It's no lie that I have been a Lavie Tidhar fan since I read the first installment of the Bookman series. I have also been a huge fan of the Arthurian legend since I first read Mallory. So when I heard that Tidhar's new book was going to be about King Arthur, I had to get my hands on it. Superbly written, the way that the story is weaved as almost a crime novel, interspersed with our known pieces of the legend is extraordinary. Think GoodFellas meet the Once and Future King. The thing I liked most was the grittiness of the book - it reads like today's grimdark fantasy which I feel is probably more likely than the romanticism of the legend. My only down side of the book was the handling of Lancelot and Guinevere felt a bit glossed over and I thought Merlin's obtaining of Excaliber ran a bit long, but overall minor nits to an otherwise fantastic story. If you love Arthurian legend, buy this book! If you love adventure or grimdark fantasy buy this book!! Finally, if you like great writing by a fantastic author, buy this book! You will thank me later.

Have you ever come across a book that you just don’t know how to rate? Or one that was SO not what you expected? This is that book. I went in to this book with so much certainty that it would be that dry, British humor that I so love with a dash (or more) of glorious Monty Python. Well, let me tell you reader – IT WAS NONE OF THOSE THINGS. I mean, it’s described as political satire, but I feel like that strongly implies some humor. It wasn’t funny. AT ALL.

This is a host of supremely unlikable characters ranging from Uther Pendragon’s drunk, lecherous self to his power hungry thug of a son and everyone in between. Merlin and Guinevere were the most likable of the lot and that ain’t sayin’ much. It’s like the author thought to himself… what if we took every good trait these characters had in the original stories and just sort of threw it away and made them cold, greedy villains. Yes, I get that they’re power hungry and they give no heed in stepping on those who might lift them to the lofty heights of a throne just like politicians (and so many others) today. The metaphors are not lost on me. It doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t really care for it.

That being said, I also didn’t really want to put it down because it was also really, really weird. There is a portion that reminded me so much of the Misery in Ed McDonald’s Raven’s Mark series and it was one of my favorite sections of the book. It was so bizarre and out of place compared to the rest of the setting and I swear there were aliens. Like, what? It was mundane for so long, like yeah yeah… the Romans aren’t coming back, all the gutters are full of crap and rats and bums, and Arthur’s a thug with grandeur. And then WHAM, radiation and weirdness dude!

Honestly, this is a really tough one to rate. I definitely didn’t like it but I’m also still rather peeved that it wasn’t funny, so I might be a little biased. It was well written, but it seemed to have these big jumps forward in the timeline and I also felt as if much of it was skimmed across. Like you were a mere observer of these pitiful ants trying to build a kingdom. Ultimately, this book wasn’t for me but it seems like many other early reviewers did enjoy it. If you want a dark version of Arthur where he isn’t noble (or doesn’t have the propaganda budget) then check it out.

This novel is one of the best I’ve read this year! The characters are so dynamic yet relatable. I loved the flow of the story. It held my attention the whole time.

This book was super disappointing to me, I’m sorry to say.

I love the Arthur story (the Matter of Britain, if I want to sound fancy). I’m always up for a new take on it. I also happen to be a big fan of creative reimaginings, so when I saw on the blurb that this Arthur was a jumped-up gangster from the streets of Londinium I was intrigued. The fact that I also love mob movies didn’t hurt either.

(aside: I didn’t like the book, but I did really appreciate when Sir Ulfius was relating part of the story of Arthur’s rise and he began with, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a knight…”)

But if you’re going to do that kind of a story - taking a known story and applying the tropes of something else - you need to know what you’re doing. A good (bad) example of what I’m talking about is <i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</i>. I love Jane Austen, and I love zombies, but the two together fell flat for me. Mr Collins being too stupid to realize that Charlotte is a zombie, Lady Catherine’s sneering contempt for Elizabeth being trained in the martial arts by a Chinese master instead of a respectable Japanese sensei - they were worth a chuckle, but didn’t have enough to it to make the story worth the reading. A good (good) example is <i>Sunshine</i> by Robin McKinley: the Beauty & the Beast fairytale retold as a vampire story. McKinley didn’t just take a known story and swap some of the tropes: she really worked to make a new spin on the tale. She didn’t just tell Beauty & the Beast and replace “the last rose petal” with “the last clove of garlic,” if you know what I’m saying.

<i>By Force Alone</i> has Arthur going from street urchin to local gang leader to <i>capo di tutti i capi</i> of the assorted Londinium <s>gangsters</s> knights. He controls the Londinium brothels, he’s dealing psychedelic drugs to the worshipers of Mithras, he calls for a meeting of the <s>Five Families</s> six kings of Britain to follow his leadership, setting off a war when they refuse. But this kind of thing can only sustain a story so far, and when the author runs out of Martin Scorcese and Francis Ford Coppola movies he kind of … reaches.

We have a Lancelot that’s a kind of kung-fu assassin/treasure hunter. We have what I can only call a tribute to the <i>S.T.A.L.K.E.R.</i> games. We have aliens for some reason, even more out of place here than in the fourth Indiana Jones movie. By the time the author tries to pull it back to a solemn tone for the inevitable fall of Camelot, it’s just such an absurd tonal shift from everything else that I just didn’t buy any part of it.

I didn’t appreciate how this book handled gender. In the early stages the only mention of women at all was as serving wenches who were literally listed alongside livestock in the spoils of a captured castle. We do meet Igraine (who gets raped by Uther in disguise, of course), and Morgan and Morgause and Nimue and assorted Fae ladies (who are all seductresses, of course). Guinevere seems like an attempt to balance things - she’s a highwaywoman leading a merry band of lady robbers. But we get one brief sequence where she’s a character, and then she mostly exists in the mind of Lancelot as a distraction when he’s treasure hunting and kung-fu fighting.

This was published by Tor (thanks to them and NetGalley for the ARC), which surprised me. Because this is <i>really</i> a book in need of a good editor.

The Shites of the Round Table…?

Lavie Tidhar is one of the most interesting storytellers writing today. Never shy of tackling sensitive topics and subjects (Hitler and Osama bin Laden to name but two recent-ish subjects), in By Force Alone he turns his attention to the Arthurian myth — in many ways, the closest the United Kingdom has to a founding mythology. This is not the Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, and Lancelot you may know from other popular interpretations: This is an entirely new beast. It is a grim, grubby version of Camelot and post-Roman Britain. It is also very funny, engaging, and gritty. I really enjoyed this.

You might be wondering about the stand-first I included at the top, there. Well, it’s because nobody in this novel is a particularly good person. They are all self-involved, willing to climb over any- and everyone else in order to get what they want. Arthur starts as the leader of a gang of youths in Londinium, dealing drugs and hijacking large shipments of same. Merlin is an otherworldly creature who feeds off others’ power and energy (especially Arthur’s) — he’s also cynical and doesn’t really seem to like anyone else. Lancelot, meanwhile is a Middle Eastern-trained mystic/ninja/warrior-type and an assassin-for-hire. Guinevere is a killer, who quickly tires of life as Arthur’s wife (that’s not really a spoiler). Countless other characters are ready to fight and fuck their way to the top, regardless of who they have to step on or kill along the way. This is not a band of merry men, but a bunch of bastards.

Almost everything is reimagined, and filtered through a black mirror of sorts. The Grail, for example, is an intriguing development.

“A sword in a stone,” he says. “That is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard, Merlin.” Then he grins, and pats Merlin’s hand. “Nice one,” he says.

The novel is by turns funny, a little bit horrifying, uncomfortable, and bizarre. But it is always interesting and imaginative. It’s nearly impossible to read the novel without thinking about contemporary politics and how the UK (and US) has changed. The characters are dealing with their own difficult political and social environment: the Romans have departed, leaving the island ungoverned and adrift. They feel abandoned, but also fiercely nationalistic (even though it isn’t actually a single nation). Arthur is determined to unite the various kingdoms, and rule over the whole island. It won’t be easy, but he’s up for the challenge, and has the temperament to achieve it.

Merlin shrugs. “You don’t become a king by being honest,” he said. “You come to the throne by force alone.”

It’s definitely worth reading the author’s note at the end, too, which traces the history of the Arthurian myth. Given how central the character and legend(s) have become to the notion of Britain’s founding, the author points out that “it is one of the greatest ironies of the material that the stories of Britain were mostly made up by those on the continent.”

“Fuuucking Anglo-Saxons,” Merlin says, with feeling.

If you’re looking for something a little bit different, then I would highly recommend you give By Force Alone a try. It’s quite a hefty tome, and it doesn’t always move quickly, but it’s definitely worth your time. Grim, amusing, insouciant, and clever, it’s a lot of fun. Definitely recommended.

“Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough!”