By Force Alone

by Lavie Tidhar

Overview

A retelling of Arthurian myth from World Fantasy Award-winner Lavie Tidhar, By Force Alone.

Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table.

The fact is they don't know sh*t.

Arthur? An over-promoted gangster.
Merlin? An eldritch parasite.
Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer.
Britain? A clogged sewer that Rome abandoned just as soon as it could.

A savage and cutting epic fantasy, equally poetic and profane, By Force Alone is a magical adventure and a subversive masterwork.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250753465
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	1,091,077
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lavie Tidhar is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Osama, The Violent Century, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize-winning A Man Lies Dreaming, the Campbell Award-winning Central Station, the Locus Award nominated Unholy Land, and his debut children's novel Candy. Tidhar works across genres, combining detective and thriller modes with poetry, science fiction, and historical and autobiographical material. His work has been compared to that of Philip K. Dick by the Guardian and the Financial Times, and to Kurt Vonnegut's by Locus.

Editorial Reviews

03/23/2020

Tidhar (Central Station) upends the Arthurian legends in this gritty, sardonic retelling. As the scavenger Gawain laments, “there are no good men” in this grim vision of Camelot: the cold, ruthless Arthur and many of his future knights (“the boys”) get their starts as Londinium gang members; Guinevere leads her own merciless crew, ironically named the Choir of Angels; Merlin, a frustrated, would-be fae scientist, feeds on the power of others; and Lancelot, a Judean knight, follows a master he believes to be mad on a desperate quest. As the fae Morgan manipulates the events of their lives from behind the scenes, an unearthly Grail awaits in a bizarre, ever-changing land beyond even the fae’s imaginations. Tidhar saturates this epic adventure with profanity, dark humor, sword-sharp twists, and unexpected moments of pathos. Readers who hold King Arthur dear to their hearts will be gratified by Tidhar’s attention to detail amidst the innovation. This dark, imaginative take on a classic is sure to impress. Agent: John Berlyne, Zeno Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Lavie Tidhar does it again. A jewelled little box of miracles. Magnificent.” ―Warren Ellis on Unholy Land


“It is just this side of a masterpiece—short, restrained, lush—and the truest joy of it is in the way Tidhar scatters brilliant ideas like pennies on the sidewalk.” —NPR Books on Central Station

From the Publisher

Ralph Lister performs a gritty retelling of Arthurian legend blending fantasy, sci-fi, noir, and pulp fiction. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is a story oft retold—but not quite like this one. This savage and unrelenting adventure has one foot in the fantastical world and the other in the modern political climate. Lister unveils a staggering number of character voices, with no two sounding alike, but some are less polished than others. His delivery is characterized by a steady gravelly timbre punctuated by occasional bursts of violent passages. Overall, Lister amplifies the tonal elements of the story beautifully, achieving a performance that's oddly poetic even as it dips into the uncomfortable. J.M.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile

Ralph Lister performs a gritty retelling of Arthurian legend blending fantasy, sci-fi, noir, and pulp fiction. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is a story oft retold—but not quite like this one. This savage and unrelenting adventure has one foot in the fantastical world and the other in the modern political climate. Lister unveils a staggering number of character voices, with no two sounding alike, but some are less polished than others. His delivery is characterized by a steady gravelly timbre punctuated by occasional bursts of violent passages. Overall, Lister amplifies the tonal elements of the story beautifully, achieving a performance that's oddly poetic even as it dips into the uncomfortable. J.M.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile