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A review by huwage
The Knights of Breton Court by Maurice Broaddus
1.0
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.