Official Review: Jake Swift: Knight The Complete First Se...

[RussetDivinity]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Jake Swift: Knight The Complete First Season" by Jason Amelio.]

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Dragons, a technomancer, Tinkerbell, and a knight of the Table who swears liberally and has Beowulf’s sword. These are what drew me in to Jake Swift: Knight (The Complete First Season by Jason Allen Amelio, and the witty tone kept me enjoying the book all the way through. Jake Swift is a knight, with an actual sword and suit of armor. He even has a steed: his motorcycle, Firestride. Though he insists that fairy tales are real, he doesn’t act like the sort of knight one might expect from a fairy tale. He’s got too much attitude and not quite enough respect for authority for that. Still, he’s a great character, and I’m glad to give this book 3 out of 4 stars.

The book itself is divided into episodes, each of which is further divided into chapters. From what I understand, this is a collection of separately published stories that have now been collected (but it’s not an anthology; the stories form a continuous arc), meaning that at the beginning of each episode there’s a bit of a recap. I found these a bit clunky, but then, I’ve yet to find a writer who can perfectly pull off the summation, so I’m not going to quibble over such a little thing. Besides, each one begins the same way: “I’m Jake Swift, and I’m…”, which gives them an amusing flair. The overall arc reminds me a bit of a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with episodic fights leading up to a big bad, followed by enough of an open plot to lead to a sequel, which I would quite happily read.

The recurring characters are just as great as the protagonist. Kino, a tech-savvy knight who can’t do much fighting, gives even more of a modern feel to the book. Sam, a half-dragon, provides a woman who can more than hold her own in a fight. Steph, a camgirl turned ally, is a bit more sexualized than I would have liked, but I enjoyed her presence nevertheless, especially with the hints that she might be bisexual. I usually don’t take to conspiracy theories in novels, but Robert, a walking conspiracy theory, is worked in with the right amount of irreverence and charm that I didn’t mind one bit and even enjoyed his inclusion. The characters have their own voices, and while they do feel a bit flat, it’s no more so than in just about any other action novel, and the flatness fits perfectly with the pulp feel, which could hardly be avoided with an episode title like “Second Star to the Right and Straight on to Murder”.

The only major complaint I had was that at times the writing felt a bit clunky. However, the story was exciting enough that I’m perfectly willing to overlook it, though I must admit a bit of extra editing would have easily bumped this up to 4 stars. The idea of it being a season separated into episodes threw me a bit, but I soon grew to enjoy the uniqueness of the setup. Some of the pop culture references felt a bit forced, but for the most part, they fit well with Jake’s voice.

The first season of Jake Swift: Knight is a very enjoyable read, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a little fun and snark tossed in with their dark gritty fantasy. I look forward to finding and reading the second season someday.

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[wolfmanjason]

Thank you for the read and review!