They say ‘old soldiers never die’ – and in Sir Kay’s case, the ballad can be taken literally. For hundreds of years Kay and his fellow knights of the round table have been woken from their long slumber whenever Britain had need of them; they fought at Agincourt and at the Somme. But now a dragon has been seen for the first time in centuries, the realm is more divided than ever, and what’s worse, there are rumours of Arthur himself returning. Kay just wants to go back to sleep. And Kay is not the only ancient thing to come crawling up out of the ground; Lancelot is back as well, with orders to track down Kay and stop him from doing anything stupid. Mixing Arthurian legend with contemporary fantasy, this sharply witty and relevant debut novel will delight fans of Terry Pratchett and Ben Aaronovitch.
Thomas D. Lee is an author of fantastical and historical fiction. In 2019 he completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing. He has now embarked upon a PhD at the same institution, specialising in queer interpretations of the Arthurian mythos. He frequently considers emulating Merlin and becoming a hermit in the woods who speaks only in riddles.
My thoughts: I freaking loved this book, it’s brilliant. Funny, clever, the right amount of silly, entertaining and a warning too. I loved Mariam, the next Queen of the Britons, who doesn’t really want it, but destiny (or Nimue, Lady of the Lake) says otherwise.
Kay, Arthur’s older and very tired foster brother, doesn’t really want to be dragged from the mud again to save Britain. But that’s the deal, so here he is trudging around with his sword and shield, defending those in peril. And then there’s Lancelot, who if he thought about it would probably skip this too. And Kit Marlowe – who really should know better than to make deals with the devil.
Honestly, it’s a total hoot. There’s a dragon, and Merlin, who may have done too many drugs over his thousands of years of life, he’s not much use. Morgan le Fay pops up as well, all ready to drag Arthur from Avalon. Having forgotten what a pain he can be.
There’s a stark ecological warning in there too, the poisoned earth, the air, the vanished birds and animals, we need to do better. Mariam meets Kay while blowing up a fracking site, dragging all the trapped hydrocarbons from under the soil is not the way. We need to do better or maybe Britain’s heroes won’t be resting easy for long.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Marc Scott was born and raised in the heart of the East End of London. He spent more than 25 years working in the video and film industry, including a 12-month spell on a project in Los Angeles. More recently he has been involved with assisting at the rehabilitation section of the UK court service, working predominantly with young offenders. It was here where he met the people that would inspire him to write his first novel House of Straw.He is unapologetic for the dark backdrop and raw brutality in his books. ‘You can’t sugar-coat some of these damaged individuals that live in a broken society and make excuses for them.’ he says. ‘Not everyone wants the chance to redeem themselves.’His gritty writing style has earned him much praise from reviewers and bloggers. The second book in his trilogy, House of Sticks, will be available later this year. A story that Marc describes as, ‘An even darker and more twisted journey into the depths of depravity.’Marc lives in Halstead in England. He has a son and two daughters, who, he says, have given him the proudest moments in his life. He lists his favourite author as Kazuo Ishiguro, and his favourite book as ‘Birdy’ by William Wharton. He sums up his reading choices with a method which he applies to his own works. ‘When I read a book, I want to feel like a bystander, watching on, as an ‘extra’ as everything unfolds. If any of the characters in the book are bland and don’t affect you in some way, the author has wasted an opportunity.’
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