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The Winter Knight
Arthurian legends are reborn in this upbeat queer urban fantasy with a mystery at its heart
The knights of the round table are alive in Vancouver, but when one winds up dead, it’s clear the familiar stories have taken a left turn. Hildie, a Valkyrie and the investigator assigned to the case, wants to find the killer — and maybe figure her life out while she’s at it. On her short list of suspects is Wayne, an autistic college student and the reincarnation of Sir Gawain, who these days is just trying to survive in a world that wasn’t made for him. After finding himself at the scene of the crime, Wayne is pulled deeper into his medieval family history while trying to navigate a new relationship with the dean’s charming assistant, Burt — who also happens to be a prime murder suspect. To figure out the truth, Wayne and Hildie have to connect with dangerous forces: fallen knights, tricky runesmiths, the Wyrd Sisters of Gastown. And a hungry beast that stalks Wayne’s dreams.
The Winter Knight is a propulsive urban fairy tale and detective story with queer and trans heroes that asks what it means to be a myth, who gets to star in these tales, and ultimately, how we make our stories our own.
The knights of the round table are alive in Vancouver, but when one winds up dead, it’s clear the familiar stories have taken a left turn. Hildie, a Valkyrie and the investigator assigned to the case, wants to find the killer — and maybe figure her life out while she’s at it. On her short list of suspects is Wayne, an autistic college student and the reincarnation of Sir Gawain, who these days is just trying to survive in a world that wasn’t made for him. After finding himself at the scene of the crime, Wayne is pulled deeper into his medieval family history while trying to navigate a new relationship with the dean’s charming assistant, Burt — who also happens to be a prime murder suspect. To figure out the truth, Wayne and Hildie have to connect with dangerous forces: fallen knights, tricky runesmiths, the Wyrd Sisters of Gastown. And a hungry beast that stalks Wayne’s dreams.
The Winter Knight is a propulsive urban fairy tale and detective story with queer and trans heroes that asks what it means to be a myth, who gets to star in these tales, and ultimately, how we make our stories our own.
368 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2023
About the author
Jes Battis
18 books160 followersJes Battis (they/them) is the author of THE WINTER KNIGHT (April 2023), the OCCULT SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR series, and the PARALLEL PARKS series. Jes writes in the areas of urban fantasy, horror, and mystery/thriller. They also teach literature and creative writing in the Canadian prairies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
April 6, 2023
I wanted to love this book, but enjoyment started low and just kept plummeting. Mainly due to the flat and completely unengaging narration of Wayne's chapters, which seemed to come from a completely different book. And oh the endless pop culture references. Ready Player One has a lot to answer for. I didn't care about the murders because I never once believed the author cared. They were just there as an excuse to tell a rather generic story. In the end, I kept reading in the hopes it would explain why and how valkyries were involved in an Arthurian story. Sadly, no answer was given.
Really nice cover, though.
Really nice cover, though.
April 4, 2023
Absolutely loved this! Rtc
REVIEW
HIGHLIGHTS
~there’s a kelpie in the lobby
~that office is a FLAGRANT health-code violation
~a most unconventional means of storing swords
~FOLLOW THAT FOX
~masquerade etiquette
~unexpected Arthurian OT3: I ship it
~MEGA POINTS for knowing the correct term for a unicorn horn!
Here’s the thing: I don’t like detective stories and I don’t really care for Arthurian legend.
But I freaking loved THIS.
This? Is going straight onto my Best of 2023 list.
Investigative urban fantasy is a pretty big and well-established genre, but despite its premise, The Winter Knight doesn’t fit the template. It doesn’t have the breakneck pacing of something like the Kate Daniels series, nor the blunt-and-punchy, action-story prose you might expect. The slower pace allows Battis’ debut to be more introspective and descriptive than is typical for murder-mystery urban fantasy; it’s richer, deeper, and more thoughtful.
Which very much means that you’re going to be disappointed if you pick this up looking for a fast, easy, high-thrills read. But I think readers who approach it knowing what to expect are likely to enjoy the hell out of it.
Because this book is honestly beautiful. I was not expecting something so…soft? But not soft like cosy, or low-stakes, or gentle. The Winter Knight is soft like the fur of the Questing Beast – softness that has hard, powerful muscle underneath it; softness that comes with teeth. Softness you want to rub your cheek against, but which could drag you down and pull you under and might just be the last thing you ever see.
…I’m not making sense, am I? Let me start again.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
REVIEW
HIGHLIGHTS
~there’s a kelpie in the lobby
~that office is a FLAGRANT health-code violation
~a most unconventional means of storing swords
~FOLLOW THAT FOX
~masquerade etiquette
~unexpected Arthurian OT3: I ship it
~MEGA POINTS for knowing the correct term for a unicorn horn!
Here’s the thing: I don’t like detective stories and I don’t really care for Arthurian legend.
But I freaking loved THIS.
This? Is going straight onto my Best of 2023 list.
Her notes indicated that it had been about love, not magic, though they were so often the same.
Investigative urban fantasy is a pretty big and well-established genre, but despite its premise, The Winter Knight doesn’t fit the template. It doesn’t have the breakneck pacing of something like the Kate Daniels series, nor the blunt-and-punchy, action-story prose you might expect. The slower pace allows Battis’ debut to be more introspective and descriptive than is typical for murder-mystery urban fantasy; it’s richer, deeper, and more thoughtful.
Which very much means that you’re going to be disappointed if you pick this up looking for a fast, easy, high-thrills read. But I think readers who approach it knowing what to expect are likely to enjoy the hell out of it.
Because this book is honestly beautiful. I was not expecting something so…soft? But not soft like cosy, or low-stakes, or gentle. The Winter Knight is soft like the fur of the Questing Beast – softness that has hard, powerful muscle underneath it; softness that comes with teeth. Softness you want to rub your cheek against, but which could drag you down and pull you under and might just be the last thing you ever see.
If you froze that moment, it would throb with happiness and pain, like a bloody knee.
…I’m not making sense, am I? Let me start again.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
December 18, 2023
Unique world building and a great cast of neurodiverse and queer characters had me devouring this urban fantasy remix of the King Arthur tale. I really enjoyed this one, especially on audio. The autism and anxiety rep was excellent. Perfect for fans of books like Gwen and Art are not in love by Lex Croucher. I'm looking forward to reading more by Canadian author Jes Battis!
Shelved as 'dnf-2023'
November 11, 2023DNF @ 17%
So.... there narrators in this audio don't have similar pacing, and that's a distracting start.
There's also so much 2022/2023 pop culture celebrities and moments in this that it's so distracting from the fantasy plotline and characters.
So.... there narrators in this audio don't have similar pacing, and that's a distracting start.
There's also so much 2022/2023 pop culture celebrities and moments in this that it's so distracting from the fantasy plotline and characters.
February 10, 2023
The Winter Knight is an engaging and upbeat urban fantasy that I couldn’t help but get sucked into!
Tying familiar Arthurian legends into urban fantasy, this book was a very fresh and different read for me! The worldbuilding and relationship with legends was very interesting to me and I enjoyed seeing how the characters fit into an urban setting! At its core, it’s a story about characters caught in a cycle, and how they respond when things go awry! Some of the more mystery/detective bits went over my head a little bit, but it didn’t impact my enjoyment of the story at all!! I can’t speak for other readers, but every turn this story took was a surprise to me, and I was fairly satisfied with the overall execution and ending!
I absolutely adored how unapologetically queer this story was, and it was so amazing to see so many meaningful discussions and reflections on sexuality (or lack of) on page! I think the thing that resonated with me the most, however, was the portrayal of autism! I saw myself so much in Wayne and all of his little habits and likes and dislikes and fears, and seeing some of my own thoughts put into words was really special! I will definitely be thinking about this story for a long time because of that!
I will just tack on a note here that this story is a bit heavy on pop culture references. For the most part, it didn’t bother me (save for the one HP reference, which is usually an auto-DNF for me), but I do know that there are a lot of readers who aren’t fans of pop culture-heavy stories, so I’m just adding that here!
Overall, I loved this book a lot, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of urban fantasy and Arthurian legends!
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review through Netgalley!
Tying familiar Arthurian legends into urban fantasy, this book was a very fresh and different read for me! The worldbuilding and relationship with legends was very interesting to me and I enjoyed seeing how the characters fit into an urban setting! At its core, it’s a story about characters caught in a cycle, and how they respond when things go awry! Some of the more mystery/detective bits went over my head a little bit, but it didn’t impact my enjoyment of the story at all!! I can’t speak for other readers, but every turn this story took was a surprise to me, and I was fairly satisfied with the overall execution and ending!
I absolutely adored how unapologetically queer this story was, and it was so amazing to see so many meaningful discussions and reflections on sexuality (or lack of) on page! I think the thing that resonated with me the most, however, was the portrayal of autism! I saw myself so much in Wayne and all of his little habits and likes and dislikes and fears, and seeing some of my own thoughts put into words was really special! I will definitely be thinking about this story for a long time because of that!
I will just tack on a note here that this story is a bit heavy on pop culture references. For the most part, it didn’t bother me (save for the one HP reference, which is usually an auto-DNF for me), but I do know that there are a lot of readers who aren’t fans of pop culture-heavy stories, so I’m just adding that here!
Overall, I loved this book a lot, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of urban fantasy and Arthurian legends!
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review through Netgalley!
May 9, 2023
So, imagine a bunch of figures from legends and myths, reborn repeatedly, and how living in Vancouver, working as Professors, investigators, going to school....in essence, living mundane existences, but there's a constant vein of the unusual, the arcane, the frightening about them.
Hildie, a valkyrie, is called into investigate the decapitation of a knight (formerly of the Round Table), then the murder of a copywriter, another knight. There's some sort of plot afoot amongst the many-times reincarnated royalty, goddesses and others. And the plot goes back a long way, involving a wonderfully characterized autistic knight trying to figure out how to make it through each day and start a romance, and leading Hildie, a messy thirty-something, through the lives and intrigues of the uncanny folk.
Lots of great ideas here, with Jes Battis weaving lots of folklore and legend and myth together skillfully, and placing it in a contemporary setting. I just wished I had been able to latch onto either Hildie or Wayne so that I would have cared about them, or about the outcome of the murder investigation.
Hildie, a valkyrie, is called into investigate the decapitation of a knight (formerly of the Round Table), then the murder of a copywriter, another knight. There's some sort of plot afoot amongst the many-times reincarnated royalty, goddesses and others. And the plot goes back a long way, involving a wonderfully characterized autistic knight trying to figure out how to make it through each day and start a romance, and leading Hildie, a messy thirty-something, through the lives and intrigues of the uncanny folk.
Lots of great ideas here, with Jes Battis weaving lots of folklore and legend and myth together skillfully, and placing it in a contemporary setting. I just wished I had been able to latch onto either Hildie or Wayne so that I would have cared about them, or about the outcome of the murder investigation.
January 4, 2023
A very different fantasy book, set in modern day Vancouver, with reincarnated Arthurian knights and Valkyries. We follow Hildie, a reluctant Valkyrie, as she investigates the gruesome murder of a knight. We also follow Wayne, the latest version of Sir Gawain, as he tries to navigate this present life as an autistic college student. I find the writing very atmospheric. The threads can be challenging to follow sometimes. The cast of characters is quite large. It does help if one is somewhat familiar with the Arthurian stories. But in the end, they all come together nicely. At its heart, this book is a murder mystery with a veil of myth and magic.
**Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review!**
**Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review!**
Read
January 30, 2023DNF. At 7% I know nothing about the emerging conflict or character motivations, there have already been two twee references to technology and generational attitudes, and the voice (despite promising to be adult fantasy) is pretty jeuvenille. Plus the infodumps are out of control. I usually cut a lot of slack on that last aspect, but seeing as how it's just another symptom of a larger disease... sigh. The description sounded like a dream come true, and the cover art is amazing, but I'm not going to try to force myself to enjoy something. I'm really bummed.
January 15, 2024
If you push on the logic too hard, it doesn't work. But let it be about possibility and potential, and it works beautifully.
July 5, 2023
Why I read it: Arthurian fiction is in my wheelhouse of interest. So is queer fiction. Imagine the joy I felt when I heard this was coming out, a modern-day murder mystery with characters right out of Arthurian myth. Imagine how excited I was to heard one of the protagonists was Wayne, who I immediately pegged for Gawain. The Green Knight is by far my favourite story from the age of chivalry (other than, maybe, Bisclavret), so I got this as soon as it came out. I thought it would be perfect for me, made for me.
Thoughts: well, this book was maybe not for me. Or at least not entirely.
I love the cyclical nature of myth, I especially love reincarnation stories where people are basically just themselves all the time and they have to deal with that and with their choices, and with whether they fall into the same old patterns or not. The Arthurian stories are especially poised for this sort of telling and retelling, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so grounded in the present day. Every mention of the music Wayne and Kai listen to made me roll my eyes, as did every mention of Twitter and Discord.
Maybe I'm too much of a snob (entirely possible) but I always think books that take place in the present and show this via current pop culture references are dated almost as soon as they're published. I had the same problem with Yellowface, where the narrator talks about Twitter so much (Twitter threads, Twitter beef, Twitter harrassment and cancelling) as if Twitter wasn't a joke at this point of 2023, a shadow of its former self, which is probably not something that was happening at the time of writing, publishing timelines being what they are. It also reminds me of the whole Harry Potter reference thing with Red, White and Royal Blue (which I own in the HP-reference-edition, I'm pretty sure, but haven't read yet, so this commentary is based on second-hand knowledge), where your references can rapidly become incongruous with your overall message and/or personal stance. It was like that with The Winter Knight: the odds of Dua Lipa turning out to be a TERF are low, I grant you, but is that the sort of chance you want to take?
Moving on from that, the narrative style also didn't work for me, and I found my attention wandering. Part of it is because the style itself is kind of... stilted, I guess? It didn't flow very well, just felt like the author has fully internalised Gary Provost's "This sentence has five words" lesson in writing and will not derail from it. Gary Provost was right. You do need sentences of varying lengths. But they need. To flow. Prose just needs to work. Suppose the style in this one is clipped to match the sort of murder mystery feel, but it kinda wrecks the pacing and the flow and it kind of just... stressed me out to read.
There were also long passages of exposition and description that start with "The thing about [X] is that..." because there were a lot of things the author wanted to include in the story, which makes for a very densely-written 358 pages. Other books, even books I didn't particularly like, just flowed. I got into the rhythm of the thing and I went with it. With The Winter Knight, I just found myself repeatedly stalling. In fact, I started writing down things for this review as I was reading, because I had stalled yet again. I decided to make breakfast today, rather than let my husband deal with it, because I was stalling. I turned off any and all distractions so I could get through this book without further stalling, and even then I found different things to do (like baking bread; I love baking bread, and I especially love baking bread when I'm meant to be doing something else instead).
I do get why there's a lot of expository info dumping: there are a lot of characters to mention. Like, a lot a lot. There's a whole host of mythological characters, places, times, and events that get name-dropped or alluded to. But somehow, rather than build up this rich world of semi-fantasy and add depth to the modern day, it just feels sort of...lumpy and uneven and hard to digest. There are a few too many characters from myth, which leads to a lot of exposition and not much actually happening for long stretches of time.
I think this would have worked better if the author didn't want to show off their research by always alluding to a whole massive mythological cast of characters that barely make an appearance, but to be fair, if I had a nigh encyclopedic knowledge of Arthurian myth, I'd want to show it off too. But I would've loved to read this book with a smaller cast and a narrower scope, which would have led to tighter writing.
I also think the story is poorly served by the two points of view. One is a detective story and the other is a coming of age romance, but the tones are too similar in parts -- which happens when the author can't do voices and also both of your POV characters are anxious troubled messes -- while the topics are too different -- which makes sense, one's a borderline-alcoholic valkyrie cop, one is a student whose main focus is surviving college and navigating his relationships -- for the book to come together naturally. Not to mention, the action itself moves at a near-glacial pace, most of the time taken up by filler, like Wayne going to classes (about three, all up, for the entire book) that are each time relevant stuff about the Arthurian myth cycle. And the epilogue was just unnecessary.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut in spite of all of that naysaying, I did like it. It's by far not the worst thing I've ever read all the way through, and to be honest, the more I read it, the more tolerable the parts of it I didn't like became. The characters are all relatable, mythological beings though they may all be, but human at their core, because all the myths are human at their core. The stories and lais and poems are all about love, desire, hate, revenge, longing, home, questing, regret, family, friendship, trust, loyalty, resilience, fury, justice -- all things everyone experiences at some point or another, even if they never think about it as much as the characters in this book do.
And the characters themselves aren't just relatable, they're likeable, which is arguably more important. Gale was probably my favourite, just because that's the sort of chaotic/chill nuncle I want to be, the sort of life I want to lead, to be the enabler and the rejoicer even if I suffer for it. And Bert's apartment????? Phwoar. But maybe I'm biased, because I sure as hell recognised myself in his hobby-hoarding tendencies.
And the queer stuff: pretty top notch. I guess the benefit of having an enormous list of named characters is that they can represent a lot of different aspects of the human experience, cis and trans, ace or not, bi, gay, straight (I guess at least SOME of these characters must be straight, but I couldn't name a single one), or in a power throuple. There was also a lot of neurodivergence rep, which I liked. It was good, even though it wasn't -- and this is hard to explain -- my kind of queer lit.
But overall, it was good. Cinematic. Predictable at time, full of people saying trite reassuring things about how everyone deals with insecurities and doubts. I dunno. I didn't hate it, but I really wish it was a better book.
Would I read a sequel or the author's other works: probably not? Depends what they come out with next.
Thoughts: well, this book was maybe not for me. Or at least not entirely.
I love the cyclical nature of myth, I especially love reincarnation stories where people are basically just themselves all the time and they have to deal with that and with their choices, and with whether they fall into the same old patterns or not. The Arthurian stories are especially poised for this sort of telling and retelling, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so grounded in the present day. Every mention of the music Wayne and Kai listen to made me roll my eyes, as did every mention of Twitter and Discord.
Maybe I'm too much of a snob (entirely possible) but I always think books that take place in the present and show this via current pop culture references are dated almost as soon as they're published. I had the same problem with Yellowface, where the narrator talks about Twitter so much (Twitter threads, Twitter beef, Twitter harrassment and cancelling) as if Twitter wasn't a joke at this point of 2023, a shadow of its former self, which is probably not something that was happening at the time of writing, publishing timelines being what they are. It also reminds me of the whole Harry Potter reference thing with Red, White and Royal Blue (which I own in the HP-reference-edition, I'm pretty sure, but haven't read yet, so this commentary is based on second-hand knowledge), where your references can rapidly become incongruous with your overall message and/or personal stance. It was like that with The Winter Knight: the odds of Dua Lipa turning out to be a TERF are low, I grant you, but is that the sort of chance you want to take?
Moving on from that, the narrative style also didn't work for me, and I found my attention wandering. Part of it is because the style itself is kind of... stilted, I guess? It didn't flow very well, just felt like the author has fully internalised Gary Provost's "This sentence has five words" lesson in writing and will not derail from it. Gary Provost was right. You do need sentences of varying lengths. But they need. To flow. Prose just needs to work. Suppose the style in this one is clipped to match the sort of murder mystery feel, but it kinda wrecks the pacing and the flow and it kind of just... stressed me out to read.
There were also long passages of exposition and description that start with "The thing about [X] is that..." because there were a lot of things the author wanted to include in the story, which makes for a very densely-written 358 pages. Other books, even books I didn't particularly like, just flowed. I got into the rhythm of the thing and I went with it. With The Winter Knight, I just found myself repeatedly stalling. In fact, I started writing down things for this review as I was reading, because I had stalled yet again. I decided to make breakfast today, rather than let my husband deal with it, because I was stalling. I turned off any and all distractions so I could get through this book without further stalling, and even then I found different things to do (like baking bread; I love baking bread, and I especially love baking bread when I'm meant to be doing something else instead).
I do get why there's a lot of expository info dumping: there are a lot of characters to mention. Like, a lot a lot. There's a whole host of mythological characters, places, times, and events that get name-dropped or alluded to. But somehow, rather than build up this rich world of semi-fantasy and add depth to the modern day, it just feels sort of...lumpy and uneven and hard to digest. There are a few too many characters from myth, which leads to a lot of exposition and not much actually happening for long stretches of time.
I think this would have worked better if the author didn't want to show off their research by always alluding to a whole massive mythological cast of characters that barely make an appearance, but to be fair, if I had a nigh encyclopedic knowledge of Arthurian myth, I'd want to show it off too. But I would've loved to read this book with a smaller cast and a narrower scope, which would have led to tighter writing.
I also think the story is poorly served by the two points of view. One is a detective story and the other is a coming of age romance, but the tones are too similar in parts -- which happens when the author can't do voices and also both of your POV characters are anxious troubled messes -- while the topics are too different -- which makes sense, one's a borderline-alcoholic valkyrie cop, one is a student whose main focus is surviving college and navigating his relationships -- for the book to come together naturally. Not to mention, the action itself moves at a near-glacial pace, most of the time taken up by filler, like Wayne going to classes (about three, all up, for the entire book) that are each time relevant stuff about the Arthurian myth cycle. And the epilogue was just unnecessary.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut in spite of all of that naysaying, I did like it. It's by far not the worst thing I've ever read all the way through, and to be honest, the more I read it, the more tolerable the parts of it I didn't like became. The characters are all relatable, mythological beings though they may all be, but human at their core, because all the myths are human at their core. The stories and lais and poems are all about love, desire, hate, revenge, longing, home, questing, regret, family, friendship, trust, loyalty, resilience, fury, justice -- all things everyone experiences at some point or another, even if they never think about it as much as the characters in this book do.
And the characters themselves aren't just relatable, they're likeable, which is arguably more important. Gale was probably my favourite, just because that's the sort of chaotic/chill nuncle I want to be, the sort of life I want to lead, to be the enabler and the rejoicer even if I suffer for it. And Bert's apartment????? Phwoar. But maybe I'm biased, because I sure as hell recognised myself in his hobby-hoarding tendencies.
And the queer stuff: pretty top notch. I guess the benefit of having an enormous list of named characters is that they can represent a lot of different aspects of the human experience, cis and trans, ace or not, bi, gay, straight (I guess at least SOME of these characters must be straight, but I couldn't name a single one), or in a power throuple. There was also a lot of neurodivergence rep, which I liked. It was good, even though it wasn't -- and this is hard to explain -- my kind of queer lit.
But overall, it was good. Cinematic. Predictable at time, full of people saying trite reassuring things about how everyone deals with insecurities and doubts. I dunno. I didn't hate it, but I really wish it was a better book.
Would I read a sequel or the author's other works: probably not? Depends what they come out with next.
Want to read
March 14, 2023QUEER ARTHURIAN LEGEND!! I NEED IT!!
April 4, 2023
Advanced copy.
If you like Arthurian legend, Schitt’s Creek, and Vancouver, this book may be for you. Following Wayne, a young knight discovering his own story and Hildie, a Valkyrie solving a murder mystery, Battis reimagines the world of Camelot in modern Vancouver asking us to contemplate whether we are stuck in our stories or have agency to rewrite them. I enjoyed this novel more and more as I pressed forward into it and thought the reimagining was really well done. I did feel like I might have benefited more from a deeper knowledge of all the Arthurian legends before I got started, not to mention a working knowledge of the geography of Vancouver, but it was nothing that a simple web-search could not help me with.
If you like Arthurian legend, Schitt’s Creek, and Vancouver, this book may be for you. Following Wayne, a young knight discovering his own story and Hildie, a Valkyrie solving a murder mystery, Battis reimagines the world of Camelot in modern Vancouver asking us to contemplate whether we are stuck in our stories or have agency to rewrite them. I enjoyed this novel more and more as I pressed forward into it and thought the reimagining was really well done. I did feel like I might have benefited more from a deeper knowledge of all the Arthurian legends before I got started, not to mention a working knowledge of the geography of Vancouver, but it was nothing that a simple web-search could not help me with.
February 8, 2024
DNF'D the main characters are to juvenile. They are supposed to be adults but speak like teens.
Read
January 22, 2023Hildie is a Valkyrie, working to solve a murder as she investigates the newest incarnations of Arthurian legends, Wayne is one of those incarnations, of the knight Gawain. We follow both of them as they do their best to live in the world they were born into past and present.
A queer book about the Arthurian legend is something that I should have loved. And I did at first think I was going to have a new favorite book, Hildie is a plus size, (probably?) ace protagonist and Wayne and his best friend Kai are also queer. Wayne is also neurodivergent. I was incredibly excited to read about Hildie since plus sized protagonists aren't incredibly common.
I made it about a third of the way through, but I just could not take the pop culture references. Every time I came across one it yanked me fully out of the story whether I knew what was being referenced or not. If I didn't know it, I spent time debating if I should look it up. The story was compelling and doing a good job of mixing present day with the past without the references and vague pop culture nods would have not been as detrimental as the incredibly specific ones used. I kept trying to push myself to finish this book, I'd stop and then later think "Oh the references weren't so bad." so I'd start it again and be hit by yet another reference to Hayley Kiyoko, Euphoria, Sesame Street, Discord, etc. and in the end I decided I wasn't going to be able to finish this book.
The book has potential and if you're someone who isn't bothered by pop culture references then this may be a great queer fantasy for you.
Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
A queer book about the Arthurian legend is something that I should have loved. And I did at first think I was going to have a new favorite book, Hildie is a plus size, (probably?) ace protagonist and Wayne and his best friend Kai are also queer. Wayne is also neurodivergent. I was incredibly excited to read about Hildie since plus sized protagonists aren't incredibly common.
I made it about a third of the way through, but I just could not take the pop culture references. Every time I came across one it yanked me fully out of the story whether I knew what was being referenced or not. If I didn't know it, I spent time debating if I should look it up. The story was compelling and doing a good job of mixing present day with the past without the references and vague pop culture nods would have not been as detrimental as the incredibly specific ones used. I kept trying to push myself to finish this book, I'd stop and then later think "Oh the references weren't so bad." so I'd start it again and be hit by yet another reference to Hayley Kiyoko, Euphoria, Sesame Street, Discord, etc. and in the end I decided I wasn't going to be able to finish this book.
The book has potential and if you're someone who isn't bothered by pop culture references then this may be a great queer fantasy for you.
Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
December 9, 2022
This book was magic. Set against a very picturesque Vancouver backdrop, The Winter Knight blends myth and Arthurian legend with a rich urban fantasy.
Full disclosure I live in Vancouver, so the book came alive for me in a visceral way because of the setting. Wayne and Hildie, the two main protagonists, are at very different places into their lives but both are searching for how their places as myths blends in to their purpose and meaning.
Battis does a wonderful job weaving legends with a current modern plot and I couldn't put this book down.
Definitely recommend you check this one out!
Full disclosure I live in Vancouver, so the book came alive for me in a visceral way because of the setting. Wayne and Hildie, the two main protagonists, are at very different places into their lives but both are searching for how their places as myths blends in to their purpose and meaning.
Battis does a wonderful job weaving legends with a current modern plot and I couldn't put this book down.
Definitely recommend you check this one out!
February 25, 2023
The Winter Knight is a unique and creative story. The author has imagined a world where the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur, Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, etc., as well as lesser knights, are continuously reborn, with memories of their past lives, and displaying some aspects of their mythological selves. The Valkyries exist, and they can sense death but no longer choose who lives and dies. Rather, they are investigators. The three fates are present, running a secret hotel which is a sanctuary of sorts for mythological figures. In addition to knights and Valkyries, there are runesmiths.
If that was not enough, the author incorporates queer and neurodivergent characters. Hilde, one of the main Valkyries in the story, is bisexual. Kai, a young runesmith who plays a prominent role, is transgender, and also does an excellent job of melding ancient beliefs and practices with modern technology (computer coding). Wayne, the latest incarnation of Gawain, is on the autism spectrum and is also gay.
At the heart of the story is the quest to find oneself and figure out who you are, who you’re meant to be, and to accept yourself.
If that was not enough, the author incorporates queer and neurodivergent characters. Hilde, one of the main Valkyries in the story, is bisexual. Kai, a young runesmith who plays a prominent role, is transgender, and also does an excellent job of melding ancient beliefs and practices with modern technology (computer coding). Wayne, the latest incarnation of Gawain, is on the autism spectrum and is also gay.
At the heart of the story is the quest to find oneself and figure out who you are, who you’re meant to be, and to accept yourself.
May 12, 2023
This is a mega queering of Arthurian legend set in contemporary Vancouver. I enjoyed it, especially the beginning and ending. Kinda drug in the middle, but I enjoyed the characters enough to keep going.
Read
October 24, 2024I started this and it was the stupidest thing I've read in a hot minute and I will not finish it.
I never ever want to hear a Valkyrie whine about colonizers ever again.
The cover is pretty. That's all it has going for it.
I never ever want to hear a Valkyrie whine about colonizers ever again.
The cover is pretty. That's all it has going for it.
May 22, 2023
I'm not a fan of slow paced stories, but if you are, you might like this one. It's a Camelot reincarnation murder mystery story with a gay autistic main character.
June 8, 2024
Read and fantasy and liked it?? Unheard of for me.
3.5 - would have been a true 4 until the ending. @Garrett you need to read this (a) set in Vancouver and (b) to explain the end to me.
3.5 - would have been a true 4 until the ending. @Garrett you need to read this (a) set in Vancouver and (b) to explain the end to me.
Shelved as 'featured'
September 19, 2024Hildie from The Winter Knight is asexual!
https://www.tumblr.com/aspeccharacter...
https://www.tumblr.com/aspeccharacter...
November 7, 2024
this was a (k)nightmare
October 22, 2023
This book was teetering on a knife’s edge of DNF from about three chapters in but I kept getting tantalizing glimpses: once in a while, the author had really beautiful descriptive passages; Wayne is great; and I love reading stuff set in my home region (I seriously flipped out a bit when they were hitting my favourite haunts in Victoria). But for all that there’s a lot of surface-level representation here, the only person that really felt real, like their Diverse Identity was not just a token slapped on them, was Wayne. In particular, probably because I’m a chubby and active person who loves snacks, I found Hildie’s inner monologue bizarre and was irritated by some comments about Bert, for example Wayne being surprised that he would take the stairs because “[he] hadn’t seemed that body conscious.” WHAT. But there were a lot of identities that just didn’t match up with the people I have known with that identity in any meaningful way (alcohol overuse, one racialized parent, Ace-but-not-aro (okay the representation of the person’s experience of their orientation was similar to many friends’ descriptions…but the description of how it played out in their attempts to date felt off)
Also, it’s very Fantasy to have most of the characters’ actions that Matter take place in the final conflict, and for Wayne and Kai that really made sense. But it hurt to watch Hildie flail around accomplishing absolutely nothing until the last moment - and even then, she accomplished one thing but failed at her secondary goal.
The last thing that made me uncomfortable, twenty years ago I wouldn’t even have noticed, but for all that the author is great at mentioning Indigenous place names and talking about local peoples’ relationship with the region, there’s no hint of any myths from outside the British Isles plus Germanic cultures. If the myths came with the people, there should still! be! local! ones, there should be some from China and Vietnam and Iran and Punjab… They don’t need to be a major focus, I can appreciate how it’s important for a European-descent author to tread very carefully around representing Myths Of The World, but it would have been nice if they existed
Also, it’s very Fantasy to have most of the characters’ actions that Matter take place in the final conflict, and for Wayne and Kai that really made sense. But it hurt to watch Hildie flail around accomplishing absolutely nothing until the last moment - and even then, she accomplished one thing but failed at her secondary goal.
The last thing that made me uncomfortable, twenty years ago I wouldn’t even have noticed, but for all that the author is great at mentioning Indigenous place names and talking about local peoples’ relationship with the region, there’s no hint of any myths from outside the British Isles plus Germanic cultures. If the myths came with the people, there should still! be! local! ones, there should be some from China and Vietnam and Iran and Punjab… They don’t need to be a major focus, I can appreciate how it’s important for a European-descent author to tread very carefully around representing Myths Of The World, but it would have been nice if they existed
July 30, 2023
This was like shots at 2am with friends on a week night, a stupid train wreck you can’t stop but enjoying that you’re going to really regret the next day.
To be entirely clear, there is one whole star of this rating dedicated to the fact that Battis found and incorporated a knight I hadn't hear of before. Galehaut hasn't featured in any of the Arthurian retellings that I've read, although I suspect this is because of my own dislike of the Guinevere-Lancelot plot. I have to say that making it a queer melange-a-trois and the concept that Guinevere is "divorced" from Arthur significantly opened up the possibilities of the story. I would love to see that explored by another author, or Battis in a couple years.
The rest of the book was a continual train wreck. As other reviewers have stated, Hildie and Wayne have two completely different storylines. Their respective chapters do not feel like the same book. They share a common setting and characters, but none of that ties the stories together. If I had ever been asked for advice pre-publication, it would have been that the author would have multiple chances to write books and to split the stories. Do an awesome job telling a queer retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! Try a murder mystery focusing on valkyries! Don't do both at once! I honestly think that Battis could have done a wonderful exploration of a queer retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but it was ruined a need for "more plot".
Battis' writing also demonstrates a lack of maturity. There is a lot of telling in both POVs, although it is particularly bad when trying to explain Wayne's autism or Hildie's sexuality (ace-bi). Wayne utilizes a common masking technique to decode other character's body language - when a particular person does X, that means Y. When he meets Bert, he has increased social difficulty because he doesn't have a spreadsheet of translations available. Battis spends time describing the spreadsheet (as I did above), instead of showing the reader Wayne opening the spreadsheet and panicking because it is blank. These kept on throwing me out of the page and disengaging from the experiences of either character.
I state that Hildie feels like the add-on because the pacing, aura of mystery, the plot twists, and the suspense were non-existent. I didn't care about any of the murders or solving them. I never felt any worry over any of the characters. The book just plodded along without ever giving me a sense of urgency or doubt that everything would resolve itself in the end.
Throughout the book I did see glimpses of the beautiful writer Battis can be. I am not going to write Battis off forever and may read future works, if they come highly recommended. For now, I'm going to leave their works alone while their writing matures.
To be entirely clear, there is one whole star of this rating dedicated to the fact that Battis found and incorporated a knight I hadn't hear of before. Galehaut hasn't featured in any of the Arthurian retellings that I've read, although I suspect this is because of my own dislike of the Guinevere-Lancelot plot. I have to say that making it a queer melange-a-trois and the concept that Guinevere is "divorced" from Arthur significantly opened up the possibilities of the story. I would love to see that explored by another author, or Battis in a couple years.
The rest of the book was a continual train wreck. As other reviewers have stated, Hildie and Wayne have two completely different storylines. Their respective chapters do not feel like the same book. They share a common setting and characters, but none of that ties the stories together. If I had ever been asked for advice pre-publication, it would have been that the author would have multiple chances to write books and to split the stories. Do an awesome job telling a queer retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! Try a murder mystery focusing on valkyries! Don't do both at once! I honestly think that Battis could have done a wonderful exploration of a queer retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but it was ruined a need for "more plot".
Battis' writing also demonstrates a lack of maturity. There is a lot of telling in both POVs, although it is particularly bad when trying to explain Wayne's autism or Hildie's sexuality (ace-bi). Wayne utilizes a common masking technique to decode other character's body language - when a particular person does X, that means Y. When he meets Bert, he has increased social difficulty because he doesn't have a spreadsheet of translations available. Battis spends time describing the spreadsheet (as I did above), instead of showing the reader Wayne opening the spreadsheet and panicking because it is blank. These kept on throwing me out of the page and disengaging from the experiences of either character.
I state that Hildie feels like the add-on because the pacing, aura of mystery, the plot twists, and the suspense were non-existent. I didn't care about any of the murders or solving them. I never felt any worry over any of the characters. The book just plodded along without ever giving me a sense of urgency or doubt that everything would resolve itself in the end.
Throughout the book I did see glimpses of the beautiful writer Battis can be. I am not going to write Battis off forever and may read future works, if they come highly recommended. For now, I'm going to leave their works alone while their writing matures.
March 6, 2023
Knights were always being retold. You spent your life remembering parts of that story, taking what you needed, forgiving yourself for the rest. Holding your past stories and realising that they did their best, that you were doing your best now. [loc. 3694]
The knights and monsters of Arthurian legend are 'myths stuck on repeat... stories that kept being told in different times and bodies'. In The Winter Knight, the old stories are playing out, with variations, in modern Vancouver. Wayne is an autistic college student; his best friend Kai is trans; Morgan Arcand is the Dean, and Wayne meets her assistant, Bert, at a party where Mo (short for Mordred) Penley, the university provost, is murdered. Hildie, a plus-size, asexual Valkyrie, is assigned to investigate the case, but her mother Grace isn't sure that Hildie can handle it. Especially when there's a second murder ...
This was a fun, high-octane, mostly fast-paced thriller -- some slightly repetitive world-building in the first few chapters -- with a cast skewed towards the queer, the neurodiverse, the outsiders. (Just because they're embodiments of myth doesn't stop them being all-too-human disasters.) It begins as a murder mystery with a decidedly YA ambience, but develops into a story about myths: about making and remaking stories, about breaking away from one's fate, about rejecting the role that society, or culture, or story imposes. Wayne, in particular, doesn't see himself as a knight: Bert (who has an axe under the couch) can't help seeing himself as a monster. The evolution of their relationship is one of the highlights of the novel.
There are a lot of cultural references, almost none of which I recognised (adding to my sense that this novel was aimed at a younger audience). I don't think understanding those references was important to the plot, but I'm sure it would have added to the ambience. (Nitpick: a character enjoys wine, especially 'East Anglian reds'. So.... not our world, then?) I felt the story was unevenly paced, and I'd have liked to see more of the older generation: Vera, Lance, Arthur, Vivian. And what about the wider world? Do knights recur only in Vancouver, or is it a global phenomenon? Overall, though, The Winter Knight was an entertaining read, with an original angle on the Arthurian myths, and especially the story of Gawain and the Green Knight.
Fulfils the ‘Featuring mythology’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date is 04 APR 2023.
June 27, 2023
Just Alright? The back of the book really hooked me but the rest not so much. I'm also not queer or autistic, so this book probably wasn't written with me in mind .
General:
Had too much to say about the story so had to split it up here. If you aren't from Vancouver, this is a tough read to get your bearings. Even having spent a fair bit of time in Vancouver, I didn't know what a bunch of the things discussed were, because you just had to know so much about the city.
Initially I thought that was really cool, instead of a classic NYC setting. But it works for NYC because everybody knows about it, people know about the boroughs. Nobody knows what the fuck Commercial Drive is. I hardly do, and I spend a summer exploring Vancouver
Story and Plot:
Not a fan of Dual/Multi narrative books, so that could be a reason. I find it frustrating how you get hooked on the last sentence of a chapter, only for the next chapter to swap to somebody else completely. Then when it returns to that original character, I need to remember what they were doing.
The world was also a bit unclear? I get that it's part of the mystery of a new world, but I felt like I was in the dark about what the fuck this world was for most of the book.
Finally, characters didn't make logical choices? It seems like nobody with half a brain would make some of the decisions made by some characters. Not that they were dumb decisions all the time, moreso that there was no correlation between what they had done previously and the next decided action.
Finally, a bit cheesy? Everybody bangs at the end and get what they want? I normally hate unhappy endings, but this ending just made me feel like half the book was a waste of time. Even the homeboy that died at the end didn't end up dying
General:
Had too much to say about the story so had to split it up here. If you aren't from Vancouver, this is a tough read to get your bearings. Even having spent a fair bit of time in Vancouver, I didn't know what a bunch of the things discussed were, because you just had to know so much about the city.
Initially I thought that was really cool, instead of a classic NYC setting. But it works for NYC because everybody knows about it, people know about the boroughs. Nobody knows what the fuck Commercial Drive is. I hardly do, and I spend a summer exploring Vancouver
Story and Plot:
Not a fan of Dual/Multi narrative books, so that could be a reason. I find it frustrating how you get hooked on the last sentence of a chapter, only for the next chapter to swap to somebody else completely. Then when it returns to that original character, I need to remember what they were doing.
The world was also a bit unclear? I get that it's part of the mystery of a new world, but I felt like I was in the dark about what the fuck this world was for most of the book.
Finally, characters didn't make logical choices? It seems like nobody with half a brain would make some of the decisions made by some characters. Not that they were dumb decisions all the time, moreso that there was no correlation between what they had done previously and the next decided action.
Finally, a bit cheesy? Everybody bangs at the end and get what they want? I normally hate unhappy endings, but this ending just made me feel like half the book was a waste of time. Even the homeboy that died at the end didn't end up dying
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2022
*Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review*
It seems that retellings of Arthurian legends have become increasingly popular over the past few years, but I feel like the direction this book took really stood out from the others. A lot of these retellings rely on the characters being reborn, with the action following the reincarnations as they act out a plot similar to one you'd find in the original legends. Here too, the characters are largely part of an endless circle of reincarnation, with the Knights and other key players from the stories making their appearances. Here though, the modern characters stand apart from their legendary lives, as I wouldn't have known who anyone was supposed to be if it had not been stated in the book. The main plot follows the pov of two different characters: Wayne, a Knight, and Hildie, a Valkyrie, both of whom get involved with the murder of Mo Penley (formerly Mordred). The focus is solving the murder, but the plot tends to meander through a lot of different points, sometimes seemingly dropping the murder plot completely for a few chapters. While there is good representation in this book, I felt like the author was trying too hard at times, and that there were too many aspects fighting for the spotlight, making it hard to follow. I also wasn't a fan of the writing style, but that is a personal issue. Overall, this is an interesting take on Arthurian legends and one that I can see appealing to a lot of teen readers.
It seems that retellings of Arthurian legends have become increasingly popular over the past few years, but I feel like the direction this book took really stood out from the others. A lot of these retellings rely on the characters being reborn, with the action following the reincarnations as they act out a plot similar to one you'd find in the original legends. Here too, the characters are largely part of an endless circle of reincarnation, with the Knights and other key players from the stories making their appearances. Here though, the modern characters stand apart from their legendary lives, as I wouldn't have known who anyone was supposed to be if it had not been stated in the book. The main plot follows the pov of two different characters: Wayne, a Knight, and Hildie, a Valkyrie, both of whom get involved with the murder of Mo Penley (formerly Mordred). The focus is solving the murder, but the plot tends to meander through a lot of different points, sometimes seemingly dropping the murder plot completely for a few chapters. While there is good representation in this book, I felt like the author was trying too hard at times, and that there were too many aspects fighting for the spotlight, making it hard to follow. I also wasn't a fan of the writing style, but that is a personal issue. Overall, this is an interesting take on Arthurian legends and one that I can see appealing to a lot of teen readers.
Read
January 14, 2023Thanks to Netgalley and ECW Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Honestly! This was a delight! It took me ages to get into it, because the cultural references hit me with a cringe like you get with playing video games that are going to be dated in like five years. But once I got past that cringe, I was constantly delighted.
The last 30% especially was such a fun read. It was like the author had eased into the prose, and I had to pause at multiple points to yell about bits of writing!! It was also a solid conclusion — I don't think that it was a great mystery, but it's good if you want modern arthuriana and characters being trapped by fates. Anyway, had a very nice and solid time once I properly got into it!
Honestly! This was a delight! It took me ages to get into it, because the cultural references hit me with a cringe like you get with playing video games that are going to be dated in like five years. But once I got past that cringe, I was constantly delighted.
The last 30% especially was such a fun read. It was like the author had eased into the prose, and I had to pause at multiple points to yell about bits of writing!! It was also a solid conclusion — I don't think that it was a great mystery, but it's good if you want modern arthuriana and characters being trapped by fates. Anyway, had a very nice and solid time once I properly got into it!
January 25, 2023
I loved so many aspects of this book! An adventurous mystery with modern knights, with the opening scenes that mention classical music to the recurring fox theme, this story is whimsical and fun. I appreciated the diversity of characters including well done autistic, trans, queer, and poly rep.
While I enjoyed the beginning and the end of the book quite a lot, I found that it lost my attention for a while in the middle. I couldn’t manage to absorb myself in it the way I would’ve liked to. However, it had enough positive aspects to keep me reading to the end, and overall I liked it!
Thank you to NetGalley, ECW Press, and Jes Battis for the digital ARC!,
While I enjoyed the beginning and the end of the book quite a lot, I found that it lost my attention for a while in the middle. I couldn’t manage to absorb myself in it the way I would’ve liked to. However, it had enough positive aspects to keep me reading to the end, and overall I liked it!
Thank you to NetGalley, ECW Press, and Jes Battis for the digital ARC!,
June 21, 2023
The west coast of Canada has been attracting British expatriates since before Canada became a nation in 1867. What if the characters in all the old stories about King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table could come to life, over and over again, and meet up on the Pacific coast?
This is the premise of Jes Battis’ urban fantasy novel, The Winter Knight, set in the magical, contradictory city of Vancouver, where ancient forests and modern coffee shops exist side-by-side. There is even a quest by ferry to the smaller city of Victoria, on an island off the coast of British Columbia, where the central character learns to forge his own sword. He seems like an unlikely warrior, but he was born to be a knight, and he has mentors.
This tapestry of words contains so many threads that this reviewer recommends taking notes on the plot, the settings, and the cast of characters. “Wayne” (Sir Gawain), a gay-male university student who is on the autism spectrum, is best friends with “Kai” (Sir Kay), a trans woman of Chinese descent who has deviated from the path of knighthood; as a child in a bilingual family, Kai was fascinated by word-magic, and she becomes a runesmith. The story is largely told from the alternating viewpoints of Wayne and Hildie, a Valkyrie, a dykey battle-maiden from Norse mythology. In modern Canada, the Valkyries function as a police force for the mythical community.
The catalyst that pulls Hildie into the action is the murder of the university provost, Mo Penley (Mordred), at a soiree in the mansion of Dean Morgan Arcand (Morgana the Fey). Who wanted him dead, and how do campus politics fit in with the old, unstable relationships of King Arthur, his sinister nephew and heir, Mordred, his half-sisters Morgana and Anna (named Morgawse/ Bellicent in older stories), Anna’s ex-husband Lot, their son Gawain, Arthur’s adulterous wife Guinevere, and her lovers Lancelot and Galehaut? How can Kai/Sir Kay (Arthur’s foster-brother in the old stories) aid in Wayne’s coming-of-age quest?
The plot progresses as a murder mystery. Vera Grisi (Guinevere), a poorly-paid adjunct professor who teaches Arthurian literature (of course) appears on Hildie’s radar as a major suspect. She is well aware that she used to be a queen, and she has every reason to resent the university administration; Vera shares a small office with several other adjuncts, while Dean Arcand has a spacious office with marble floors. After his mother mysteriously left home when he was thirteen, Wayne has found comfort in “Aunt Vera” and “Nuncle Gale,” and he misses “Uncle Lance” (Lancelot), who also left home years before. Could any of them be cold-blooded killers?
Hildie resents being supervised by her mother, the First Valkyrie, but she knows this is her fate. The three Fates, the Wyrd Sisters, share an office in an old building, and one of them (Shar, who cuts the thread of life) is especially attractive to Hildie. The path of this relationship would be winding enough even if the two women were not working together on the “warp” and the “weft” of life: the framework and the unexpected events (such as murder) that cut across the framework. Even the Fates allow some room for individual will.
A second and a third murder thicken the plot, then Vera Grisi is attacked in a very public place by an assailant disguised as Boba Fett from the Star Wars movies. Wayne is with her, and he is pulled into a sword fight. The surrounding witnesses believe they are watching the filming of a movie, and they all pull out their cell-phones to record the action.
All the threads are tied up in a dramatic climax in a forest, when Wayne finds his inner hero, and when Kai’s ambitious plan to create a massive web of protection by coding with runes pays off. The climax is so dramatic that it almost drowns out the messages: within limits, you can be whatever you want to be, defeating the fearsome Questing Beast requires self-knowledge and self-control, and a hot young knight (Bert, Dwayne’s crush) can be reformed through love.
A reader doesn’t need to be familiar with the King Arthur stories or with medieval English culture to enjoy this galloping adventure, but reading “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” couldn’t hurt.
This is the premise of Jes Battis’ urban fantasy novel, The Winter Knight, set in the magical, contradictory city of Vancouver, where ancient forests and modern coffee shops exist side-by-side. There is even a quest by ferry to the smaller city of Victoria, on an island off the coast of British Columbia, where the central character learns to forge his own sword. He seems like an unlikely warrior, but he was born to be a knight, and he has mentors.
This tapestry of words contains so many threads that this reviewer recommends taking notes on the plot, the settings, and the cast of characters. “Wayne” (Sir Gawain), a gay-male university student who is on the autism spectrum, is best friends with “Kai” (Sir Kay), a trans woman of Chinese descent who has deviated from the path of knighthood; as a child in a bilingual family, Kai was fascinated by word-magic, and she becomes a runesmith. The story is largely told from the alternating viewpoints of Wayne and Hildie, a Valkyrie, a dykey battle-maiden from Norse mythology. In modern Canada, the Valkyries function as a police force for the mythical community.
The catalyst that pulls Hildie into the action is the murder of the university provost, Mo Penley (Mordred), at a soiree in the mansion of Dean Morgan Arcand (Morgana the Fey). Who wanted him dead, and how do campus politics fit in with the old, unstable relationships of King Arthur, his sinister nephew and heir, Mordred, his half-sisters Morgana and Anna (named Morgawse/ Bellicent in older stories), Anna’s ex-husband Lot, their son Gawain, Arthur’s adulterous wife Guinevere, and her lovers Lancelot and Galehaut? How can Kai/Sir Kay (Arthur’s foster-brother in the old stories) aid in Wayne’s coming-of-age quest?
The plot progresses as a murder mystery. Vera Grisi (Guinevere), a poorly-paid adjunct professor who teaches Arthurian literature (of course) appears on Hildie’s radar as a major suspect. She is well aware that she used to be a queen, and she has every reason to resent the university administration; Vera shares a small office with several other adjuncts, while Dean Arcand has a spacious office with marble floors. After his mother mysteriously left home when he was thirteen, Wayne has found comfort in “Aunt Vera” and “Nuncle Gale,” and he misses “Uncle Lance” (Lancelot), who also left home years before. Could any of them be cold-blooded killers?
Hildie resents being supervised by her mother, the First Valkyrie, but she knows this is her fate. The three Fates, the Wyrd Sisters, share an office in an old building, and one of them (Shar, who cuts the thread of life) is especially attractive to Hildie. The path of this relationship would be winding enough even if the two women were not working together on the “warp” and the “weft” of life: the framework and the unexpected events (such as murder) that cut across the framework. Even the Fates allow some room for individual will.
A second and a third murder thicken the plot, then Vera Grisi is attacked in a very public place by an assailant disguised as Boba Fett from the Star Wars movies. Wayne is with her, and he is pulled into a sword fight. The surrounding witnesses believe they are watching the filming of a movie, and they all pull out their cell-phones to record the action.
All the threads are tied up in a dramatic climax in a forest, when Wayne finds his inner hero, and when Kai’s ambitious plan to create a massive web of protection by coding with runes pays off. The climax is so dramatic that it almost drowns out the messages: within limits, you can be whatever you want to be, defeating the fearsome Questing Beast requires self-knowledge and self-control, and a hot young knight (Bert, Dwayne’s crush) can be reformed through love.
A reader doesn’t need to be familiar with the King Arthur stories or with medieval English culture to enjoy this galloping adventure, but reading “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” couldn’t hurt.
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