An orphan boy. A mysterious stranger. A city in crisis.
When 14-year-old Lance is saved from death, his life is forever changed. For starters, his savior claims to be King Arthur, the once and future ruler of ancient Britain. Lance has met lots of weirdos on the streets of L.A., and they claim to be many things. But this “king” not only reeks of sincerity, he wears armor, rides a gorgeous white … gorgeous white horse, and lives in the storm drains underneath the city! Arthur has a throne, old-school clothes, and weapons up the wazoo. Swords, daggers, bows and arrows–the kind Lance has only seen in movies.
Turns out this Arthur guy wants to start some kind of revolution. He plans to collect other cast-off kids like Lance–even teen gang members–and create a New Camelot of Knights to gain more rights for youth and shake up the out-of-touch politicians who run Los Angeles.
Lance is all for helping kids like him. He’s spent his entire life in and out of the system, and it sucks. And he wants to believe in Arthur, but doubts even a king can accomplish such lofty goals. Despite these uncertainties, Lance readily accepts the position of First Knight–youth leader of Arthur’s new army–thereby setting in motion a crusade of tsunami proportions. When the children rise, will the city fall?
The Lance Chronicles begin…
Winner of the 2013 Gold Medal from The Wishing Shelf Book Awards Semi-Finalist 2019 Kindle Book Awards Young Adult Top 20
The Lance Chronicles:
Children of the Knight (The Lance Chronicles Book 1)
Running Through A Dark Place (The Lance Chronicles Book 2)
There Is No Fear (The Lance Chronicles Book 3)
And The Children Shall Lead (The Lance Chronicles Book 4)
Once Upon A Time In America (The Lance Chronicles Book 5)
Warrior Kids (standalone set within The Lance Chronicles universe)
more
I don’t have much time to read for pleasure anymore. I’m usually either writing or editing or promoting my books. When I do decide to read, and subsequently review, a novel, it is usually for a specific purpose; in this case I sought out Children of the Knight because I had “met” the book’s author, Michael Bowler, on Facebook and I had quickly become impressed by his compassion for children and his overall positive view of life. I wanted to know how he would express himself as an author. And so here I will endeavor to review his novel that profoundly changed me.
Children of the Knight is an epic novel. Yeah… it is truly larger than life.
While reading:
I fell in love with characters—many times over.
I had no use for several other characters…only to shrug and change my mind about them further into the novel.
I got angry, as in, all fired up—enough to make me perspire—if you must know.
I questioned myself in a “what would I have done?” manner…and I’m still doing this.
I thought deeply about the characters, and their lots in life—about life’s fairness and unfairness. About parenting, in general…about my parenting, in specific.
I pondered my own behavior as a world citizen.
And I’m just gonna say it straight out—I cried a lot.
My reaction to Children of the Knight was powerful, confounding even.
And none of what I experienced as I devoured Michael Bowler’s young adult work, Children of the Knight, I suspect, will be departing from my heart or mind any time soon. Which I know is a positive thing.
In any case, after I finished reading, I needed to do some additional thinking about this complex novel before I could discuss it publicly in a review. And since I do my best thinking in the shower, well, I headed upstairs. You see, Bowler’s novel contains an abundance of important themes; I couldn’t possibly mention them all. And, yes, while shampooing, the themes that affected me most somehow became clear:
*Give a child a purpose and you give him a pathway to his future.
*Place your focus on how we (human beings) are alike, rather than on the ways in which we are different, and we will come together as one.
*The greater good is not always more important than an individual’s need for love and attention.
*Don’t allow important convictions go unspoken.
*A family need not be formed by blood; family members can be chosen.
The above are the themes that spoke loudest and clearest—with the most vibrancy—to me. I can almost guarantee that these will not be the themes to which you fall asleep, their echoes ringing in your ears, as the novel’s themes are many and varied.
Do you want to have this significant experience with a book? For the record, I do not believe it is an experience you can or should expect to have with every book, or with most books, even. In fact, it is one of my goals as an author to provide my readers with this experience once, possibly or twice, in my writing career, while subsequently entertaining them, and keeping them breathlessly turning the pages.
In Children of the Knight, Michael Bowler has created a work that is neither light-hearted nor consistently easy to read. But it is important and interesting, and maybe even mandatory. It is also very human and real, while still being somehow fanciful—and engaging to all ages. Highly recommended.