Book Description

“Vicious, beautiful, profane and wickedly funny” – The Washington Post Narcos meets Excalibur in a wide-screen, spell-binding and radical re-imagining of the story of King Arthur as you’ve never seen it before. The king is dead. And so is chivalry. In a wild and lawless Britain still reeling from the fall of the Roman Empire, warring tribes fight for power in the remnants of civilization. A power that can only be bought with blood – by force alone. When the old king dies his son, Arthur, must rise to claim his throne. With his gang of ruthless knights (and one parasitic, eldritch wizard), he will slaughter his enemies and take a princess for his bride. But violence always has a price, and blood will always beget more blood. And when a dragon’s fire is seen flaring in the sky, Arthur and his knights must undertake a perilous quest for the grail stone, and into the mist-covered land of legends and myths from which modern Britain is formed. By Force Alone sees multiple award winning author Lavie Tidhar turn his attention to the Matter of Britain and the rise of a nation as only he can. In hypnotic, lyrical prose, he combines history and magic into a dark and violent gangster tale which re-examines the Arthurian saga – and turns it on its head. “Drawing on everything from wushu movies to The Wire by way of Tarkovsky and Tarantino, By Force Alone is wild, surprising and entertaining, and a hugely immersive read.” – M.R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts and The Unwritten Praise for By Force Alone: “A bloody, bravura performance” – The Guardian “Extraordinary and vivid... As eclectic as The Sword In The Stone and as ruthless as A Game Of Thrones, this retelling of the whole Arthurian Legend stands alongside the very best.” – The Daily Mail “Lavie Tidhar has crafted a punk epic on the mouldering bones of legend and jolted it to life with ten thousand volts of knowing wit and fury. By Force Alone eviscerates the complacent posturing of the Arthurian myth, explodes the well-worn conventions of the tale and from the shiny jagged pieces assembles a wholly fresh rollercoaster ride of cheap violence, vicious magic and messy human truth. Just read it. You’ll never look at a wizard the same way again.” – Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon and A Land Fit for Heroes “By Force Alone is a jolt of pure entertainment, a brilliant, revisionist blend of magic, crime syndicates and Kung-fu knights.” – Locus “Tidhar turns King Arthur’s court into a gangster’s paradise, full of wheelings and dealings, and true grit. If the tale didn’t go down like this, it should have.” – Silvia Moreno-García, author of Gods of Jade and Shadow and Mexican Gothic “Lavie Tidhar is a fearless madman. The last thing I wanted was another take on Camelot, but it turns out that what I absolutely needed was this profane, hilarious, brutal, genre-mashing story of Arthur as a rising goodfella, his thug knights, a Guinevere straight out of Kill Bill, and a Judean kung fu Lancelot. I haven’t even mentioned the UFOs. There’s no way this should work, but it kills as both sheer entertainment and canny political statement. To my fellow writers: the Arthurian Revision category is now closed. Take your ball and go home.” – Daryl Gregory, author of We Are All Completely Fine and Spoonbenders “A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious and funny, a Peaky Blinders of the Round Table.” – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time “A strong contender for the best Arthurian fantasy yet” – Samit Basu, author of Chosen Spirits and writer-director of House Arrest