There are not many things I like more than a good genre mash-up – taking elements and tropes from completely different types (the more contradictory or removed the better) and jamming them together. The end result can be pulpy or high-art, and when it works, a new, eclectic subgenre can be formed. It’s also something that makes a lot of publishers nervous, as there is a perception that these kind of books are difficult to sell because they’re not easy to categorise. Having said that, urban fantasy and paranormal romance – two similar but not always interchangeable subgenres mixes – have flourished in recent years. However, even stories in these new(ish) categories are prone to falling into rigid format and type – having discovered what works and what doesn’t, quite naturally the market has narrowed to the stereotypes of urban fantasy that are known to be popular. Which is perfectly logical and quite understandable – I’m not using the term ’stereotype’ here in a derogatory sense – but it does mean that for people like me, who don’t like that kind of thing, urban fantasy is generally a genre that holds little interest. Until now.
Angry Robot Books have quickly established themselves as purveyors of fine speculative fiction, disregarding most genre definitions and restrictions in their quest to just publish some damn good stories. As a result, they’ve given us what I think is probably the first true urban fantasy – King Maker, by Maurice Broaddus.
The back cover blurb says it all:
The Wire meets Excalibur in this stunning retelling of the King Arthur legend on the streets of inner-city America.
Add that to the stunning cover, and I’m sold – hook, line, and sinker!
Broaddus’s story is grim and gritty, a world of gang crime, guns and drugs. The characters of the King Arthur legends are wonderfully and originally transposed to this setting – Uther Pendragon becomes Luther, cigarette smoke never far from his lips; Arthur is King James White, Merlin is Merle, Guinevere is Lady G, Lancelot is Lott, and so on. Each of these characters – and the many more who appear in the course of the story – are wonderfully crafted, each a unique personality. If Broaddus hadn’t managed this, a lot of King Maker would be reduced to confusing skirmishes and interludes. As it is, while the cast is large, the individual story threads are easy to follow and, importantly, easy to pick up when a character disappears then re-emerges several chapters later.
The other great strength of King Maker is Broaddus’ depiction of the bad side of Indianapolis. Although familiar with many US cities, I’ve never been to Broaddus’ home town before, but I had no problem creating an image of the place in my own mind, such is the attention to detail that the author manages to continue right through the book’s 400 pages. It’s a depressing view of a city, all desperation, futility and dead ends that come with that end of society, and while few of us ever have any real exposure to that side of life, King Maker always feels very real and believable.
Where King Maker struggles is not so much to do with this book itself, but the fact that it is just the first of a trilogy, with King’s Justice and King’s War to follow. As such, while an excellent character study, King Maker is somewhat light on plot, spending most of the time moving the various players into position for the next two books. This isn’t a bad thing, but I wonder if the trilogy would benefit from being read together a single story – perhaps Angry Robot might even reprint the series at some point as a single bumper volume?
As a result of this, King himself – portrayed so wonderfully on the cover – is really more of a background figure, slipping in and out of story for most of the book and failing sometimes to engage the reader due to his distance. While I’m familiar with the King Arthur legend, I haven’t read Le Morte d’Arthur or other “original” source materials, so I’m not sure how closely King Maker actually follows the Arthur narrative (if it does at all), and whether the light plot and lack of engagement of King himself is just a reflection of the original myth.
This aside, King Maker is a fascinating novel, a true urban fantasy in the literal definition of the term, and with assured prose and strong characters, should be on every SF fan’s shelf. I look forward to the sequels with interest.
Rating: 
For more information on King Maker, check out Angry Robot Books, where you can find a sample chapter from the book. Author Maurice Broaddus can be found at MauriceBroaddus.com and is also on Twitter as @MauriceBroaddus. King Maker was supplied by Angry Robot Books as an uncorrected advance review copy.
