By Force Alone is out in the UK today! Published by Head of Zeus, in a gorgeous hardcover edition as well as e-book (the UK audio edition is forthcoming). Here’s the cover and some details!
Britannia, AD 535
The Romans have gone. While their libraries smoulder, roads decay and cities crumble, men with swords pick over civilisation’s carcass, slaughtering and being slaughtered in turn.
This is the story of just such a man. Like the others, he had a sword. He used it, he slew until slain. Unlike the others, we remember him as King Arthur.
This is the story of a land neither green nor pleasant. An eldritch isle of deep forest and dark fell haunted by swaithes and tod-lowries, Robin-Goodfellows and Jenny Greenteeths, boggarts and predators of rarer appetite yet.
This is the story of a legend forged from a pack of self-serving, turd-gilding, weasel-worded lies told to justify foul deeds and ill-gotten gains.
This is the story — viscerally entertaining, ominously subversive and poetically profane — of a Dark Age myth that shaped a nation.
BLURBS
“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
“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
“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
“Lavie Tidhar has created something wonderful, an extraordinary blend of history, legend, and sheer, lunatic inspiration. I loved it.” – Christopher Farnsworth, author of The Eternal World and Killfile
“A violent, funny, absurd epic – Tidhar remains an utterly original voice in contemporary fiction” – Daniel Polansky, author of Low Town and The Builders
“A beautifully written and thrilling tale, soaked in gore and evocative historical detail, peppered with subtle humour. Tidhar storms the castle of Grimdark, sword dripping with blood, and makes a claim for its crown.” – Angus Watson, author of Age of Iron and You Die When You Die.
“Utterly bonkers, utterly brilliant – a brutal, witty & slightly insane deconstruction of the Arthurian legend by way of Goodfellas, this is absolute bloody (and sweary) joy on the page.” – Russel D. McLean, author of The Good Son and Ed’s Dead.
“By Force Alone is a comet that blazes a brilliant new path through dusty old territory. Bold and inventive, it smashes Arthurian myth to bits, sweeps up the brightest, weirdest, most enchanting pieces, and reshapes them into a wildly original tale.” – Lisa L. Hannett, author of Bluegrass Symphony and Lament for the Afterlife
“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
“I have never come across a more despicable bunch of characters – this is surely an indictment of Lavie Tidhar’s warped and degenerate brain. Without a doubt this is the best Arthurian tale ever written. It has ruined the entire mythology for me.” – Saad Z. Hossain, author of Escape from Baghdad! and Djinn City
WHAT THEY SAY
“Post-truth fantasy [that is] serious fun… a novel that demands your attention… steal[s] the power of the oldest tales. 4.5*” – SFX
“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.” – Publishers Weekly
“You can always trust Lavie Tidhar to create something brilliant, savage and endlessly entertaining” – Starburst
TO BUY
Amazon:
Waterstones:
Forbidden Planet:
Foyles: