Book Tour - THE RETURN OF THE KNIGHTS by Gregory Kontaxis

 

Out of This World SFF is delighted to be one of the many blogs participating in the Escapist Book Co. book tour, featuring Gregory Kontaxis' THE RETURN OF THE KNIGHTS! This debut epic fantasy book is Gregory's first entry in his planned pentalogy, The Dance of Light. Coming up I will be sharing a little more about the book, as well as my official review, some background info on author Gregory Kontaxis, plus some important links for how to connect with him and his books.

So let's get started with a brief synopsis of the book shall we?

Back Cover Blurb

The Palace of the Dawn will soon be stormed. The most ruthless man of all time is one step away from assailing on lovbridge and dethroning Sophie Delamere. The Queen of Knightdorn is now alone, with neither allies nor an army capable of rebuffing the enemy which is approaching her city. Everything appears to be over, until a mysterious young man, Elliot, makes his appearance.

Entangled in a web of lies and politics, Elliot will try to draw Walter away from lovbridge and face him in the stronghold of Wirksworth. He will attempt to rekindle relations and revive the old alliance between the Queen of Knightdorn and Syrella Endor, the Governor of Wirksworth. Elliot's mission will take every fibre of his will and if he fails, so shall the kingdom.

Game of Thrones meets Greek mythology in this explosive epic fantasy story, packed with war, medieval lore, magic, loyalty and bravery. The first book in the series, The Dance of Light, will take you on an epic journey to a fantasy world of men and mythical creatures which will keep you spellbound till the very end.

Review

THE RETURN OF THE KNIGHTS reminded me of many of the Dragonlance books that I grew up reading. There is a good deal of action, characters who comport themselves bravely and heroically, and a lot of interesting and fun worldbuilding. It's not very long into the book when we are confronted with a heart-stopping action scene as a matter of fact and the pace doesn't really slow down from there. So in terms of entertainment, yes you will not be bored by this book and there are a ton of instances where these characters are thrown into perilous situations and must figure out a way to overcome.

Another aspect that I enjoyed were the magic and the Greek mythology influences. I'm always a fan of injecting ancient lore and mythology into fantasy books, so I appreciated how it accentuated the backdrop and history. I thought it gave the story an added dimension that really piqued my interest as I gradually progressed from one chapter to the next.

There were a couple of things that kind of held me back from enjoying this book as much as I probably could have. For one, the cast of characters and number of factions is immense and it sort of overwhelmed me when I first opened the book and checked out the glossary at the beginning. Especially considering this isn't a huge book. Keeping track of it all during my reading and having to flip back and forth to see who was who in any given chapter resulted in some choppy reading sessions. Also I did find the common villager becomes potential hero theme to be something that is quite familiar to me and one that I've read a number of times before. So I didn't find any new ground being broken there.

But having said that I still think this is a book that would appeal to many readers, especially those who enjoy classic epic fantasy with lots of adventure. It's very much a comfort read type of fantasy that for the seasoned sff reader might bring them back to a time when they were just discovering the wonder of the genre. I definitely had that feeling when reading many parts of THE RETURN OF THE KNIGHTS. 

In the end I certainly had a lot of fun with this book and as this is a continuing series, I look forward to finding out how things evolve from both a story standpoint and also with these characters. I feel as if we have just scratched the surface and that many more things will be revealed in future volumes. Slight criticisms aside I do feel that this is a promising beginning to Gregory Kontaxis' The Dance of Light series!

Rating:

You can purchase THE RETURN OF THE KNIGHTS right now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as well as many other online book retailers.

About the Author

Gregory Kontaxis was born on 17th December 1989 in Athens. He studies Informatics and Finance in Greece and the United Kingdom and he has worked as a Financial Analyst in Vienna and London. He currently resides in London, where he is occupied with investment risk management and writing. The Return of the Knights is the first book of his planned pentalogy, The Dance of Light. You can connect with Gregory Kontaxis and his books online via his Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

And that does it for my stop on The Return of the Knights book tour! Hope you enjoyed it. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to both Escapist Book Co. and author Gregory Kontaxis for giving me the opportunity to participate in this marvelous event. There are many more awesome stops on this tour, so if you would like to check those out please refer back to the banner at the top of this post.

Thanks as always for visiting and supporting the blog. It is always appreciated more than you know. And HAPPY READING!!

-Nick