Blurb:

The Palace of the Dawn will soon be stormed. The most ruthless man of all time is one step away from assailing on Iovbridge and dethroning Sophie Delamere. The Queen of Knightdorn is now alone, with neither allies nor an army capable of rebuffing the enemy which is approaching her city. Everything appears to be over, until a mysterious young man, Elliot, makes his appearance.

Entangled in a web of lies and politics, Elliot will try to draw Walter away from Iovbridge and face him in the stronghold of Wirskworth. He will attempt to rekindle relations and revive the old alliance between the Queen of Knightdorn and Syrella Endor, the Governor of Wirskworth. Elliot’s mission will take every fibre of his will and if he fails, so shall the kingdom.

Game Of Thrones meets Greek mythology in this explosive epic fantasy story, packed with war, medieval lore, magic, loyalty and bravery. The first book in the series, The Dance of Light, will take you on an epic journey to a fantasy world of men and mythical creatures which will keep you spellbound till the very end.

Review:

Initially I picked up The Return of the Knights because Gregory reached out and sold it as “a medieval setup and it’s inspired by Greek mythology”. I said yes, then we chatted and I met Gregory in person and then panicked in case I hated it, because how awkward would that be?! He’s like so nice!

Anyway, The Return of the Knights is further described as Game of Thrones meets Greek mythology. Nothing in my life has changed since the last time I read a book compared to GoT, I still have not seen or read it and everything I know about it is against my will. Nevertheless, the amount of war, death, politics and vying for the throne that I do know about GoT suggests the comparison is very apt. But I don’t want to talk about that because that is not the part of the book that shines.

There is so much stunning Greek legend, lore and culture throughout this book that it is just excellent. You have a royal family with ties to Pegasi but no one has seen those creatures in hundreds of years, there are centaurs, and tons of talk about fate, prophecy and future telling. “Ariana, that’s three things.” Look, I could talk about this point a lot more, but I won’t. Any fan of folklore and mythology will see the big and little things woven throughout and love it. The shift  in Gregory’s work from the traditional medieval setting we’ve all come to know is excellent. (I know we all love dragons but give me flying horses, dang it!)

Onto the actual book and contents. I did have to message Gregory early on to say ‘There is so much going on’. I hadn’t even really gotten into the book properly yet; I was just going through the cast of characters. There are so many characters but once I stopped trying to make a running family tree in my head, I really fell into the story. So, if you’re someone like me that is easily overwhelmed by details and existence in general, don’t worry. It all flows together. And really, there’s only a handful of key characters.

Sophie is our book’s queen, and admittedly, she’s a bit flat since we don’t spend a lot of time with her. She’s leading Knightdorn but only the parts that aren’t under Walter Thorn and his conquest to take the throne. He seems to be doing quite well in his murderous campaign if I’m being honest. But he also gives me the absolute shivers because he’s just such a terrible person. Who can help Sophie and her dwindling pool of allies to not get brutally murdered? Welcome, random villager Elliot!

Now of course it’d be unrealistic if this random villager named Elliot just swanned in and everyone believed him. So, he does what any reasonable person in this situation would do: swans in, tells everyone to believe him and foils an assassination attempt. Then he’s cautiously believed and also he’s really good with a sword so are you going to argue with him? This is all in like the first 60-65 pages. We hit the ground running here.

While Elliot is really where the story centres, he’s not even the most interesting character in my opinion. I’d struggle to put him in the top 3 really. Why? Because the bulk of his plan to help Queen Sophie relies on the support of Syrella Endor who steals nearly every scene she’s in.  Her kingdom within Knightdorn was so interesting, I loved the Dance of Blood, which is a lot more civilised than the name sounds. That may have been one of my favourite scenes. Her kingdom’s politics, environment, council and royal family were just captivating. There’s also a minor character, Velhisya, who is Syrella’s niece, and she is super interesting. I am very much hoping she’s a bigger deal going forward. And the Medusa’s Revenge chapter in Syrella’s kingdom was so good. My notes on that chapter were literally just ‘Ooooooh man. That was good.’ …That was actually the second time I wrote that note because there’s a sneaky note bit earlier in the book with a hidden message that was just *chef’s kiss*.

If you’re thinking “I feel like there is a ‘but’ coming”, you’d be a little right. While generally I really enjoyed the book, there are a few things I made a little scrunchy face over. It took me a little while to get to grips with how everything started to tie together, once I did it was super worth the wait but, initially, I was like ‘Horrible Walter has a siege army! Sophie is a tiny woman with a grand chair. How is she just not already murdered?’ That gets answered so I have no further complaints there. My other gripe is to do with a reveal very late in the book involving Elliot that I wasn’t totally sold on. Oh, and I’m not sure how Morys became quadriplegic since he was stabbed in the pelvis.

The absolute biggest complaint I have is the round up conversation at the end with Elliot and [Redacted Character Name]. This would have been a good place to start the next book because it functioned like a summary, just without all the cool Greek mythology you got along the way. The last 30 pages of The Return of the Knights could easily have been the start of the next book. I also think it would have made the end hit a bit harder because the quick shift between Sophie and Syrella was brilliantly done.

Considering my main complaint in a near 400-page book is that there could have been 30 pages moved to a different book, that’s pretty good. That’s like 93% satisfaction. If that were my score for most things in life I’d be over the moon! I’m really looking forward to starting the next book in the series and I don’t even have to wait because it’s already in my house.