''I hadn't really enjoyed my life on Earth. I lost my parents to a drunk driver, had distant family who didn't offer much, and I was stuck in a job that I couldn't stand. So when the opportunity came up to be flung out into space, to start over on a new world, I grabbed it with both hands. Going into cryo-freeze with a thousand others I expected to wake up early to prepare the ship for arrival.
Instead I woke up next to an alien on a world I'd never heard of.
Between a foul mouthed roommate with a mysterious past, alien gangs wanting to make an example of me, and a local crime lord wanting to conscript us... this really wasn't the fresh start I'd hoped for. But it was what I had, and come hell or high water I was going to make the most of it.''
The Lost Knight is a Science Fiction series by Zachary Watson, and is told from the perspective of Cieran Kean and his companions on the world of Alum. There he's dragged into alien politics, running gang battles, and attracts the attention of powerful people he'd have rather avoided.
- The Lost Knight: Awakening (December, 2020)
- The Lost Knight II: Fealty (April, 2021)
- The Lost Knight III: Ronin (September, 2021)
- The Lost Knight IV: Huntsman (February, 2022)
- The Lost Knight V: Vengeance (May, 2022)
- The Lost Knight VI: Einherjar (October, 2022)
The Lost Knight contains examples of
- Abnormal Ammo: Technical Launchers shoot grenades the size of large coins rather than bullets, and the grenades themselves come in a wide variety of flavors.
- Abusive Parents: Nynsi's father treats her as an object to be used to further his ambition..
- Action Girl: Most of the women/Trahcon introduced.
- Amazonian Beauty: Among Trahcon height and musculature is considered extremely attractive for women, with Illyahn and Erana both being noted as particularly beautiful to their eyes.
- By Human standards, any attractive Thondian woman is this by default thanks to the shortest of them being well above six feet and significantly well muscled, while the average is closer to seven feet tall
- Anyone Can Die: Xerol Shaaryak doesn't survive book one, along with a great number of his senior staff.
- Illyahn and Tris are both killed in Ronin.
- Boldly Coming: Cieran with Nynsi, though his intentions are more or less pure.
- By-the-Book Cop: Pretty much most of Internal Security, holding Cieran and others after incidents as appropriate and chasing up leads. Averted later when things get rough.
- Catchphrase: Trenah: "Ashahn's ass!"
- Cluster F-Bomb: Trenah. All the time.
- Crapsack World: Alum is noted to routinely suffer from violence, and open warfare between gangs or business groups isn't considered abnormal.
- Escalating War: House Shaaryak against the True Sons / White Storm.
- Evil Gloating: Ullika. Instead of simply drugging Cieran, he wastes time bragging about his superiority, which leads directly to his death.
- Fantastic Caste System: Traditional Thondian culture mixes both castes (Warriors, Merchants, Artisans, Scientists, Laborers), with a ranking system (lowborn, midcaste, highborn). The former is determined in their middle teens via aptitude testing, the latter is determined by parentage.
- Fantastic Racism: Crops up between most species, with each having a variety of slurs and opinions on the others.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Cieran adjusts relatively well, but is frequently out of his depth and forced into situations he's ill-prepared for.
- Good Is Not Nice: Pretty much all of Cieran's new associates to some degree, with only a small handful of exceptions.
- Incompatible Orientation: Played with between Trenah and Cieran, as neither thinks of other as attractive. Though the orientation issue is more a matter of species preference than gender.
- Karmic Death: Nynsi's father, given his attempts to seize control of the family by murdering everyone ahead of Nynsi in succession, then attempting to abduct her.
- La Résistance: Subverted with the True Sons as while the claim is that they represent the non-Trahcon of Alum, they are in fact puppets of the White Storm.
- Mob War: The White Storm, Crescent, and the Shaaryak family battling it out.
- Mysterious Past: Several characters would very much rather not speak about their past Trenah and Ghai.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Both played straight and inverted. It seems that no matter how much Cieran does to get clear of trouble, more shows up as a direct result. On the other hand, his treatment of Nynsi as more than just some stuck-up Thondian noblewoman pays handsome dividends, while still landing him in more trouble.
- Oh, Crap!: Cieran and Rehat's reaction to seeing Commander Yarrath show up at the battle of the treatment plant, in full military grade power armor.
- Offscreen Villainy: It is implied that Xerol Shaaryak didn't rise to his position on Alum by wholly legitimate means.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Trenah and Cieran have no romantic interest in one another while being extremely close friends.
- Power Armour: Cieran's modified construction exosuit allows him to be a competent fighter despite his lack of formal military training.
- Yarrath's customized combat suit is several degrees more powerful.
- Private Military Contractors: Numerous
- The Crescent straddles the line between an organized crime syndicate, a PMC, and an actual government body.
- The White Storm is an alliance of smaller PMC groups that merged together to better advance their interests.
- Professional Killer: The traditional role of a Thondian Harath'krem is that of a bodyguard / personal hitman for the family.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Xerol Shaaryak to the extent that he doesn't have the human killed out of hand when the issue with Nynsi is revealed, despite the animosity between Humans and Thondians.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: No one but Cieran is particularly upset when Ghai executes a prisoner for passing information to her father.
- Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: The White Storm and the Shaaryaks, as neither are "native" from the perspective of the Trahcon of Alum and both have little hesitation in turning to violence to resolve matters.
- Statuesque Stunner: How Cieran views Nynsi Shaaryak, who is ironically rather short for a Thondian.
- Taking the Bullet: Cieran, repeatedly and intentionally, as he is often the best protected person in any fight due to his power armor.
- The City: Atrix on Alum.
- The Engineer: What Cieran wants to be.
- Trenah and Illyahn by profession.
- The Dragon: Given the nature of the stories, quite a few.
- Ghai to Xerol Shaaryak, and later Ghai and Cieran to Nynsi Shaaryak.
- Rane'li briefly takes up this position to Cieran in Fealty.
- The Spy Master: Ashul'tasir runs the Imperial Intelligence branch on Alum.
- The Syndicate: The Shaaryaks and their business interests.
- Villainous Rescue: The Crescent when their interests and those of the Shaaryak family align
- Wrench Wench: Trenah'laria. An engineer by trade while also being considered rather cute among her own species.
