A Prince Among Men by Robert N. Charrette

Aside from some rather grotesque cover art, there’s really not anything particularly wrong with A Prince Among Men. Unfortunately, it’s equally difficult to think of anything that it actually does right. It’s a relentlessly ho-hum sort of novel, reasonably diverting while it’s in front of you but always giving the lingering sensation that if an overenthusiastic friend or a speeding bicycle messenger were to come along and knock it flying from your hands into a storm drain, you wouldn’t feel any particular sense of loss, just a kind of unfocused irritation for the two seconds it took you to forget about the book entirely. This is a bit of a shame, as the premise actually seems pretty fun.

The basic idea is that somewhere in a vaguely sketched future run primarily through Asian corporate interests, a sorceress is plotting to reawaken King Arthur i... Read More