Review - The Forever Knight (A Novel of the Bronze Knight) by John Marco

The Forever Knight [US] [UK] is John Marco's return to fantasy writing after a number of years break. A couple of those years were not self-imposed, which makes the release of this book that much more rewarding.

This book is a follow-up novel to the epic trilogy of The Bronze Knight or The Inhumans or Lukien Trilogy.** The Forever Knight continues the journey of our hero, Lukien, but in first person this time as opposed to third person used in the trilogy.

**I have to mention that I love that the trilogy goes by so many different names. I think The Inhumans is the intended one, but it's such a cool mystic about the series that it can go by any of them.

It's interesting that the author chose to use first person in this new series and I think overall it was a good decision. First person is much more intimate and lets you get to know the character that much better. In this one, Lukien is a bit more crude and hard-headed and we didn't get this part of him in the main trilogy because we weren't in his head. Now that's not to say that this is a different Lukien, one not true to form in the trilogy, it's a very realistic portrayal of a character we knew, but didn't know this well.

While I don't think there was a point of view in the trilogy that I didn't enjoy, I even commented that in the second book, The Devil's Armor, I didn't even miss Lukien's limited page count point of view all that much because I was so fascinated by the other characters. Having said that, it was really a pleasure to read one pov that is the main character. You know the plot will move along and there will be plenty of action, which you won't be disappointed with. 

I struggled for a rating with this book because while I highly enjoyed it, it's just about impossible to overcome how much I enjoyed the Lukien trilogy. And that makes sense because we're talking 300 pages versus about 2400. However, I am looking forward to where Marco will take Lukien next in Walker Between Worlds and may have to reassess my rating once this new series of books is through.

John Marco is back to form, writing intelligent and thought-provoking fantasy that I can't get enough of. Also, note that The Forever Knight can be read without reading the trilogy as it's a self-contained story, but I highly recommend the Lukien/Bronze Knight/Inhumans trilogy because it's full of awesome.

4 out of 5 Stars (highly recommended)

Lukien Trilogy (read in red)
1) The Eyes of God (review)
2) The Devil's Armor (review)
3) The Sword of Angels (review)

Stand-alone:
- The Forever Knight
- Walker Between Worlds (Forthcoming)