Perilous Times

A Novel

By: Thomas D. Lee

Narrated by: Nicola F. Delgado

An immortal Knight of the Round Table faces his greatest challenge yet—saving the politically polarized, rapidly warming world from itself—in this slyly funny contemporary take on Arthurian legend.

“An utterly original take on Arthurian myth.”—The Times

A POPSUGAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Legends don’t always live up to reality.

Being reborn as an immortal defender of the realm gets awfully tiring over the years—or at least that’s what Sir Kay’s thinking as he claws his way up from beneath the earth yet again.

Kay once rode alongside his brother, King Arthur, as a Knight of the Round Table. Since then, he has fought at Hastings and at Waterloo and in both World Wars. But now he finds himself in a strange new world where oceans have risen, the army’s been privatized, and half of Britain’s been sold to foreign powers. The dragon that’s running amok—that he can handle. The rest? He’s not so sure.

Mariam’s spent her life fighting what’s wrong with her country. But she’s just one ordinary person, up against a hopelessly broken system. So when she meets Kay, she dares to hope that the world has finally found the savior it needs.

Yet as the two travel through this bizarre and dangerous land, they discover that a magical plot of apocalyptic proportions is underway. And Kay’s too busy hunting dragons—and exchanging blows with his old enemy Lancelot—to figure out what to do about it.

In perilous times like these, the realm doesn’t just need a knight. It needs a true leader.

Luckily, Excalibur lies within reach.

But who will be fit to wield it?

With a cast that includes Merlin, Morgan le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and King Arthur himself—all reimagined in joyous, wickedly subversive fashion—Perilous Times is an Arthurian retelling that looks forward as much as it looks back . . . and a rollicking, deadpan-funny, surprisingly touching fantasy adventure.

Edit for length

Clever, but it DRAGS on. The story would benefit by editing out at least 1/4.
I wish I hadn't wasted a credit.
Normally, I shun any Arthurian bs, but this is modern & quirky- not the usual schlock...so make up your own mind.

A contemporary fantasy that is funny, smart & wildly relevant.

The reader is great & the characters are imbued with wit, and the gravitas of the topic hits home. This was a delightful read.

Fun read

A delightful and fun take on knights from the round table clashing with people in the new world.

Fascinating take on the Legends

I really really enjoyed this book!
Mr. Lee did a fascinating and wonderful job blending the people we know from history into a somewhat forward in time future that isn’t looking so good for humanity as a whole.
I loved the narrator’s voice, and she did an excellent job infusing distinct personalities and ways of speaking into each character.
The plot reads like something not so far in the future- that we’re barreling towards at a breakneck pace, but which will have no helpful (semi-helpful?) Druids, knights or Kings of old to rescue us. Are we doomed without them?
I think not.
It’ll just take more work.
Kudos for a very interesting book that sometimes made me want to strangle people, but who, in the end, got out of their own way and did what needed to be done.

Would love to know if Galahaut’s tree lived.

This book was, I thought, going to be full of tropes

I couldn’t have been more wrong! It was an original and fascinating new idea: Kay and Lancelot, Nimüe, and Morgan Le Fey as well as the “real writer of Shakespeare”, who are all brought to life when Britain is “in peril”. Or who have stayed alive for 100’s of years. (1,000yrs really) Not only are the names of knights pronounced correctly, the women members formerly not on the round table are shown to be both powerful and strong, while the men are strong, but not perhaps the brightest bulbs on the tree. Their oft-broken thousand year ‘sleep’ under their personal tree when called upon to save Britain leads to some fascinating insights about Merlin, as well as Arthur. I have a degree in medieval history, as an undergraduate, and I was fascinated by the new ideas awaiting Kay and others as they confront their beliefs, climate change, pollution and other problems of the modern world.