F.T. Lukens’ new novel So This Is Ever After promises readers a humour-filled tale of romance and fantasy, but it doesn’t deliver on that promise.
I found the concept of this book intriguing—the characters and plot feel like a marriage between Arthurian legend and a campaign from Dungeons & Dragons.
In the first chapter, the leader of the rag-tag group of questers, Arek, clumsily vanquishes an evil ruler and declares himself King of Ere. However, Arek encounters trouble when he realizes that the job is a bit more permanent than he realized. He must bond his soul with someone else or risk an untimely death.
The setup of the story is interesting and the banter is hilarious. I had high hopes for how this would all unfold. Unfortunately, the story didn’t maintain the same intrigue as it went on.
The first thing I noticed was the prose. It felt underdeveloped and bland, with much of it telling me what was going on instead of showing me and allowing me to do the work.
On top of that, very little backstory was given to any of these characters. What is there feels like an afterthought and doesn’t tell the reader anything interesting about the character. Because of this, I found myself having trouble connecting with them at all.
The “problems” in this story are all because the characters refuse to tell each other their feelings. There was no real enemy other than their own stubbornness and time. I felt like I was just playing the waiting game until the final chapter, when things would play out how I predicted they would. And they did.
The books I enjoy the most are the ones that surprise me and don’t go the way I expect. This book felt predictable from start to finish.
With that said, there were some positives. In terms of portraying a world where diverse sexualities and genders were the norm, it knocked it out of the park. It felt very comfortable and not problematic in that sense.
I truly appreciated the variety of genders and sexualities the author included. Few books I’ve read have included non-binary and polyamorous representation and I’m pleased to say that this novel did.
I wanted to like this book; I really did. However, it just doesn’t follow through with the adventure it promises.