The first book in the Camelot Code series, The Once and Future Geek , mixed time travel between the medieval world of King Arthur and our own, and it is a very entertaining book. The second book in the series, Geeks and Holy Grail (Hyperion, October 2019), is also entertaining (though not quite as funny; King Arthur as a modern day high school student is hard to beat....). When Morgana, sworn enemy of King Arthur, attacks the druids of Avalon, Nimue, the youngest of them, takes the Holy Grail and runs with it. King Arthur is dying, and only the Grail can save him. Desperate to keep it from falling into Morgana's hands, she stumbles into Merlin's Crystal Cave. But instead of Merlin there to help her (he's on vacation in Los Vegas, in our time), there's only his very inexperienced apprentice, Emrys. His attempt to hide the grail works, in a sense--as a small, flatulent dragon, it sure doesn't look much like a grail. But it isn't much use to Arthur as a...
First, let me say that I love the cover, despite (and perhaps because of) the obvious frothiness and the girl standing awkwardly in the back. Turquoise is one of my favorite colors, and I love dresses with ruffles and mirrors.
Okay, so this book is about a girl musician in a dystopian society. She's in a lower caste, composed of artists, which means she must work very hard every day to eat food. She is then selected because she's pretty and accomplished. Excuse me, she was selected via "random lottery", along with 34 other girls, to compete over the prince. She wins, but not really, because she loves someone else, and is only competing for the free food. Story in a nutshell.
In all honesty, I really thought this was going to be a wonderful book, but no. It truly wasn't.
First, the girl. Her name is America Singer. I'm pretty bothered by the name alone (named "America", she's a singer), but it was the plethora of nicknames she had. She was called Amer, Mer, America, and perhaps Ica, Rica, and Am, throughout the book. Oh god, the inconsistancy. Stick with one nickname, please.
Then, there's the "dystopian" society. There was really no dystopia. There were some rebels attacking the royal family, and then there were poor people. There were also other hostile countries - actually, I think there was only one (China). We don't call the monarchy era of Europe a dystopia, do we?
Lastly, the plot. It's been compared to "The Bachelor" in almost every review I've seen. In my humble opinion, Cass would have caught more readers developing the dystopia then recording America flinging herself at men while convincing herself she doesn't really need them. It appears Cass just called the society "dystopian" to ride the popularity wave. I'm not even going to start on the ending (mostly because I don't remember the ending at all.)
Anyways, the book gets a 2.8; some soup of a doubtful color. Let's make it turquoise, to match the cover. Anyways, you start doubtful, but dive into the adventure. Who knows, it could really be delicious! It starts out pretty yummy, but dives down fast. Turns out it's turquoise because it has soap in it. And you never want to drink something like it again. In retrospect, though, it really wasn't that bad.
Oh my gosh, why are my reviews so long and contentless?
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