Review: The Knight by Will Wight
Blurb:
“As the Knight of The Last Horizon, I challenge you.”
The Last Horizon has already sown new legends across the galaxy, tales of monsters defeated and worlds saved. For better and for worse, their reputation is spreading.
Their enemies have taken notice.
On Karosha, the Perfected gather fleets crewed by inhumanly flawless soldiers. In the Galactic Union, the secretive organization known as Solstice pulls strings in the shadows. And in the depths of Dark Space, after years of silence, the ravenous D’Niss begin to stir.
Raion Raithe, Knight of The Last Horizon, sees these threats as a chance to redeem himself. He will stand against the danger, and he will stand strong, no matter what it costs.
His friends are counting on him.
Review:
Book 3 of the Last Horizon, and this one’s focus character is my—and many other fans’—favorite character. Raion is a true gem with his never-say-die attitude and constant positive demeanor. So, does this book do justice to him? Let’s find out.
What I liked:
Like with the earlier entries, the Knight does not shy away from pop culture references and 90s nostalgia. The Titan Knights are an obvious nod to the Power Rangers/Super Sentai. And that’s barely scratching the surface. However, Wight unapologetically embraces every reference and makes it his own. This is one of the major reasons why I love the Last Horizon. He takes all these many references, elements, and pop culture icons, and weaves a story with break-neck pacing, chockfull of information that is somehow easy to read without being overwhelmed.
With the Knight, we get glimpses of Varic’s alternate life as the Blue Titan Knight, while in the present story we have Raion’s background coming to the forefront. The Titan Knights aren’t operational anymore, and the last surviving Knight has been infected with a virus only the crew of the Last Horizon can help cure. All this happens while the D’Niss are about to return and invade the galaxy, not to mention the surprising awakening of the Zenith Devices, and much more.
If you liked The Captain or The Engineer, you’ll probably enjoy The Knight. Because Wight continues his barrage of epic scene after epic scene with the break wires cut. It’s pulpy, it’s campy, but it’s just so so fun! Right from the opening scenes, you’re thrown in the middle of Varic’s attempt to get the crew back from their individual assignments—each of which is in the middle of a breakthrough, a reveal, or a high-octane fight scene.
By this point in the series, we’ve come to recognize characters well enough to not need re-introductions. Yet, Wight takes brief moments to re-introduce each character in their respective elements. From there, we embark on a journey that’s full of conflicts. Every crew member—all 6 of them—have a goal/mission that they need to accomplish as per their contract with the Last Horizon, and almost all of them happen simultaneously during this book. Of course, some receive more focus than others, but to see so many parallel story lines unfold was almost magical. Well, it’s been magical for three books now.
As I mentioned earlier, the D’Niss are the main antagonist of this book, and man they were really creepy. A literally epic scale battle with planet-sized psychic insectoids leading swarms of insects to battle hi-tech armies… even if you’ve seen or read this before, trust Will Wight to make it fun and entertaining. The book really picked up for me in the last third, where everything tied up in an epic adrenaline-rush finale. The epilogue teasing the next adventure was just the perfect bookend to this story.
Bonus: Absolutely LOVED the bloopers.
What I didn’t like:
I read somewhere that Will Wight had taken a break earlier this year to avoid burnout. Reading The Knight, I felt like maybe the burnout did affect the quality of this book to an extent.
For starters, almost all the alternate life sequences of Varic as the Titan Knight didn’t work for me. In the last two books, the flashback—if I can call them that—sequences were fun, gave us insights into these alternate lives and even built up much-needed context for current conflicts. But with this book, the flashbacks were just… dull. They weren’t as charming or thrilling or even intriguing. Maybe if they were done differently, or edited differently, they would’ve added to the story. Right now, they slowed the story down—which, in the context of the Last Horizon is still pretty fast paced.
Secondly, I really hated the entire Visiria sequence with Raion. I was worried that Raion being a focus character could potentially not work because he’s the perfect side-character. However, it wasn’t Raion’s character that was the problem, but what he is made to go through. SPOILER—Why would they send him on a diplomatic mission? He’s a fighter, and he’s the purest soul out there, meaning he’s most likely to get manipulated. While it transpires rather quickly, it felt like Raion was made to sit on the sidelines while the rest of the crew are off on a different adventure. This in a book that has Raion on the cover, and whose title of Knight is also the book’s title.
Apart from these, I did feel like the pacing and plot of this one was a little wonky. Looking back, I realize I wasn’t as invested in either of the plot lines as much as I was with the first two books. The Knight was overall very entertaining, but it does suffer from middle-book syndrome.
Conclusion:
I’m still going to continue reading The Last Horizon, mostly because I’m really enjoying the books. Besides, they are fast and easy reads. I love diving into 90s nostalgia, and Wight’s handling of it is epic at best and enjoyable even at its worst. It’s pulpy and campy, but I’ve had a good time with these stories so far, and am eagerly waiting for the next entry?.
SPOILER: The next one’s going to be focused on Omega, who’s my second favorite character, and Solstice, which I’ve been intrigued about since they were first mentioned. Plus, the epilogue shed some light on Solstice which I can’t wait to read more about!
TL;DR:
WHAT I LIKED: pop culture references, handling of multiple storylines, epic action sequences, epic finale, Bloopers
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: the Visiria sequence, the Titan Knights alternate life sequences.
