This is such a good story and the characters just make it absolutely perfect, Thomas the Hesitant and Philip the Disadvantaged are just inspired. ( )

A genuine pleasure to read. Slightly silly, just enough actually, but full of heart and fun and a kind of nostalgic warmth that I honestly loved. It's free on the author's site, too! ( )

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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...there were other tables, some almost as lofty, some not so much. Among those in the not-so-lofty category, the Table of Less Valued Knights was far and away the unloftiest. The Knights of Less Valued Table were the workhorses of the court, performing the inglorious duties that are nevertheless essential to a realm’s operation and taking care of any requests that the other orders found... uninteresting.

WHAT'S SIR THOMAS THE HESITANT AND THE TABLE OF LESS VALUED KNIGHTS ABOUT?
Thomas is the second son of a soldier turned farmer, his older brother—the favored and talented son—has recently been imprisoned for daring to ask the local Baron for aid for the struggling local populace, suffering under famine.

Thomas goes to Camelot to become a Knight—with the goal of using this position to help the people of his valley and hopefully get enough glory to impress his parents.

He is made a knight (to his surprise) and is assigned to the Table of the Less Valued Knights—those knights who keep the nation running by performing the needed, but unglamorous tasks, freeing up others to tackle the bigger, flashier tasks. It's a noble calling, a better life than Thomas had before—now the question is, can he still use this role to help his family and their neighbors?

IT'S THE CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS
The story is simple and straightforward, and charming enough. But what elevates this novel are the characters around Thomas and his relationships with them.

He meets and befriends an evil wizard who is working to put that life behind and simply be a healer. There's a giantess with esteem issues, which lead to her changing size. Thomas's little sister will steal your heart. And when it comes to best friends/sidekick characters, you won't find many as fun as his fellow Less Valued Knight, Philip the Exceptionally Unlucky.

There's a cute romance between Sir Thomas and one of Guinivere's Ladies-in-Waiting, Marie. Marie's an intelligent woman who's constantly prodding Thomas to understand what's going on around him and how he ought to respond. It's not that Thomas isn't that intelligent, he's just naive and needs someone with a bit more experience to point things out and remind Thomas what he cares about.

And Thomas' magic sword? You have to see it in action to believe it.

As far as the standard Camelot characters go, this Arthur is heroic and wise (an increasingly uncommon take on the King), Gawain might not be as heroic as you'd want, but he's a lot of fun. Kay and Bedivere make up for Gawain on the heroism front.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT SIR THOMAS THE HESITANT AND THE TABLE OF LESS VALUED KNIGHTS?

You want a hard slog like that to end with the bad guy losing. Through some last minute opportunity, or some deep fault of the villain, or even just sheer stubborn grit on the part of the hero, you want the good guy to stand alone in the end, battered but victorious.

[This fight] didn’t end like that.

It's not every day I get to use words like "wholesome" around here, but it fits. Why does that strike me as a bad thing? It shouldn't be, it just conjures up images of someone trying to be squeaky-clean enough for 1980's Saturday Morning TV, and while this book would be, it doesn't feel like Perrin forced anything into that mold. It just is that way. Nor does it feel like he's constrained by this kind of writing, it just feels appropriate to the type of story he told.

The subtitle to Perrin's website is "Agreeable Stories for Kind-Hearted People Who Take an Interest in Words." This is a pretty good description of the book. Agreeable—full of kind-hearted people (and some who aren't so kind-hearted, but they get theirs).

This isn't written for an MG crowd, but it's an increasingly rare "adult" novel that I wouldn't blink at letting a middle-grader read. It's the anti-grimdark.

What this is is a lighthearted, optimistic tale told with a wink and a smile. There's peril, there's bravery of the uncommon and very real sort, there's hope, there's struggle, and there are clear lines between good and evil. It's also pretty entertaining, too. Perrin has a crisp and appealing style that ensures the reading experience will be pleasant.

I liked this, I wish I could read more things like this (aside from the sequel, which I'll be getting soon). It's a thoroughly pleasant way to spend a few hours. You should give it a chance. ( )

"Sanity is overated" said Pyralis.


This is a review of Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights (from here simply 'Sir Thomas') by Liam Perrin. I've read the book just in time as the sequel, Faycalibur is planned to launch in February!

Sir Thomas is about, well, Thomas, who sets out to become a knight. I would probably describe it as a comedy, although it is not without its serious, dramatic moments.

When you write comedic fantasy you will inevitably be compared with Terry Pratchett. This is alsmost always unfair. And although Sir Thomas doesn't quite reach the level of PTerry, it does have its brilliant moments. Most of the jokes aren't as on the nose as PTerry's jokes and this makes it that when a joke doesn't completely land, it doesn't take you out of the story. That Sir Thomas is a comedy also makes it an easy and light-hearted read, perfect to read between some more meatier books.

The beginning of the book was a bit rough for me. For example, it wasn't clear to me that we were supposed to like William. With the limited introduction and interaction, he seemed like a bully to me. The story seemed also haphazardous to me, with meeting random people and having random effect that don't seem to progress the story in any particular way. However, this changes as soon as Thomas reaches Camelot, from there the story not only becomes more coherent, but all previous meetings and events also comes together in a satisfying way. I only wished that Less Valued Knighthood would play a bit more of a central role. It not like it's meaningless, but I feel like there was more that could have been done with it.

Liam Perrin generally manages to write fun characters. The three most important characters are written very well, they are flawed but likable, and especially Thomas has a very pleasant character growth. I find that some of the other imporant characters have a very good set-up but could benefit from a bit more pay-off (e.g. Pyarilis) and some the secondary characters feel a bit one-dimensional. However, these comments are only minor, as I said, Liam Perrin writes fun characters.

So, bottom-line. After a bit of a rough start I really liked the book. It has fun characters, fun and funny moments (interspered with some serious and dramatic moments). It is a great light-hearted read, and I'm looking forward to the sequel!

On my rating ranging from 'bottom of my to read list' to 'next book to read' I would place this book Top half of my to read list. ( )