The future looks bleak unless eighteen-year-old Lance and his New Camelot Earth Warriors can save the planet from catastrophic climate change.

Spurred by twelve year-olds Billy, Enya, Itzamna, and his ten-year-old brother, Chris, Lance creates a branch of Earth Warriors, a youth-led movement designed to save the earth from its greatest enemy – greed.

His involvement leads to Earth Warrior crews springing up all across America. Millions of kids leap into action, paralyzing the country and alarming the rich and powerful.

Having adopted his father’s philosophy of doing what’s right, rather than what’s easy, Lance makes serious enemies when he calls out New Camelot donors who represent fossil fuel or other polluting industries, and then barely escapes a series of "accidents” designed to kill him.

When he challenges the United States Congress to step up and act immediately on the climate crisis, the attacks on him escalate. With the majority of America's kids on his side, Lance and his young Earth Warriors prepare for the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris, where they will call upon world leaders to stop talking about sustainability and start acting on it.

But whoever wants him dead isn't giving up. Will Lance and his crew live long enough to even get to Paris?

Warrior Kids is a standalone tale set within the Children of the Knight universe.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The story is immensely entertaining and keeps your mind working to try to figure out what is going on. I must say that it took me a while to settle into the setting of the book. This is the first fantasy book that keeps close to christian religion. It kinda threw me for a bit. I wasn’t expecting God and Saints to be mentioned and thought I had stumbled into a historical fiction book. But then magic came and I got lost. So, when you read this, I’d suggest going into it with that tidbit in mind. Once I got over it and stopped trying to tie it into what I know of religion, I read much faster and enjoyed it way more.

 

The magic in The Red Knight was interesting and I enjoyed how Cameron presented it when the characters were using it (there’s a format change that helps the reader know). It was explained well enough, but has plenty of room to grow, and as the book progresses we continue to learn more. Loved that.

 

There were several POV’s in this book. I’ve said it before: I enjoy multiple POV’s. However, The Red Knight had one too many for my taste. I can understand why Cameron added them. Everything comes together in the end and if you didn’t have those POVs the story wouldn’t be as engaging. They are needed, but I must admit I grew rather bored during some of them.

 

The Red Knight, or Captain, was my favorite character. Cameron did a incredible job giving the reader tidbits of delightful information about the Captain throughout the book. By the end, I think I figured it out, but there is obviously room for more clarification and to prove me wrong. Furthermore, there is enough left open that the next book is sure to have the same delightful hints sprinkled throughout. This was my favorite part about the book, thus why the Red Knight is my favorite character. It was like watching condensation evaporate on a window. Sauce and Bad Tom were also entertaining and I enjoyed their POVs. I was indifferent to the rest.

 

I very much enjoyed the cast of creatures used in this book. And we even got a POV from a handful of them to show how the opposite side thinks and feels.

 

There were some odd sentences and some typos, which normally I don’t notice in a book. Also, there was a hefty amount of description sometimes, but it’s easy to skim those parts and not lose any valuable information.

 

About the only thing I didn’t like was the lengthy siege and some defense/offense strategies that didn’t snag hold of my attention. I had a hard time visualizing stuff sometimes, battles and scenery included.

 

Now, I’d go out right now and buy book two, but I’ve got another read to do for a book club and I don’t have time to tackle another monster of a book. This one was long, and because of my lack of imagery, it took me a while to read it. So I must forgo book 2 for a bit until I catch up on some of my reading. But I won’t be waiting long. I must know more about the Red Knight!

 

Overall, if you enjoy a more military type fantasy, you’d probably love The Red Knight. If you don’t, but you love a good character, you’d probably do just fine with this book. I did.

 

Yet another brilliant New 52 Batman entry. Batman: The Dark Knight, Volume Two: Cycle of Violence does amazingly dark things for the character of Scarecrow and it really frightens on the page. The way that Scarecrow is drawn is just haunting, with his lips sewn together but still having the capability of talking. Hell, half his jaw is hanging off of his face for some of the book and he doesn't even seem to notice. Everything about this volume is dark and gritty, and it's unforgiving. Scarecrow is probably the scariest I've seen him in a Batman comic, and Batman is nearly at his most helpless against him. Struggling to remember why what he does is right by him, Scarecrow makes Bruce's journey through his mind that much more difficult when he loads him full of a new, and more powerful fear toxin. There aren't really any other villains in this book besides the Penguin who makes a small appearance when the Scarecrow is prepping his newest plot. This isn't the strongest of the New 52 Batman titles, but it surely makes a point to be one of the darker entries. If you like your Batman in the shadows with a side of spooky, this volume of Batman: The Dark Knight is definitely for you.

Originally posted at sixthreezy at the movies & more!

Book two of the series is decent. The world building is pretty amazing. Each character is created with great detail. It kind of reminds me of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in wonderland mixed with Snow White.