The Winter Knight by Jes Battis

[profiterole_reads]

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis (Occult Special Investigator as Jes Battis, Parallel Parks as Bailey Cunningham) was a lot of fun. Hildie, a Valkyrie, investigates the murder of one of the Knights reincarnated in Vancouver. Wayne, the reincarnation of Gawain, and his family are stuck in the middle of that investigation.

This is now one of my favourite Arthurian retellings. I've read a few and there are many more out there, but this one was very refreshing. I especially liked the academia aspect: several characters are students, teachers or administrative personnel.

Hildie is biromantic asexual, Wayne is queer and autistic, Kai (a runesmith and Wayne's best friend) is a bisexual trans woman. There's f/f and m/m, as well as mentions of polyamory.

Comments

[oracne]

That does sound fun!

[profiterole_reads]

I enjoyed it a lot without any surprise, as I was a big fan of their Parallel Parks trilogy (content note: lots of Latin terms, with a glossary only in Books 2 & 3).

[einhornmaedchen]

That does sound like a great book, and very inclusive too.

[profiterole_reads]

Definitely! :D

[wpadmirer]

This actually sounds interesting to me. I love Arthurian stories, but I love them more when they're set in contemporary times. Which makes no sense, and yet is me.

[profiterole_reads]

It makes sense, modern AU is a popular trope. Well, in this case, it works through reincarnations, so it's more of a modern sequel.

[birch]

The Winter Knight sounds like a lot of fun! ♥ The last Arthurian retelling I tried was Cursed by Thomas Wheeler (which fell flat for me, sadly), so I'll give this one a go. I like that there's a lot of diversity here! :D

[profiterole_reads]

I saw the Cursed TV show. I liked it, but don't remember much about it.

[birch]

The book certainly was not the worst thing I've ever read, but it was not a fav either by any means! Maybe I'll have to give the TV show a chance someday, lol :)