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By Force Alone
(2020)(The first book in the Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet series)
A novel by Lavie Tidhar
2021 British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel (nominee)
There is a legend...
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 slew until slain. Unlike the others, we remember him. We remember 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, boggarts and tod-lowries, Robin-Goodfellows and Jenny Greenteeths, 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.
EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT BY FORCE ALONE:
'A bloody, bravura performance, which Tidhar pulls off with graphic imagery and modern vernacular' Guardian.
'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' Daily Mail.
'The narrative voice is deadly serious but there's a strong undercurrent of gleefulness to the profanity, violence and otherworldly magic that makes By Force Alone a whole lot of fun to dive into' Spectator.
'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' Richard Morgan.
'A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious, funny, Peaky Blinders of the Round Table' Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Genre: Fantasy
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 slew until slain. Unlike the others, we remember him. We remember 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, boggarts and tod-lowries, Robin-Goodfellows and Jenny Greenteeths, 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.
EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT BY FORCE ALONE:
'A bloody, bravura performance, which Tidhar pulls off with graphic imagery and modern vernacular' Guardian.
'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' Daily Mail.
'The narrative voice is deadly serious but there's a strong undercurrent of gleefulness to the profanity, violence and otherworldly magic that makes By Force Alone a whole lot of fun to dive into' Spectator.
'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' Richard Morgan.
'A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious, funny, Peaky Blinders of the Round Table' Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Genre: Fantasy
Praise for this book
"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
"Lavie Tidhar has created something wonderful, an extraordinary blend of history, legend, and sheer, lunatic inspiration. I loved it." - Christopher Farnsworth
"Utterly bonkers, utterly brilliant – a brutal, witty and slightly insane deconstruction of the Arthurian legend by way of Goodfellas, this is absolute bloody (and sweary) joy on the page." - Russel D McLean
"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-Garcia
"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." - Richard K Morgan
"A violent, funny, absurd epic – Tidhar remains an utterly original voice in contemporary fiction." - Daniel Polansky
"A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious, funny, Peaky Blinders of the Round Table." - Adrian Tchaikovsky
"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
"Lavie Tidhar has created something wonderful, an extraordinary blend of history, legend, and sheer, lunatic inspiration. I loved it." - Christopher Farnsworth
"Utterly bonkers, utterly brilliant – a brutal, witty and slightly insane deconstruction of the Arthurian legend by way of Goodfellas, this is absolute bloody (and sweary) joy on the page." - Russel D McLean
"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-Garcia
"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." - Richard K Morgan
"A violent, funny, absurd epic – Tidhar remains an utterly original voice in contemporary fiction." - Daniel Polansky
"A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious, funny, Peaky Blinders of the Round Table." - Adrian Tchaikovsky
"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
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