Once & Future cover art

Once & Future

Once & Future, Book 1

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King Arthur as you've never imagined! Once & Future retells the popular legend with the once and future king as a teenage girl - and she has a universe to save.

I've been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I've always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.

Now, I'm done hiding.

My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard and a revolution to start.

When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together, they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.

No pressure.

©2019 Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Arthurian Magic Royalty
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Once and Future feels very much like the grown-up, transgressive interpretation of a poorly remembered, nostalgia-infused, Saturday morning cartoon that you loved as a child. Apart from a few clangers in the dialogue, where key facts about the characters are told rather than shown, and the naming of more than a few isms sit very incongruously within the otherwise natural world-building and get blurted out and immediately date the text, the story is very cleverly balanced, with what at first seems like odd weighting given to some characters and not others, evening out by the end. In fact, I can even see an argument that the book is structured so well, really few characters stand out from the group, despite it being a story about the rise of a hero. The book is gentle, sensitive, kind and indignant, and throws a few curves to stop it staying predictable. The narration is brilliant, and lends a lot of humour, tenderness and blossoming to the story that might not have come across just from the text. Very fun, and in some places, laugh out loud funny.

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