Kindle serial: The fifth knight

When Amazon introduced the Kindle Serials late last year, I wanted to give it a shot and I was very impressed by this new product.

Kindle Serials are stories released in parts for subscribers who pay a one-time flat rate (most are priced at $1.99 for now) to gain access to all episodes.

Every two or three weeks, an email would be sent out to subscribers to download the latest serial, a concept very similar to catching up with your favorite weekly TV program. The only thing I have to do is to switch on my wireless network and the latest installment will be instantly loaded to my reader at no extra cost.

My first Kindle Serial is The Fifth Knight by E.M. Powell, an English period novel set during the medieval times. I surprised myself by picking a genre I usually do not gravitate towards and it turned out to be a very enjoyable read that kept me on tenterhooks.

It started with Sir Benedict Palmer, a mercenary knight, who was hired as part of a syndicate to capture the archbishop of the Canterbury Cathedral. Yet in the process, they ended killing him and captured young nun Theodosia, who not only witnessed the murder but also carry a secret that even she is not aware of. When Palmer knew that the knight’s ringleader was planning to torture Theodosia, he changed his mind about his job and decided to rescue the nun instead.

Although serialized fiction is not a novel idea, most successfully and notably used by Charles Dickens, the online site brought this format back into the limelight – but this time digitalized.

The popularity of serial fiction during the Victorian era could be largely credited to the popularity of Charles Dickens the “Pickwick Club”

Each episode of the thriller is wonderfully crafted to build the plot up, adding on layers of suspense only to end it off a cliffhanger that promises much more in the next part. It certainly has kept me sitting at the edge of my chair biting my fingernails as I eagerly look forward to new episodes.

Because the storyline is being written around and into episodes, serialized fiction is a breath of fresh air into my typical reading habits. Every episode needs to be good enough for a standalone story as well as fit into the bigger picture, instead of the regular continuous narrative that is filed by different chapters. As such, an episode can offer more than a chapter, which is a reason why I am absolutely loving how the thriller is paced.

Yet the main problem I found with the Kindle Serials thus far is the paltry variety of products available in store. There are only 12 novels as of publishing date, probably because this product is still in its early stages. Hopefully when more books comes on board, there will be a greater selection of original stories to pick and choose from, which can only be beneficial to the readers.

Have you tried reading any Kindle Singles or enjoy reading serialized fiction? Feel free to leave your comments below.