One Good Knight

I thoroughly enjoy reading these books. They're original with remarkable characters and an ever-promising plot line. Unfortunately, for both books I've read in this series, the author tends to avoid the actual point of conflict!

It's very frustrating really. Imagine yourself running a 5k, for instance. You've trained for it, you've enjoyed it, and yet when you're mere feet from the finish line, you decide to just turn around and go home. THIS is how I feel about the author's development of the plot. You are so close to some explosion of action and resolution, but instead, you decide to just avoid it all together, and just tie up your loose ends. Errr!

I will probably still read the other books in this series because, as I said, they are show more enjoyable. I just really wish she'd give me one good bloody, gory battle scene where we can see the heroes be brave and strong, and the villains die horrible and gruesome deaths.

...Just once! show less

This wasn't nearly as good as "The Fairy Godmother" but was a cute little novel in and of itself. I enjoyed the humor throughout and the light and frothy atmosphere is just what I was looking for in this read. Having said that, however, I wish there had been a little more meat to the story. It started to drag near the end, and I wasn't sorry when the book was over. Oh well, on to the next volume in the series!

Like her first book in the Luna published Five Hundred Kingdom series (The Fairy Godmother), One Good Knight is a 90% fantasy, 10% romance. With enough magic and action, as well as feminist critique, the story presented in this sequel can attract a wide audience: from fantasy junkies, to fairy tale connoisseurs; from romance readers, to feminist thinkers. And this is exactly why I love Mercedes Lackey's work.

Told with humor, One Good Knight is the unpredictable tale of Princess Andromeda of Acadia, who we first meet as she looks off a cliff wishing to fly. Obedient to her mother and her royal ways, all Andromeda (called Andie, but not in public!) wishes is to escape it all. Freedom is a resonant theme throughout the book, and this is show more what she get to a certain extent when her scheming mother and her assistant decide to let Andie grow up, work as an researcher and advisor, who turns out to be too smart for her own good. As relationships within the household swell with bitterness, as luck would have it, a violent dragon appears over the skies, threatening the livelihood of the kingdom. As legend has it, girl virgins are a dragon's favorite treat, eventually leaving the queen no choice but to sacrafice her own daughter.

What ensues is humorous, thought-provoking, and warm. Along the way we meet George, the good knight that isn't who he appears to be, a gaggle of lost virgins who decide set up their own colony, and a book-hoarding dragon. Again, Lackey is known for creating realistic characters, who feel, eat, sleep, and drink just like anyone else we would know, and her insight and satire of human nature and societal norms is refreshing in a genre that is usually dismissed as rubberish. While I am not too keen on happy endings, the ending here is unpredictable, yet happy and magical. And what else can we expect from a fairy tale? show less

Ah, I'm a sucker for a clever spin on classic fairy tales, so after enjoying the first in this series, [b:The Fairy Godmother|13982|The Fairy Godmother (Five Hundred Kingdoms, #1)|Mercedes Lackey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255579675s/13982.jpg|16082], and finding that my library has them all, I just had to get this.

It reads just a little younger - not so steamy, and shorter. And it does stand alone (though there are references to the first book). Certainly not to everyone's taste, but I thought it was sweet, smart, fun, and satisfying. It plays with the cliches, doesn't pander to them. And the plucky heroine is far from perfect - making her an authentic potential role model for 15 year-old girls. (The first book is better for show more ages 17 up.)

I will be reading the rest, though not right away. show less

Ariadne's mother, Cassiopeia, is a bad one, which is obvious to the reader before her first line. But Andie wants her mother's love and approval and comes up with a plan, which makes her a target. So where is the knight? Well, that takes a while, by which time the book is a bit dull. It doesn't get much less dull, but it does get very silly. Since we know HEA is the rule, no warnings of tragedy have any bite. Neither does the book.

I picked up One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey for a quick, light-hearted read. This is number two in her Five Hundred Kingdoms series, and this one was a blend of the Andromeda myth and the story of St. George the Dragon slayer. Of course, the author puts her own spin on these stories so everything isn’t quite as it seems.

When a dragon begins to menace her country, it isn’t too long before it is decided to appease the dragon by offering it virgins on a weekly basis. Princess Andromeda thought she was chosen by lottery to be the next victim but in reality, her mother along with her advisor had arranged that she be chosen. Obviously, they have something to hide. When a knight arrives to save the princess from the dragon, it seems show more “tradition” is planning on her falling in love with her champion and together they will save the Kingdom. But tradition has a way of being warped in these tales, and instead of falling in love with Sir George, the Princess only has eyes for another. Of course all is straightened out during the course of the story, and in the end, both the Princess and Sir George are destined for happiness, just not with each other.

The story was fun enough but the characters are fairly one-dimensional and the romance was a little silly. These fractured fairy-tales are simply fun escape reads that are enjoyable enough at the time, but have no staying power. show less

It's sometimes difficult to write a review of a book in a series, because you don't want to reveal anything from the books before. So while I could gush on and on about how awesome it was to see familiar characters in this book in detail, I'll.. spare you the detail and just say that One Good Knight solidified my love for Mercedes Lackey.

Seriously, y'all, I have so much fun reading these books.

I think, in a way, this book was almost better than the first... because it didn't require as much setting up as the first did. That said, it still did require some, but it was the perfect set-up for the story to shift in a way that had me sitting up and saying.. "What?!".

... oh no, I'm not going to tell you what had me saying that, you just need show more to trust me when I say these are fun, fantasy books well worth reading.

And can I just say... I love what Mercedes Lackey does with the unicorns. The image of unicorns going all doe-eyed and docile, panting over virgin girls has me dying of laughter every time I see them make an appearance. And what impressed me most about this book? There was romance with absolutely ZERO sexual scenes described. None! And still, I swooned and sighed with happiness.

And most importantly - the girls in these books.. HAVE BRAINS! And they use them! They are intelligent, witty, and brave! So marvelous!

Fantastic series and I'm going to start the next book as soon as I finish this review - I recommend you start with The Fairy Godmother and work your way through them as well, if you haven't already! show less