Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days by Drew Melbourne was the book I was most worried about among the finalists. This type of book is very hit or miss for me usually. While not everything worked for me, I do have to say that some things were done really that make me interested in more books by this author.
Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days
Author: Drew Melbourne
Pub day: May 23, 2018
Length: 356 Pages
Available on KU and for purchase here.
Blurb
The year is 20018. The famed magician Illuminari is dead, and his greatest illusion has died with him. Dark forces now seek the Engine of Armageddon, the ancient, sentient doomsday weapon that Illuminari hid amongst the stars.
Enter Percival Gynt, accountant and part-time hero, whose quest to find the Engine before it falls into the wrong hands may be our universe’s last best hope for survival. It is a quest that will take him from the highest reaches of power to the lowest pits of despair and through every manner of horror and absurdity between.
But beware. This accountant has a secret. A secret that may damn us all.
Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days is a sci-fi/fantasy adventure novel full of swashbuckling, math, dark secrets, space-faeries, obtrusive product placement, Nazis, beating up those Nazis, unlimited baked beans, zombie cyborg assassins, fate with a capital “F,” love, betrayal, wizards, jokes, paradoxes, a sentient doomsday weapon, eleven-dimensional space, clones, monsters, space-nuns, and at least one rat-chef.
(Only one rat-chef.)
Review
As one of my team mates said, I can see why this is a finalist book but it’s definitely a subgenre that isn’t quite my type. Nonetheless, there are also some things that I really enjoyed about this book.
It’s the over the top silliness that I struggle with. Despite being set very far into the future, there are still things around that we are familiar with, such as Apple Watches (with a fun bonus though), YouTube, McDonalds, and Starbucks. This made for some giggles but combined with the craziness of many events, it just didn’t make for a setting and world-building that I entirely enjoyed. I do have to say though that I liked that this book had a clear story with lots of silliness mixed in rather than almost only craziness with a side helping of story. While the charms felt like another weird thing that wouldn’t be my type at first, I did find those oddly charming by the end.
The story felt very smoothly written and moved along at a steady pace. While I’m not generally a fan of omniscient writing, it did feel like a good fit for this type of book because that enabled the author to add more funny bits to fit the story. There were some really tragic moments in this book that were done in a very light tone, which seems contradictory but somehow worked well here.
There was a good variety of characters that really felt like their own people with feelings and histories that led to interesting reveals throughout the book. What seemed to be a very straight forward storyline at first actually ended up having more twists and turns than I expected. I liked that there was a mystery buried deeper that I could try to work out myself and which led to an unexpected ending that was much deeper than I anticipated.
Despite this not being my type of book, I can see why it’s a favorite for some people. I felt a bit conflicted throughout but liked that it still had some unexpected surprises that took me off guard. It’s obvious that a lot of thought went into this book and I’m curious to see what else the author will come up with.
The Shaggy Shepherd 