Salt in the Wound

This is a fun mash-up of genres! Post apocalyptic dystopian Arthurian fantasy. And there are some really neat concepts in this too.

Firstly, the world building. This is set in a future British Isles, where society has devolved back into a more feudalistic system and the UK has fragmented back into some of its early kingdoms. The driving force behind this is the ‘rain-wights'. Whenever it rains, these creatures appear as shadows/gaps within the raindrops and devour anything that comes in contact with them. Society has survived by building giant shelters from the rain (normal housing doesn't seem to work) and where these exist the new major cities of the realms exist.

This allows for an interesting homage to Arthurian myth where Wessex, Mercia and Winchester are important geographical features again. Into this mix is a gang of treasure hunters, seeking relics of previous ages. This gang has taken to using Arthurian names as their monikers - again allowing that illusion back to Arthurian myth. This clever fusing of the Arthurian legend with the more genre bending elements really shines through in the story. The future dystopian nature allows the monsters to become more real too - who knows how things would evolve in such a setting?

My one criticism is in some of the character dynamics here. There is a lot of betrayal for only very loosely explained reasons in this book. It made it hard for the bonds between characters to establish, and it is difficult to understand the reasoning for some of them. That said, this is only a minor peeve, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Definitely looking forward to more adventures in this world!