King Arthur set amidst a distinct urban sprawl with colorful characters each with their own story to tell - unfortunately the three books didn't progress from that perceived promise.
The narrative was largely incoherent. The surreal elements an after thought. The characters were 2 dimension (if that) and the writing was just bad. Too many times a POV would switch without reason or a paragraph would be inserted which would make no logical sense to what was happening at that particular moment.
I've reviewed the first two books separately and couldn't get through that final installment in King's War. There was just too much padding (filler content) and deviation from the story (at least what I THINK was the story...), forced fantastical scenes, and little that made sense / connected with this reader.
Rarely do I regret reading/investing the timing into a book. This, however is the exception to the rule. I had thought stepping away at the end of book 2 for 6 months prior to attempting to finish this collection would be beneficial but time did not heal this book - I've promptly put in my giveaway pile.
A great concept poorly executed.
The narrative was largely incoherent. The surreal elements an after thought. The characters were 2 dimension (if that) and the writing was just bad. Too many times a POV would switch without reason or a paragraph would be inserted which would make no logical sense to what was happening at that particular moment.
I've reviewed the first two books separately and couldn't get through that final installment in King's War. There was just too much padding (filler content) and deviation from the story (at least what I THINK was the story...), forced fantastical scenes, and little that made sense / connected with this reader.
Rarely do I regret reading/investing the timing into a book. This, however is the exception to the rule. I had thought stepping away at the end of book 2 for 6 months prior to attempting to finish this collection would be beneficial but time did not heal this book - I've promptly put in my giveaway pile.
A great concept poorly executed.
January 23, 2014
I love to read variations on the King Arthur story and I liked Broaddus' take very modern and interesting. I would have given it more stars but I felt the book had too much character development and not enough action. I really like character development but it was a little too much. I would like to read some more of his books though.
March 27, 2013
I liked the concept of the Wire meets King Arthur but in many parts book was too disjointed to follow and you kind of know how it will end.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews