Review of Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy

Read for: Recently Added & Audio Book Challenge

Synopsis: "I’ve been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I’ve always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.

Now I’m done hiding.

My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.

When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.

No pressure."

My Review: I really love King Arthur re-tellings and adaptations so even though I am not a huge sci-fi fan I thought I would really enjoy this one. I do give the authors props for creating such a diverse cast of characters, both in sexual orientation and in race. Sadly, once you step outside of that representation, the story doesn't have a whole lot to offer. The characters really didn't flesh out beyond their race and orientation, that became so much of the focus of the story that everything else fell flat. There was a whole universe out there to develop but I only got little blips here and there; a lot was left undeveloped leaving the reader feeling like they missed some pages. There are also pacing issues, it didn't seem to build up, just as we reached a conflict and starting to develop some understanding and strategy, we would get drawn aside into who was kissing who and who was making gaga eyes at who, dropping all the potential build up. I had such high hopes for this book, and though I did make it all the way through, I doubt I will continue on. On that note, I do think that inclusive rep. is important, it is fantastic for everyone to find a character in a book that they can relate to, but the story also needs to have a great story to support those characters.

My Rating: I so wanted to enjoy this book, it was such an interesting concept, female King Arthur in space! Sadly, the story was under developed and reads younger that the YA target. The only part that I really enjoyed were Big Mama & her Kay, I felt like they were more developed than any of the main characters because there wasn't a need to focus on their orientation.  Unfortunately, I give this one a rating of One Paw and a Stump Wag!