Whenever I am asked, “What is the greatest movie you have ever seen from the MCU?” Up until Black Panther, I would have answered Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
“Mrs. Y, um, you’re reviewing books. Remember?”
Yes, I remember inner voice but, I’m making a point about elevation to genres and tropes. The reason that I would have chosen the second Captain America movie, aside from its high regard, was because it wasn’t relying only on superhero cliché to make a point. It had intrigue, it had betrayal, plot twists, and spies, along with the superhero stuff that we all know from comics. I bring this up to say Keith W. Willis did for Fantasy novels, what Captain America 2 did for comic book movies. I found a refreshing and elevated idea in the world of the imaginary.
Gather your golden crowns together, get yourself a dragon to run from and whatever you do, do not tick off Marissa; she hits back! This is a review of Keith W. Willis’s Novel “Traitor Knight”
Opinion
As some of you may know, with much gratitude and appreciation I surpassed 2000 Twitter followers. In honor of that, I ran a giveaway for a free review and purchasing without asking for anything of the book, and Keith won! Congratulations Keith!
And Keith presented me the link to this book and it’s not expensive. For $2.99 I was treated to a whole lot of fun.
Our story is a tale of high fantasy set in a land where magic exists, knights are a thing, and there are law and order. Along with that are elements that make the anchoring of this world similar to that of other fantasy novels. There are dwarves, dragons, and debauchery among all that this story is. But where Keith is not like the other authors of this genre, comes from his character crafting and dialogue.
The characters are unique all have their own point of view, all are balanced and talk well. The dialogue even when it’s dark can move to lighter topics, and for the most part, this is a positive book. I loved that about it.
There is only one issue with the book that can be considered a criticism and it lies in the release of tension during specific interactions after very specific situations. Let me preface this properly because I do not want anyone to think I hate levity in my books. I adore lightheartedness, I love humor and jokes in books. It’s what makes the tension of intense scenes ease, and enables the pacing to feel more comfortable. However, for “Traitor Knight” the tension is dissipated rather quickly with some clever jokes and a lot of laughing. Not like chuckle laughing, I’m referring to tears rolling down faces, hearty laughing and some easy moments that fill the gap after the more serious situation has occurred. Sometimes, it’s jarring to go from serious to light that fast. Other times, it’s funny and reminiscent of the old “Mentos” commercials in the 90s, or to you old timey folks who remember classic Hollywood, it is very “Errol Flynn” in Robin Hood with cheeky and fun things going on.
With that being my only criticism, let’s get into the really good parts of this book. For one, its how Keith built up the world he did and did not cram it down anyone’s throat. I didn’t need a map to follow the story. The ideas with Dragons was presented in an easy to understand the method, and there wasn’t the need of any odd things to explain it. The methods of magic also were presented with a simple touch of grace, and nothing was complicated.
Secondly, I had to work really hard to find a typo or grammatical error, and it was nil. Whoever edited this book did a marvelous job, and really should be commended for their hard work. Keith has places of grammatical blubber built into the dialogue, but I don’t count that stuff as grammatical errors as much as accents. I enjoyed that his characters had accents. I also enjoy that everyone has a unique tone to speech.
Third, the cultures of the world and the different political intrigues in this story are riveting. If there was a side compendium on the political history of the world Keith built up, I’d have my nose in it to learn all about it. The countries and species all have different belief systems and their cultures are unique. There isn’t any bleed through from one kingdom to the other, everything has an original identity. Sure, there are dwarves, and they do drink and deal with metal, but the fact that they do that isn’t tired. It’s presented for the small time it’s on the pages, with a unique twist. Apparently dwarven brew in this world is akin to moonshine in the ’20s, tastes nasty at first and yet good enough to get very drunk on.
And by far, my favorite thing about this book is the chemistry the world has with the characters in it. I love the seamless mixing of a new land, with new characters when I’m introduced to something. What makes me so happy is that Keith doesn’t dumb down his book with characters that dialogue like puppets. Instead of “This is what politics is in our country” exposition potatoes, we have a delicious story with realistic responses and it’s exposed naturally as the tale comes to be. I despise exposition potatoes, there isn’t one in this story, which is WONDERFUL!
I think anyone from a third or fourth grader on up would understand this story and like it. It’s not raunchy, but it’s not too innocent either. It is just right. Seriously, aside from the one critique I had about some of the situations, this book is pretty close to perfect.
Score
So what do you give a pretty close to perfect, aside from a few issues? Well, for this tale of dragons, politics, spies, and so much more, I’m giving it a beautiful 92% which is on Goodreads and Amazon a 5-star rating.
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Reviews with images
A Fantastical Masterpiece
I met Keith 4 months ago, just before Christmas, at an holiday craft stand in Altamont. I was looking for a book to read while on vacation when I found this “Fantastical” masterpiece. It’s a real page turner while on the Virgin Islands!
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Fun fantasy with political intrigue and dragonish problems
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2019GR
... novel with a medieval setting is a quick and fun read. I loved the humour and the characters
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2017