Once & Future

By Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy

King Arthur as you’ve never seen her! This bold YA novel reimagines the Once and Future King as a queer teenage girl on an epic quest to save the universe.

Coming to terms with your identity is always difficult. But for Ari, the 42nd reincarnation of King Arthur, it just got a whole lot more complicated. Gender-bending royalty, caustic wit and a galaxy-wide fight for peace and equality all collide in this epic adventure.

With an awkward adolescent Merlin and a rusty spaceship, this is the Arthurian legend as you have never before seen it.

‘A rip-roaring, no holds-barred, gloriously queer reinvention of Arthurian legend.’ Malinda Lo, author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club

‘Utterly compelling, brilliantly witty, and delightfully queer.’ Simon James Green, author of Noah Can't Even

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Release date: Mar 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781786076557

Amy Rose Capetta

A. R. Capetta holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. They have a particle-level love of mind-bending science and all sorts of music. They adore their small patch of universe, but also look intently at the stars. Entangled is their first book. Entangled is their first book with Houghton Mifflin.

Reviews for Once & Future

[whatsmacksaid · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Two and a half stars. Partly because I just didn't enjoy the story very much, and partly because there were some very weird narrative decisions made by the authors. The first half or so felt like straight King Arthur fan fiction, and because I have only the vaguest knowledge of the King Arthur stories, I felt like I was missing out on a lot of what was happening below the surface. Secondly, the while the dual POV (Merlin and Ari) was generally well utilized, there were some parts where we, as the reader, missed out on some scenes and actions because the story kept us with one narrator over the other. Thirdly, the last act begins with a "One Year Later" gesture, which I absolutely hate reading about. It's lazy storytelling.

However: the diversity rep was great, and parts that I found wacky are very likely to be straight up fun for other readers. I also enjoyed how many genres were mashed together; that part was lots of fun.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rarely am I this happy to reach the end of a book and learn there's a sequel expected out next year. To be fair, it would be really strange, considering how the book ended, to not have a sequel, but still. I really enjoyed the futuristic world and the retelling of the King Arthur story. The book features a number of queer characters and in an otherwise dystopian future, humanity does appear to have achieved comfort with a variety of gender and sexual identities. Furthermore, it has the urgent immediacy of a lot of YA fiction and the creativity of retelling a very old story in a new and compelling way.

[quondame · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I know there have been space opera versions of King Arthur, and I remember one that is at least mildly homosexual/poly, and am sure there are others, but this combination of all out gender is irrelevant, Arthur is Ari a 17 year old girl marrying Gwen, queen of the planet Lionel takes both threads, chops them up and sort of throws them on the page without much attention to transitions. That there is less thought to world building than [Hunger Games], which admittedly is true to many Arthurian retellings, what with the endless supply of quest bearing maidens and unknown castles popping up in every tale, is unfortunate since some sort of anchor would have kept this assemblage from disintegrating as it was read.

[Michael and Terri-Lynn Bongers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I could read this version of the Arthur stories again and again. Fantastically done

[dairyqueen84 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was really enjoying this and then I read some of the negative reviews and I kind of agreed with them. This is a fun read, though, for those who like science fiction/future dystopia and medieval myth mashups. I loved the diversity of the characters with sexual and gender fluidity, including different ethnicities.

[crtsjffrsn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

James Patterson just keeps finding new ways to make money off other people's work...but unfortunately, this one just didn't seem to land.

[jypsylynn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

*I received a complimentary copy from Jimmy Patterson Books. All opinions expressed are my own.*Once And Future is a book I had no expectations about before reading. I simply had no idea what I was about to read. Lucky for me, I absolutely loved it! I've been hoping to find a story with diversity of race, culture, sexuality and gender identity, and viola! The female Arthur (Ari) and backwards aging Merlin are simply genius. What a brilliant concept to shake up a legend of old! But, the authors went further by writing these characters as a diverse casting of race, culture, LGBTQ, including Ari and Merlin. Then, still the story goes even further with it's atmosphere of inclusivity. Imagine this place where everyone is accepted. The plot was action packed and had plenty of humor and layers of smaller things happening within the bigger picture. I found Merlin especially funny. Ari is chosen for this crazy thing, fighting for justice and fighting the corporate world, and I don't know how she keeps it together. I liked all the characters. My only complaint is I had trouble keeping their names straight because they were too familiar with three letters. Overall, I think it's a great positive thing to have a story with such diversity and acceptance. The authors are truly imaginative, and I'm excited for the next book.