Customer Reviews

The Last Knight (Knight and Rogue)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is fun to read for all ages. I noticed it is recommend for someone far younger than me, a grandmother of five, but I greatly enjoyed it and bought copies as gifts for various ages. There is a blend of humor and suspense. The suspense is probably more edge of the seat for the targeted age group, but keeps us older folks turning pages. Alternating between the two characters is a stroke of briallance and adds much to the story, especially since the two characters come from opposite social standings, giving one street smarts and one book smarts as well as opposing perspectives, ethics, and values. It is an excellent example of good intentions and misplaced trust landing someone into a difficult situation, a situation everyone can identify with!

I absolutely loved this book! It was excellent, fabulous, and had me laughing out loud in public. Fisk and Sir Michael are the perfect duo and balance eachother wonderfully. Fisk's humor, reluctance and practical-ness make him a fun character, and Sir Michael's cheer enthusiam, drive, and chivalry make him every bit amusing. The plot was good and thought-out, the characters were entertaining, and the book itself is addictive. I'd reccomend this to anyone, young or old.

Set in an alternate medieval-like world where chivalrous knights errant are a thing of the past and magical abilities are genetic, The Last Knight follows the exploits of Michael and Fisk as they set out to correct an innocent but damning mistake. Though knights errant no longer exist, the life of adventure and good-deeds calls to Michael more than his father's idea of continuing on the family estates, and so he dubs himself Sir Michael and sets out to seek the life he desires. On his journeys, Michael stumbles across Fisk, a con artist who misjudged his mark and now faces punishment unless someone is willing to buy off his punishment. Michael agrees to do this if Fisk agrees to serve as his squire until Michael deems Fisk redeemed.

So the stage is set, as Michael and Fisk set out to rescue the Lady Ceciel from imprisonment in a tower. Thinking themselves gallantly coming to the aid of a Lady, it isn't until after Lady Ceciel is long gone that they are informed the reason for her imprisonment. Far from a damsel in distress, Ceciel had been imprisoned pending her trial on the charges of murdering her husband. Facing imprisonment themselves, Michael and Fisk are offered a chance to redeem themselves if they track down Lady Ceciel and bring her to justice. Lady Ceciel is wily, however, and she is determined not to be caught again.

Hilari Bell has created three superb characters in Michael, Fisk, and Lady Ceciel. Michael and Fisk are opposites in most ways, often finding themselves at odds with one another over questions of morality and what constitutes a wise course of action. These debates are highly amusing. Michael is well-described and wears his heart on his sleeve. He is a noble and kind man with an unwavering sense of right and wrong. His growth and good heart endeared him to me early on and my liking only increased as the story progressed.

Fisk, on the other hand, is more in line with Bell's style of walking a tightrope line of morality. A character with secrets, many of which are hinted at and only a few of which we actually come to learn, Fisk is compulsively likable despite his often craven and self-serving acts. Given the title of the second book is Rogue's Home and Fisk is the "Rogue" in this Knight and Rogue series, I am hoping we learn more about Fisk's interesting past in the next book.

Though not as main a character as Michael or Fisk, Lady Ceciel is still a very interesting character in her own right. Her actions are both objectionable and understandable, and it is impossible not to admire her intelligence in staying a step ahead of her pursuers. The other secondary characters had less stage-time, but they were fully-drawn and I have a feeling at least a few will make appearances in the later books.

The plot is equally interesting, successfully combining fantasy adventure with detective mystery. I found myself wanting to read more and more as new clues were uncovered and new adventures found. Refreshingly, I didn't figure out what was really going on with the mystery aspects until either just before it happened or only as it was happening. The only complaint I really have for the book is Bell's world-building. While the rules were clear enough, I didn't have a clear idea of how they actually played out in daily living. There also wasn't much explanation as to why certain things were the way they were. Other features I just found silly or annoying. The characters more than make up for this, though, and I've already bought the second book based on the strength of this one.

I really enjoyed this story and the banter between the sarcastic side-kick and the chivalrous knight.

You can't go wrong with this story. :) It is fun, well written, good paced, a surprising delight, and a great adventure. It left me wanting to dive straight in to the continuing journey.

I liked the story of friendship, especially since it was a friendship neither of the characters expected to find in each other. I highly recommend it.

I loved this book! It was easy and fun to read. The story isn't to complex and the characters are likeable and interesting. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys light fantasy and a laugh.

The Last Knight is told by two different narrators, Sir Michael and his squire Fisk. I don't know that I've actually read a book where there were two male narrators, so it took me a while to get into the heads of these characters. When I did, I felt like I knew these two characters very well by the end of this book.

Characters aside, this book has a fantastic plot filled with some humorous situations. Sir Michael is a bit naive and is shown as such right off. This makes for some interesting dilemmas when him and Fisk face certain dangers and crimps in their original plans. I felt like this book had some great twists and definitely will be looking into reading the rest of the series.

The Last Knight by Hilari Bell
Eos, 2007
357 pages
YA; Fantasy
4/5 stars

Source: Library

Eighteen-year old Sir Michael has decided to take up the lost art of knight errantry in order to avoid a stultifying existence on his father's estate. He saves a seventeen-year old Fisk from his criminal existence to serve as his squire. One night they rescue Lady Ceciel from a tower only to discover the next day that she had been sentenced there for poisoning her husband. They must track her down and bring her in for justice in order to be redeemed in the eyes of the law.

I really enjoyed the alternating perspectives as first Fisk and then Michael tell their story. They have many amusing side adventures as they attempt to track down Lady Ceciel and become actual friends. Michael, raised as a noble, abhors the idea of lying while Fisk, as a pretty successful conman, has lying as his natural instinct. The conflict between the two over this was very amusing; in general, I sided with Fisk because some of their tasks would have been easier with lies.

I wish we could have had more back-story on Fisk's past as a thief; there are hints but I felt more could have been elaborated. I also would have liked to know more about Michael's past. I enjoyed seeing the characters as they were but I wouldn't have minded learning more. The world was also somewhat sketchily outlined. There are two moons on the cover, which seem to reflect gods but I didn't fully understand their belief system. Magic is also present in this world. Luckily there appear to be sequels so hopefully I can learn more through them.

Overall: An nice story about his knight errant and his squire that left me eager for the next book.

Two centuries have past since the vocation of heroic knight errant became extinct. Yet the younger son of an aristocrat, Sir Michael Sevenson decides that he will revise the noble profession doing daring good deeds. Of course like the knights of yore, Michael needs a loyal squire so he goes to the only place he might find such a person; the jail. Con artist Fisk is given the choice of spending a long time as the guest of the kingdom or becoming Michael's squire. Although having a square meal and a cot sound appetizing, Fisk reluctantly agrees to assist Michael on his adventures to right the wrong and protect the innocent.

The daring duo succeed on their first caper freeing Lady Ceciel from incarceration in a tower. As they celebrate their success, they learn she was allowed to remain in comfort rather than a dungeon while standing trial for murdering her husband; they are informed by authorities to right their wrong by returning the Poisoner to them or replace her.

This tongue in cheek medieval saga rotates perspective between the knight and his squire so that the audience sees the same event from two totally opposite viewpoints (a delight for historiographers as to what a fact is and what is tainted by bias). Whereas Michael believes the glass is half filled; Fisk would slice off the top empty part and claim the glass is filled. Targeting middle school children, adults will appreciate the amusing adventures of THE LAST KNIGHT.

Harriet Klausner

The story was ok, but when all was said and don't, I felt like it was a waste of time. I could have re-read something else and enjoyed myself more. The quote on the cover about what a great writer the author is... well, clearly that reviewer and I have a difference of opinion.

I read this genre because the world building is so much fun to read and explore. Here, there really wasn't much of that. And the characters are very flat and there isn't much development of them either.

The story is goes like this: Sir Michael is a knight errant and Fisk is his squire. Michael rescued Fisk since Fisk is really a con man. They set out to rescue Lady Ceciel and it turns out that they help a criminal escape. So, their "adventure" becomes the quest to meet the conditions of Michael father's "probation" after he rescues Fisk and Michael from their troubles when it is discovered that they helped the lady escape. They now have to recapture the Lady and bring her to the lord so that justice can be carried out.

The most exciting part of the plot was the escape from having been "cudgel-crewed". And the most interesting character is Lady Kara but we see so very little of her that we don't get a chance to know her. Fisk - we know he has a past, but we learn nothing at all and as a result it's hard to stay interested. We learn a little more about Michael because we see his father but it's still very one dimensional.

The world that is built doesn't really get described very well. We learn that there is a furred god and that there are 2 moons, and this stuff called magica. And while its a safe (and correct) inference that magica is magic, for some reason it's bad for people to do. And animals and plants and stuff can be magica but to kill either one must make a sacrifice or something will come back to harm you. It's kinda like instant karma. But, we get no additional information. Zero. It's like the author was really only sort of interested in writing a book about magic. Until we get towards the end. And then Lady Ceciel seems to have some ideas about magica but we get, what felt like, the same chapter 3 times in a row. And we still really don't learn much that adds to the story. In fact, I was slightly disturbed by the "simple ones" and the way the author dealt with them as a class of people. And it made me hard to understand how experimenting on them should be something in a YA book.

The alternating chapter narratives are a little difficult too. I don't mind alternating view points most times. But for some reason, it was often hard to track/remember. I found that many times, I had to look back to the first page of the chapter to see who's name was on it to know who's point of view I was reading.

I know this is the first in a series but I don't plan on bothering with the next. There just isn't enough of the characters to keep me interested. And the made up terms that aren't explained and the one-dimensional universe... too little to keep me interested at all.

Hilari Bell's The Last Knight is a good-enough read for what it is, a light YA sword-and-sorcery fantasy novel, but it never rises above the crowd of other similar novels in what is a fairly thoroughly explored sub-genre. The basic format, an adventurous if somewhat idealistic fighter/knight teamed with a more street-savy rogue/thief companion, has been around at the very least since Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories first appeared in the 1940's. So it is admittedly something of a challenge to come up with something new to add. Unfortunately, this novel does not meet that challenge.

On the plus side, Bell does a good job with the plot, throwing in enough twists and unexpected turns to keep things interesting. But in the two other areas that matter - world building and character development - she falls short. The world-building is just barely enough to establish the world of Sir Michael, the knight errant of the title, and his reluctant squire, Fisk, as a typical sword-and-sorcery world, but it never goes beyond the minimal level of detail, leaving everything too genre generic to make a lasting impression. The problem of character development, which again comes across as too minimal for a lasting impression, is I think made more difficult by Bell's use of alternating first-person POV narratives. The voices of Sir Michael and Fisk are insufficiently distinguishable from each other to give any real depth of character development in the reader's mind.

All in all, The Last Knight is not a bad novel. It was good enough to keep me reading, largely due to the plot of their having to pursue a prisoner that Sir Michael was initially duped into helping escape. But I wish there had been more to it, particularly on the character levels. I have a great fondness for these types of characters, but in this case I was left feeling somewhat unsatisfied. There is a sequel to this novel, but I'm unlikely to get around to reading it unless someone tells me that it is an improvement on the first.