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Once & Future  By  cover art

Once & Future

By: Cory McCarthy, A. R. Capetta
Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
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Publisher's summary

King Arthur as you've never imagined! This bold, sizzling YA retells the popular legend with the once and future king as a teenage girl - and she has a universe to save.

I've been chased my whole life. As a fugitive refugee in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I've always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.

Now, I'm done hiding.

My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.

When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together, they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.

No pressure.

"All hail this worthier-than-ever, fresh, and affirming reincarnation of the legendary king and her round table of knights which dazzles with heroic flair, humor, and suspense." (Kirkus)

©2019 Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"This epic space adventure... is a must-have."—School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

"A marvelous mythology remix for teens who enjoy action-packed speculative fiction and genderqueer romance."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

What listeners say about Once & Future

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Favorite

Only Arthurian legend I’ve been able to enjoy, so miracles can happen with a new enough story to make me change my mind

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8 people found this helpful

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Once & Future...but always the same story

I rather enjoyed this take on the Arthurian legend of old. The characters were lively and you wanted to cheer on their successes. However, it’s the adhering too much to TH White’s tale that left me with horrible betrayal. For myself, I despise the Arthur-Gwen-Lancelot parable so much I was hoping for a change in this story. I was woefully disappointed. A good story but too much like the original that it’ll be a long time before I look to the sequel.

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7 people found this helpful

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A Must Read-Hillarious-LGBT Pride Masterpiece

On this amazing retelling of White's _Once and Future King_ we have all the twists and moral challenges of thw Arthurian Legend taken to a galactic scale. It accurately captures life as it would be under a corporate reality tv and product marketing tie Capitalist utopia, where you every need is met before your are even aware if it, because of ubiquitous computers tracking your needs and desires.
Lots of hot LGBTQ sex scenes between main character, withoutnany religious taboo for Gwenniviere mistakingly cheating on her Ari (female arthur character). And as Merlyn grows to a younger teen, his homoerotic scenes are award winning.
This parody of the Arthurian legends is sublime, and a very enjoyable listen. The reader was outstanding.

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6 people found this helpful

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Eh

The naration was decent but the story was too worried about genders and political correctness.

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4 people found this helpful

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yikes

I enjoyed reading it but it felt like a checklist for woke culture. I feel like it could have been a great boom of they focused on the story and characters first and then allowed the wokeness in. it just seemed forced so many times . I am hoping the next book is great

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2 people found this helpful

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Fantastic Story great narrator

This is my third read through of this book. It checks so many boxes for me: Mythology, space, romance, silly characters. The authors weave such a great story and I keep coming back to the story every year. It also has great gender inclusive language and representation not only across relationship, sexuality, and race. Plus the story zips right along.

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1 person found this helpful

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Relatiable 21st century King Author

Great modern twist to the well known King Arthor story. wonderful representation of the LGBTQ+ community! Truly kept me wanting more and rooting for all the characters. I couldn't wait for my next credit I paid full price for the sequel Sword of the Stars!

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Wonderful Queer take on a future king Arthur

lots of nice little surprises. Sometimes it lagged just a tad, but never enough to entirely lose me. It was fun to imagine a future with so much equality based on gender and orientation, but plagued by the rise of even more capitalism.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Not bad, but not good

I loved how inclusive this was and really liked alot of the characters, but most of the concepts were under developed and it reads like a fanfiction.

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Amazing!

I adored this book. The humor was everything I loved. The scifi element was blended with the traditional Arthurian tale. What could be better than a LGBTQ lady king Arthur in space? Nothing. I recommend this book to anyone and I look forward to the next installment.

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1 person found this helpful