This is a retelling of a legend. A great historical tale
This is a very well written book but this wasn’t to my taste.
Perfect for fans of legends

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Really fun, engaging, and original take on the Arthur story - I appreciated the author's research and scholarship, and how the structure echoed the structure of old iterations of the Arthur story. I enjoy the fun of Tidhar's writing. However, some of the 'easter eggs' in this novel felt a bit unnecessary and self-congratulatory.

Power and ideology

I approached By Force Alone with both excitement and trepidation. I enjoy seeing new takes on Arthuriana and the time after the Romans withdrew from Britain is a fascinating period. At the same time, I tend to be wary of cynical and brutal stories because they run a risk of devolving into an exercise in empty misery that masquerades as profoundness.

Overall, I'm happy to say that my worries were unfounded. Don't get me wrong: it's a pretty bleak story. It's just that the bleakness has a purpose and isn't all there is to the book.

I've seen Tidhar describe the book asessentially King Arthur for the Brexit era and you can see that in the book's preoccupation with myth-making, with the way people and events get turned into stories – and the fact that the stories are tools made by someone for a specific purpose (and not a good one, of course) – as well as in its focus on the tensions between the various groups that dwell or arrive in Britain.

It's also a book that doesn't fall for romanticism of conquests, warriors, kings, the glamour of fighting and fucking. In fact I'd say it's completely disillusioned with power, and absolutely clear about how base the drive for power is, how utterly miserable it makes the world.

But it's not just shit and mud and misery. 'By Force Alone' is in a way a reversion of the Clive Owen 'King Arthur' movie. Where the latter was gritty 'realism' masking a typical Hollywood yarn that sands off all the edges (including Lancelot dying so that Guinevere can't cheat on Arthur), the former is historical materialism coated in a mish-mash of absolutely buck wild ideas. Some of them are deep cuts from Arthurian legends (such as Cath Palug, a ghost mer-cat), some are taken from folklore (like the Fae) – and then there are elements from other genres that Tidhar mixes in (Lancelot knows kung fu in this one, and where Tidhar ultimately goes with the Grail is best left unspoiled, although earlier parts might remind readers of Jeff Vandermeers Reach Trilogy).

Those elements disrupt the bleakness and make the book very entertaining. And while everyone is a murderous asshole to an extent because everyone is willing to go along with Arthur in order to climb the ladder, there are characters who also exhibit sympathetic traits. Arthur himself seems most consumed by the lust for power and it's interesting that the reader always sees him at a remove. But there is Gawain who's dragged into stuff against his will; Lancelot who's torn between desire for riches and more elusive pursuits and who's increasingly Done With Shit; sir Pellinore chasing after his Questing Beast; and possibly the coolest Guinevere I have ever encountered. It was also really cool to see some gay and lesbian characters, as all too often fantasy books that pretend to a degree of historical realism mistakenly assume queer people did not exist in the past.

The book is long, but moves at a brisk pace, jumping in time, switching perspectives, never overstaying its welcome. It occasionally can feel a little disjointed and certain characters seem to just drop out of the narrative (I would have loved more Guinevere); but the novel feels very purposeful in how it stays very little in Camelot once it's established. The characters can't really enjoy the wealth and splendour they chased after – nearly as soon as they've 'made it' a rot sets in and the time comes for a doomed fight against another young upstart who wants a shot at the crown. I also really enjoyed the prose style: it's concise and not too ornate, but has a slightly elevated register that brings to mind epic poetry.

'By Force Alone' is a very cool revisionist take on Arthurian legends, one that seems to come from a similar place to Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora's 'Once & Future'. It skillfully mixes a bleakness of outlook with some pleasantly bizarre ideas and a touch of humour in a very enjoyable way.

Published in March of this year in the UK, Lavie Tidhar’s By Force Alone is a period-set mashup of Arthurian myth. This Arthur is brash, young, and power-hungry, expanding his influence out from a small band of men based in London. His ambition ruffles the feathers of many, and he ends up betrayed. Throughout the story we meet many characters familiar from Arthurian myth, such as Merlin, Kay, Guinevere or Gawain, with all of them having their own spin put on them. Classic elements of the myth such as the sword in the stone, the holy grail and the lady in the lake pop up too.

As the afterword shows, Lavie Tidhar has clearly done his research when it comes to medieval sources on Arthurian legends. He explains how the folktale of this legendary king grew into somewhat of a basis for fanfiction, and By Force Alone is his contribution to this ever-growing corpus. As someone who has a background in medieval studies, I can definitely validate this take – I think it’s versatile nature is one of my very favourite things about Arthurian myth.

However, if I’m being honest, I struggled a lot to get through this book, although I had been looking forward to reading it – it took me almost three months to finish it. It is fast paced, and the language used is rather crass and modern, breaking the illusion for me. Among other things, there is a fair amount of swearing, using terms that are commonly used in everyday conversation today. This led to a disconnect between story and characters, and I was unable to immerse myself in the novel. While I do not usually mind authors taking creative license with historical source material, having dialogue that is clearly twenty-first century in a book set in the early medieval period does not work for me. I do see this being a personal preference, and I’m sure that By Force Alone will be a book that is great for a different type of reader!

One of the things I did like about By Force Alone is the introduction of Guinevere and her companions, who, rather than being a hapless princess as she is often portrayed as, has her own agency. They are somewhat of a band of travelling mercenaries of their own, entering the story through choice and not due to marital machinations, which is refreshing. Generally, most of the characters in the book will be familiar to the reader from medieval Arthuriana, although not necessarily in this version. Many characteristics are exaggerated, and the fast pacing leads to little focus on individual characters and their growth, which for me meant that I lacked a sense of who they were as people outside of their immediate actions. They remained superficial, and I was unable to see much discernible character development over the course of the story.

I regret that I am not able to be more unequivocally positive about this book. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of By Force Alone in exchange for an honest review.

This was a horrible story with horrible characters. All that I read of it was, at least. Depressing, dark, dank and violent. Full of awful, irredeemable people. I've said before—this isn't something I find realistic. Some people are dark and terrible, but others aren't. But in By Force Alone, everyone is awful. Which was disappointing. This was totally a DNF. I just finished a Arthurian retelling a week ago which was everything I like about the legend. Action, adventure, excitement, fun—and I came into this expecting the same.

And didn’t get it. Not only did no one in this book have any sense of humor, they all made me hate them. Which wasn’t hard. And when you hate everyone in the retelling of King Arthur, well… it’s difficult to care about the story.

So maybe it was just the wrong time. Or maybe I’m just an Arthurian purist. But By Force Alone proved to be the grimdark legend I never wanted. If you like grimdark, or are less of a purist than I—maybe give it a try. Otherwise, I can’t recommend it.

My thanks to Head of Zeus for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘By Force Alone’ by Lavie Tidhar in exchange for an honest review. It was published on 5th March.

This is a retelling of the Arthurian cycle of myths and legends. Tidhar presents the material chronologically in fourteen parts from the Rise and Fall of Uther Pendragon to the Death of Arthur. There is a wealth of stories within.

I admit that I was a little nervous reading its official description as over the years I have encountered both excellent retellings and some dire ones.

Still, it quickly became apparent that while Tidhar had great fun with Arthur and his knights behaving a bit like Dark Ages Peaky Blinders in a decaying sixth century Londinium, that he has a deep knowledge of the 12th century source material by Geoffrey of Monmouth and the various retellings of the Matter of Britain down through the centuries.

When its audiobook was released I elected to obtain both it and the Kindle edition. It is narrated by Toby Longworth, who I felt did a brilliant job of voicing its many characters. His Merlin was excellent and reminded me of Nicol Williamson’s iconic portrayal.

Be aware that there are some quite frank scenes, strong language and gruesome violence that might offend some readers’ sensibilities. Along the way I caught homages to a number of other authors’ takes on the Arthurian legends including Mary Stewart’s Crystal Cave, T.H. White’s ‘The Once and Future King’, and John Boorman’s passion project, ‘Excalibur’. ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’? Possibly that too as there are some quite surreal and hilarious scenes within.

There were also many pop culture references sprinkled throughout, though I am sure I only caught a few on my first read. Indeed, Tidhar confirms this in his Afterword: “The attentive reader will no doubt find a great many and various references scattered throughout this novel. To them, my congratulations.” 

I cannot express enough how brilliant this novel is. It is undoubtedly playful, with the inclusion of some elements of science fiction and martial arts, yet remains respectful of its sources. I loved Tidhar’s Guinevere and his ongoing tale of Sir Pellinore and the Questing Beast, who pops up every now and then.

Overall, I feel that is an excellent addition to the body of fiction devoted to the Arthurian legends and have been recommending it widely.

I also plan to look at Tidhar’s other titles in the near future.

Israeli science fiction and fantasy author Lavie Tidhar has a wide and varied bibliography. He has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards for his short stories and his longer works. Central Station was a series of linked short stories set around an interstellar port in Tel Aviv, The Violent Century was a take on the superhero genre, and in Unholy Land he took on alternate histories and multiple realities. So it is no surprise that By Force Alone does something completely different again.
This novel is Tidhar’s very modern version of the Arthurian tales. As he notes in his Afterword, there is really no definitive version of these stories and they have been adapted numerous times in the centuries since they were first told, often to serve a particular end. A fact that, he argues, gives him licence to do whatever he wants with the tales and their protagonists. And he does so with verve.
By Force Alone opens with Uther Pendragon cutting a swathe across what will become England in the wake of the departing Romans. Pendragon is a killer, but it is not until he gains the services of a shapeshifting Merlin that his fortunes start to change. Merlin and other fae creatures of his ilk who emerge later in the tale (including Morgana and Morgause) feed off power and its exercise. Through the story of Pendragon, Tidhar articulates the book’s thesis:
He sits upon the throne. It is his by right. He had schemed for it and he had killed for it and it is his by force alone.
And later:
There is no magic to being a king. There’s no birthright but the one that is bought in blood.
Along the way, Merlin helps Pendragon sleep with the wife of his enemy. When Pendragon dies prematurely, Merlin takes the child of that union, a boy who will later become Arthur, and hides him away in London.
The action then moves to London, fifteen years later. Arthur is a scrapper, a young man living by his wits on the streets and dealing drugs. ‘Wealth is power, and power is what Arthur craves.’ With the help of Merlin, who feeds off that power, Arthur starts to rise through the ranks, creating his own gang and establishing a new status quo. Soon he finds himself dealing with the six kings of England, and when they turn on him, he takes on all of them to become the sole ruler of the country.
But this is not just the story of Arthur. Tidhar spends time with other famous players from the tales of Camelot. Guinevere is herself a killer who leads a violent but effective gang of female fighters, Lancelot comes from the East with fabulous fighting skills on a quest to find the Grail and falls for Guinevere, and the knights of the Round Table, such as Galahad, each get their own story. But all are as corrupt, violent and venal as each other:
These men of the Round Table all have that in common: they are unholy sneaks and thieves and liars to a man, and will connive and scheme and murder to pursue their goals.
This is a profane and violent but enjoyable romp through the era. It’s full of anachronisms, and foreshadowings of the modern world such as this:
‘Now a new threat is coming from beyond the sea. Foreigners coming to take our land, our livelihoods – our wives!’… [Merlin] scans the crowd. They’re listening, he sees. They’re nodding in agreement… It occurs to him that this sort of patter will never quite fail. Perhaps in centuries hence, a millennium from now, this sort of crap would still light up people’s hearts. Hatred, after all, is so very comforting to have.
And it’s littered with wry observations:
They do not speak the common tongue but their own harsh Anglisc, a language truly of demons and half-men, a language so barbaric no one should ever try to speak it or, worse, write a story in it.
Adding to the enjoyment for readers are the myriad references (which again Tidhar acknowledges in his Afterword), some sly and some more obvious, to other versions of the Arthurian tale and to other pop culture touchstones. Everything from Blade Runner and The Godfather to Trainspotting.
There is an almost Homeric aspect to this tale, as the main human players are often manipulated by otherworldly beings for their own ends. Merlin backs Arthur and frustrates the forces against him. Morgause seduces Arthur and then sets up his son Mordred in opposition to him. Morgana slinks through the world in the body of a cat and moves other characters like pieces around a chessboard. But all are in search of power, the ultimate aphrodisiac for supernatural beings and humans alike, despite its price, a common thread in many versions of this story. And similar to many of those retellings also, Tidhar does not ignore the fact that the Arthurian story is a tragedy, an aspect he builds to in a finale, in which Arthur faces off against his son in battle.
All of the main aspects of the traditional Arthurian tales are covered here – the sword in the stone, the Lady in the Lake, the quest for the Grail, the Green Knight, Tristan and Isolde, Sir Pellinor and his endless hunt for the questing beast. Tidhar uses fantasy and science fiction tropes to create fascinating, twisted new versions of these iconic stories. But he also uses these tales, as they have often been used, not just for entertainment but for a political purpose, and to explore universal eternal human attributes. But where the more noble versions of these stories stress themes of honour, duty and sacrifice, Tidhar’s take is more focussed on corruption, venality and greed. It is this combination of setting, storytelling and theme that shows once again why Lavi Tidhar is one of the most interesting speculative fiction writers around.

This novel is extremely plot driven. It's a 9 on a scale up to 10 for being plot driven.

It lost me at the part, where the Green Knight, who's transforming from a tree into a giant man, starts wanking while thinking about snails having sex (snail antennas are also mentioned).

I am a huge fan of Arthurian myths and legends and one of my favorite books of all time is "Mists of Avalon".
By force alone is like the opposite of The Mists of Avalon - a parody and a huge disappointment. I still don't know if some of the parts were supposed to be funny. I guess that's not my kind of humor.

The writing style takes getting used to. Sentences are short, blunt and abrupt. There are so many cuss words in this book that if I'd emptied a shot glass each time, I would have filled up a mid-sized lake.

Women are either wenches, whores or seductresses, who are only interested in how big men's dicks are.

Arthur is basically running his own mafia gang, stealing and selling shrooms for cash so he can upgrade his army to take over the world (which makes me wonder how many shrooms have been ingested while writing this book).

Some ideas were great, for example the weird fairyland, Guinevere having her own band of cutthroats or Lancelot being a kung-fu master. All the little story lines felt detached from each other and it seems as if the author just wanted to include everything from Pellinor's worm, to leprechauns to aliens, to the Green Knight (which I already mentioned before) and it reads like a jumbled mess.

The weirder the better? No.

You can still see the standard time line, but the book was way too long and ridiculous in my opinion. Reading those 512 pages was a drudgery.

What started as a promising story about violence and ambitions, taking the throne and power by force alone and not magic or prophesy as in all other Arthurian books, it fell short of what I really enjoy in a book: likeable characters (or just characters with believable motives), good dialogue, a plot that makes sense and women handled in a non degrading way.

I can't recommend this book.

Una de las características más habituales en la obra de Lavie Tidhar es la de alterar hechos históricos más o menos recientes dando un giro a los acontecimientos y dotarlos de una ironía con la que realizar una feroz crítica. Esto lo hemos visto desde Osama (RBA, en castellano, 2013), novela ganadora del World Fantasy Award, a su más reciente Unholy Land (Tachyon, en inglés, 2018), donde utiliza el terrorismo o los refugiados africanos y Palestina como fondo para crear estructuras más típicas del pulp pero con una segunda lectura muy interesante.

En By Force Alone Tidhar se aleja del siglo XX y XXI de donde provenían las fuentes de muchas de sus obras, con excepciones como la magnífica Estación Central (Alethé, 2018), para irse a pleno siglo VI y revisar todo el ciclo artúrico. Más allá del glamour de lo que la historia oficial presenta, esta novela da una vuelta de tuerca por completo a la leyenda del rey Arturo y el resto de personajes, ya sea Merlín, Lancelot o cualquier otro, para crear una adaptación muy, pero que muy libre, de lo que este personaje y los acontecimientos podrían haber sido.



Siempre metiéndose en todos los charcos posibles, el autor propone en esta novela a un Arturo que se erige como líder de una banda de traficantes de una especie de droga de la Edad Media. Merlín es un ser de otro mundo que se alimenta del poder y la energía de otros, en especial de Arturo. Lancelot, el más fiel caballero de Arturo en la leyenda que conocemos, aquí es una especie de guerrero venido del medio este, entrenado en artes marciales y al que puedes contratar sus servicios si necesitas eliminar a alguien. Estos, y el resto de personajes clásicos, ya sea Ginebra, Kay y otras figuras se ven en una Gran Bretaña que tampoco es lo que la historia dice, llena de lujosos castillos y gente de poder. Esta es una tierra desastrosa, donde la vida no vale nada, dejada de lado por los romanos cuando la abandonaron a su suerte y amenazada por todos los lados por los anglos y sajones.

En By Force Alone, Tidhar revisa la vida del Rey Arturo no ya desde su nacimiento sino desde el propio Rey Vortigern, quien ya en las primeras páginas del libro es asesinado por Uther Pendragon, a la postre padre de Arturo. Desde ahí, hasta la muerte del propio Arturo, los diferentes personajes visitaran sitios tan locos como, por ejemplo, una zona radioactiva en la que Lancelot deberá de recuperar el Grial. En este sentido la novela cuenta con múltiples referencias no ya a clásicos de la literatura rusa, al actual grimdark y otras, sino que también es aderezado con innumerables comentarios sobre qué es Gran Bretaña, cuál era y cuál es su lugar en el mundo, incluyendo nacionalismos y las falsas historias sobre grandes leyendas. Algo de plena actualidad en las islas debido al Brexit y que influenciara a varias generaciones.


By Force Alone es una novela muy divertida. La adaptación a siglo XXI de la leyenda artúrica se beneficia de un lenguaje completamente opuesto al habitual de este tipo de libros. Es un texto moderno que funciona para el mundo actual. Tidhar retuerce los personajes y altera todo lo que hemos visto en infinidad de películas y libros, buscando en cada escena un punto de vista distinto al habitual.

Cuenta el propio Tidhar al final del libro las diferentes versiones del rito artúrico que se han ido publicando desde la inicial de Geoffrey de Monmouth en Historia Regum Brittaniae alla por el siglo XII y cómo han influenciado en este libro. Sera curioso comprobar si dentro de unos años este será un libro categorizado como apócrifo para los defensores de las versiones clásicas o, sin embargo, un punto de vista que perdure en el tiempo.

Esta es una adecuación de la leyenda que es muy chocante con la formalidad conocida. Personalmente me lo he pasado fenomenal leyendo esta nueva versión de los hechos y leyéndome sus quinientas páginas en apenas tres días. Tan pronto entras en el juego y vez que cualquiera cosa puede ser posible, Lavie Tidhar da un paso más en su jocoso punto de vista y culmina en By Force Alone una magnifica novela, hilarante en unos momentos, critica y acida en otros, que ya es una de mis favoritas del año.

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.

I’ve always been a fan of legends and mythology, British folklore being of particular interest, so when I heard Lavie Tidhar was writing a book based on the Arthurian cycle I have to admit I got a bit excited. It turns out my excitement was more than a little justified. By Force Alone has been released this week and it is everything I hoped it would be and more.

The novel follows Arthur through his entire life. From Uther Pendragon’s tryst with Igraine to Arthur’s final meeting with Mordred. You may well be familiar with the stories that surround Camelot but By Force Alone interprets things just a little differently. Try to imagine some Guy Ritchie type gangster action playing out in the Dark Ages. Arthur is as much a crime boss as a king. Thinking about it, that maybe the whole point. As his life plays out, the author draws parallels between Arthur the young tearaway living fast and free on the streets of Londinium, and Arthur the monarch defining a country one sword stroke at a time. The only difference between running a gang of thugs and running a kingdom is the sense of scale.

Arthur can be viewed almost like an addict, but his addiction of choice isn’t drugs, its power. He craves total control and is prepared to do anything in order to achieve it. Aloof and single-minded Arthur could not necessarily be described as a likeable soul. He is so consumed with his birth right he is oblivious to any other concerns. In many respects he becomes a secondary character in his own life. The world may revolve around the man destined to be king, but it is the actions and reactions of his friends and enemies that drive the narrative forward. Arthur is always there in the background, his presence is felt throughout, but the focus is on those who drift in and out of his orbit.

It’s the thing I enjoyed most about By Force Alone, the characters. These are not the noble, steadfast, honour bound individuals you have met before. Tidhar has a deliciously skewed take on the Knights of the Round Table.

Merlin is a slippery stoner type, imbued with a low animal cunning and a desire for knowledge above all things. Most of the time he views humanity with a morbid curiosity. Smarter than just about everyone in the room, the only thing he must contend with are the other members of his own dysfunctional otherworldly family.

Lancelot is more mercenary than chivalrous knight. Killing is his business and business is good. Lancelot’s back story is a highlight. It basically involves a plethora of violence, all- encompassing obsession, and at one point some graphic bloodletting involving intestines. All this is before he has even made it to Camelot and Arthur’s side.

Guinevere is a badass, she runs her own gang who are more than happy to kill, or maim, as long as it guarantees a decent payday. The dynamic between her, Arthur and Lancelot is explored in a particularly interesting way. I’ll say no more than that for fear of spoilers.

This is not the version of Camelot you will be familiar with. Gone are the shining spires to be replaced by grimy whorehouses. Since the Romans exit from the country we’ve fallen on hard times. In many respects Arthur’s golden vision of a united nation is commendable but the reality is, putting it politely, a bit more earthy.

There is an episodic air to each new chapter. As more characters are introduced, Gawain, The Lady of the Lake, the Green Knight etc the plot hits the key points of Arthur’s legends. As the plot reaches its climax, Tidhar proves he also has a keen eye for gripping action. The Battle of Camlann has a slow build, but when it all finally kicks off, there is a gleeful chaos to proceedings. Arthur’s ultimate meeting with Modred is as brutal as it is definitive.

In the last decade of reviewing books, if you had forced me to pick a single book out of the hundreds I have read as a favourite up until By Force Alone, it would have been A Man Lies Dreaming also by Lavie Tidhar. Now I find I am burdened by indecision. A Man Lies Dreaming will always be close to the top of the list, but is it still number one? I’m not sure. I shouldn’t be in the least bit surprised that the same author could easily reinvent Arthurian legends so eloquently. The writing injects this little country’s collected mythology with a whip smart modern sensibility. By Force Alone is the rowdy bastard child of John Boorman’s Excalibur and Trainspotting*. It’s only March but I can already confidently predict that By Force Alone is going to be one of my favourite reads of 2020. If I could think of a rating higher than “highly recommended” then I would the using that to describe this book.

The soundtrack recommendation is King Arthur: Legend of the Sword by Daniel Pemberton. The music dovetails seamlessly with Tidhar’s words. The track Growing Up Londinium is a perfect example. Listening to that while reading about Arthur’s early life felt like a match made in heaven.

By Force Alone is published by Head of Zeus and is available now. I stress once again that its brilliant and you should immediately seek it out.

*There is one specific passage that is undoubtedly a nod to everyone’s favourite skag-addled Scottish miscreants, Keep an eye out, you’ll know it when you see it.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Wow. This was incredible.

Although not my usual cup of tea, I was pulled in by the blurb and the contents did not disappoint.

An interesting take on the legend of Arthur. A more gritty and realistic take in that the characterization could be realistic for a man who wants to unite the lands just because he likes power.

Overall rating: 4/5 stars

I'm a fan of Lavie Tidhar and I'm a fan of Arthurian sagas and these factors made this book one of my must read in 2020.
I had high expectations and I can say I wasn't disappointed.
I inhaled this book as it's powerful with its retelling of well known story and making it fresh and enthralling.
It's dark, gritty and violent and I loved every moment.
Arthur, Merlin and all the characters in this saga are perfect for the dark age as they are stripped of all the Middle Age chivalry ideas and made more adapted to the age when they are supposed to live.
The historical background is fascinating and vivid, a perfect depiction of what it should have been at the end of the 5th century BC. Christianity is not a central topic as in the classic telling but something in the background, new ideas that will be accepted in the future.
This story went up to top my list of best Arthurian saga retelling as it's one the most powerful and original retelling.
I think this is one of those book you can say "Go, buy it, and be ready for a fascinating reading experience".
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance e-copy of By Force Alone via NetGalley.

'If you expect Enlightenment to occur centuries hence you are sure to be disappointed'

Well.

Where can I even start with Tidhar's latest? There is so much to this book, it's hard to know where to begin. I'm tempted just to say you should buy it, and then sign off, but I need to do better than that.

By Force Alone takes as its theme the life of King Arthur, previously invented, narrated, embroidered, reinvented, retold over hundreds of years and also subject to numerous quests for the "real" Arthur, the "real" truth. What we have is, then, another retelling, but a retelling shaped for the times, reflecting our early 21st century, late capitalist, preoccupations...

...as is every retelling of these stories.

Tidhar summarises this process in an Afterword, which also puts the subject in its historical context, sketching what is known of the corresponding actual history of Britain in a period when it had broken from being part of a pan-European polity and had to make its own way in the world. That situation is, as best anyone can tell, the "real" background to Arthur, if there is such a thing - the post Roman period, from which few written records survive but which seems to have been foundational in producing what would later be called England. (One little quibble is the phrase 'The Dark Ages': just no!)

In the course of this book Tidhar actually sketches a very convincing picture of this period, one in which Roman towns, infrastructure (roads, mines, aquaducts) and - though sketchily - political structures still survive, albeit decaying, and in which various local "bosses" survive, claiming various forms of legitimacy but all holding power, in the end, by force alone - a repeated mantra in this book. The former Roman provinces are divided into tenuous "kingdoms", based on geography, tribal allegiance and opportunity - both credible historically and reflecting the nature of the Arthurian tales which abound in petty kings.

As the story proceeds, locations, which initially correspond to real places (Google some and you'll see) become vaguer, introducing legendary and possibly mythical places such as Camelot and Camlann. We are, then, moving from what is known, what can be inferred, into the mists of history. In keeping with that, we repeatedly see the impatience of rulers with mere practical questions such as how to keep the aqueducts working or supply food to the miners toiling in the - still just working - Roman gold-mines, and their immediate interest when it comes to hunting down groups of bandits or challenging each other for the top table. As we move into those mists, the sword's the thing, the trappings of civilisation fall away (though, how Merlin yearns for a decent library!)

Entertainingly, Tidhar sets up a comparison between these rulers and organised crime syndicates: mafia language proliferates with knights being "made" men, the objectives of the bosses being trafficking, protectionism and prostitution, there is mention of the omnium ducibus dux, the bosses of all the bosses, 'the sort of offer you couldn't refuse' refuse, and so on. There is one scene where the mobsters, sitting in the street and eating olives as though on the Aventine, reflect on how things were done in the Old Country, from which their parents and grandparents came.

The message is that this isn't the age of chivalry, Arthur's band of soldiers are not good Christian knights despite the many Sir thises and Sir that's (indeed, Christianity is a shadowy, somewhat marginal faith here). Nobody here is following a cause: Arthur's actions in seeking to unite Britannia (England isn't a thing yet) are all about getting, and enjoying power. 'He cares only that it is his commands that are obeyed, that on his word men live or die'. Merlin's, too, in supporting him - as a Fan, Merlin feeds on power. And Arthur's prepared to deploy populist rhetoric to achieve that ('They want our land. They want our wealth. They want our women', 'Like the Roman, I seem to see the Tiber foaming with much blood'). He's just like a - well, insert the name of your favourite lying populist demagogue, there are plenty to choose from. There are no principles here. 'It occurs to [Merlin] that this sort of patter will never quite fail. Perhaps in centuries hence this sort of crap would still light up people's hearts.'

And if you recognised one of those quotes, it's because it comes from a 20th century English politician, not from Thomas Mallory or Geoffrey of Monmouth. Tidhar uses such anachronisms ruthlessly [more examples] and quite fittingly, given that the whole setup of knights in armour, castles, squires, chivalry and jousting which we associate with Arthur is itself totally anachronistic, dating from nearly a thousand years after the time of Arthur (if there ever was such a time).

Equally fitting is the exploration here of the place of the Arthur myth in the national psyche - a myth which sits uneasily with the long accepted narrative of a state founded by Angle and Saxon invaders, given that Arthur is cast as one of the natives. (The dirty secrets of England's foundation is a subject ripe for fiction, that narrative of the triumphant incoming Germanic tribes long suited a culture seeking justification for an imperial destiny but doesn't sit so well in post-colonial times).

Tidhar is absolutely the right person, I think, to carry out this exploration. Many of his recent books (for example, A Man Lies Dreaming and Unholy Land) reveal a fascination with pulp literature and its myth-making, whether that is intended or not. In a sense, the whole Arthurian cycle and the way it has developed, with its origin myths, reboots and team-ups - is the ultimate body of pulp literature, made up as it is of tales of heroes performing wildly improbably feats, created to satisfy the demand for brightly coloured exploits and coming to fruition when printing allowed mass distribution. I've no doubt there were worthies in 15th century England denouncing the influence of this trashy stuff on the young.

In Tidhar's hands the latest rewrite of The Matter of Britain hits all the right notes and as ever with this writer, the breadth of cultural references is impressive and, again, impressively anachronistic. Tidhar evokes Shakespeare (often, but especially through the witches from Macbeth), Trainspotting ('Choose life. Choose a home. Choose a great big fat palace to stuff all your money in...'), Blade Runner ('attack ships on fire off the coast of Smyrna'), Gangs of New York ('Everybody owes and everybody pays, as the poet said' - appropriate, given how he sketches London), TS Eliot, 20th century myths such as the speculation of Erich von Daniken and much, much more.

At the same time, all the familiar figures ands tropes are here: not only Merlin and Arthur, but the Round Table, Sir Pellinore and the Questing Beast (possibly the only two genuinely good and pure characters here), Kay and Hector as Arthur's foster family, the Nine Sisters (though here the 'ladies of the lakes and streams', still dispensers of swords, have become enthusiastic arms traders). Lancelot and Guinevere are here (though given exciting backstories: both are now kick-ass assassins, but while Guinevere is an ex-highwaywoman with her own girl gang, Lancelot - a Nubian - is a member of a mystic sect form Judea, trained in the ancient art of gongfu and ready to deliver such moves as 'the Monkey's Paw and the King in Yellow and the Turn of the Screw'.

There is the Dolorous Stroke that wounds the King and inflicts sickness on the land. Tidhar puts his own emphasis on things - the Lancelot/ Guinevere thing is passed over in a few pages, the whole Grail Quest gets a completely different twist on it which I'm saying nothing about because it would spoil things

The book also looks forward ('Perhaps... one day all of this land will speak in Anglisc, and they'll re-surface the old Roman roads and ride down them in horseless chariots, like dragons belching smoke...') ('As though swiping through images only she can see') and Tidhar's use of language sometimes shows the same place across time (for example 'The Romans' once-new castle on the Tyne' or the scenes in which Guinevere and her companions, travelling in the North East, seem to encounter coal smoke, the incessant din of industry and the flames of furnaces and forges.

Overall, it is I think a dark take on the Arthurian material. A very dark take. I'm reminded of Michael Hughes' Country, which uses the Homeric narrative of the Trojan War to frame the story of the Troubles in Ireland. Both retellings use a familiar narrative to illuminate the present and both are stories of bloodshed and loss, with many dodgy protagonists. Both end in bloodshed and loss. But while Country manages to achieve some closure, the ending of By Force Alone is a devastating assassination of any cosy, nation-building mythicness that one might look for in the Arthurian cycle. Not only has Tidhar exploded the internal content of the cycle, substituting amorality and power lust for the chilly literary chivalry of the late Middle Ages but he's shown how that cycle will be appropriated by the victors from the losers (' The Angles and the Saxons are here to stay, dear Merlin... They'll tell this story and think it is about themselves it's told...') Another point of reference might be a story that ends with these words, from an earlier retelling: 'For Drake is no longer in his hammock... nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and its is up to you. Now especially since man has the strength to destroy this world, it is the responsibility of man to keep it alive...'

Another complicated, thought provoking and many-layered novel from Tidhar whose books are definitely a must-read for me, taking in a dazzling range of themes and perspectives.

Another new iteration of the Arthur myth – and given the ongoing national nervous breakdown, I'd imagine there are a few more in the pipeline. The reworker this time, though, is Israeli, so it's neither the usual project of British self-examination, nor another awkward attempt to take the legend to Hollywood. The blurb – "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" – suggests a demythologised take, which is generally the least interesting form of revisionism; I saw maybe 30 minutes of that terrible Clive Owen film (and I like Clive Owen) which was trying to be Gladiator, then arrived in a market where Lord Of The Rings had blown Gladiator out of the water, and dear me but there are few things funnier than watching bad creative decisions taken for commercial reasons which then end up a commercial disaster too. Not to mention, if you go back to the early versions from Geoffrey and Wace and Layamon, we already have those brutal, stripped-back versions with little in the way of chivalry or romance, so creating a new one by back-formation feels a lot like translating something back into its original language. Why bother?

Still, I thought I'd give it a go, because it's by Lavie Tidhar, and if I haven't loved everything I've read of his (The Bookman and I did not get on), he's written enough bangers that his intersection with one of my favourite themes deserved a look. Turns out I should have been paying more attention to another bit of the blurb: "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 not a story where all the magic turns out to be trickery, superstition and ergotism. Before Arthur is even conceived, we've had an ogre and the Questing Beast (a comparative deep cut who also put in an early appearance in Gillen & Mora's Once & Future – which might just be a curious coincidence but, as with Lancelot's eclipse of Gawain all those centuries ago, I feel there must be something more to it, and I wish I could put my finger on what). Oh, and Merlin's magic is very real. We meet him as a boy, meaning I naturally pictured the lad who was the best thing about The Kid Who Would Be King, the definitive young Merlin as surely as Excalibur's Nicol Williamson was the definitive adult one. And he knows some modern things, but he is very much not a modern man, nor even quite a man at all. Which is not to say that, even with real powers, a certain amount of showmanship and nous doesn't play just as much of a part in getting the desired result; Tidhar's treatment of the Sword in the Stone is a particularly fine weaving of all these components into something canny, funny, brutal – and yet still tinged with a certain majesty.

The story begins with Uther toppling Vortigern, in a Britain which still bears traces of Roman civilisation but where everything is increasingly broken-down, tatty, reverting to savagery; Brexiteers tend to prefer Henry VIII's example to recalling our other, earlier departure from a common European project. This, though, this "stinking shithole of an island" collapsing into a squabbling, brutal, dirty mess - yeah, this feels emphatically once and future. I love the idea of Londinium's top hard man insisting he's the governor, as in Roman governor, and this being the origin of our hardman 'guv'nor', though I suspect philologists might dissent. This sets the tone for Arthur's rise, in which knights are essentially mobsters, with being knighted even being referred to as being made. It's an analogy that goes both ways, of course; even as you're saying that Bors and Agravaine are armed thugs, you're playing into the degree to which our culture, not least spandexphobe Martin Scorsese, has made noble figures out of gangsters – and indeed, there's one distinctly overdone riff on that Goodfellas speech, you know the one. Which isn't the only time the modern allusions slightly overdo it. But this is always the risk when you use the past (or future, for that matter) to talk about the present, and here it comes off nine times for every tenth it flops. There's a speech which manages to incorporate riffs on both Enoch Powell and Trainspotting. Guinevere is a Dark Ages girl gang take on Omar from The Wire. The Waste Land is inspired by Tarkovsky and Vandermeer, and I don't even want to give away Tidhar's take on Lancelot except to say it's fabulous. Does this sound like a ridiculous smorgasbord? Perhaps, but that's part of the point. Not just because I respect the audacity, but because the Matter of Britain was always a greedy myth, sucking other stories into its own orbit, adapting to the age, so in its own perverse way this is a sort of fidelity to that. Not to mention, it's a lot more interesting this way; compare and contrast Tidhar's Galahad, who as your basic 'This pure thing was actually horrible, aaah' revisionism, is probably the weakest link here.

So yes: a story about how we appreciate power, and romanticise it. About how even the shittiest situation will become someone's good old days if given half a chance. It's a blasphemy against one of my most treasured myths, of course it is, but part of being fit to be allowed out in modern society is being able to respect the artistry on a good blasphemy, instead of reaching for the trigger or the Twitter. And fuck it, when everything else about Britain is being turned into its gimcrack nightmare reflection, what else are you meant to do with the national legend? It's just a pity there wasn't the lead time for Tidhar to drop "levelling up" and "unleashing Britain's potential" into the mix along with all the other hideous foreshadowings.

(Netgalley ARC)

La leyenda que rodea al rey Arturo es una de esas historias que trasciende lugares y épocas, que se revisita cada cierto tiempo con nuevas versiones y que no cesa de estimular la imaginación de autores y lectores. No es para menos, porque se trata de una narración que representa a la perfección el monomito de Campbell, la idea del héroe que se hace a sí mismo a través de un camino tortuoso en el que prueba su valía hasta que cumple su destino glorioso.

Ya sabéis: el hombre (suspiro) de origen humilde (suspiro) destinado a convertirse en líder, referente o gobernante (suspiro, suspiro, suspiro), que pasa por una serie de adversidades (más suspiros), generalmente acompañado por alguien -otro señor normalmente de mayor edad (con más experiencia)- que lo guía por sus múltiples tribulaciones (coged aire), hasta que demuestra sus méritos y logra alcanzar la función para la que se suponía que había estado destinado desde su nacimiento (soltad todo el aire). Como ejemplos de este famoso «camino del héroe», aparte del rey Arturo, estarían Alejandro Magno, Carlomagno, el sultán Mehmed II, Frodo, Luke Skywalker, Neo o Harry Potter. Se trata de jóvenes que sienten una llamada inexplicable a un destino más grande que lo que la vida les tenía aparentemente preparado, y con poderes, capacidades o una combinación de ambos, extraordinarios. Os hacéis una idea ¿no?
El mito artúrico debe ser uno de los más adaptados y revisitados donde los haya. Solo en películas y series anglosajonas se pueden enumerar más de una docena, sin contar los proyectos de dibujos animados y largometrajes infantiles: Knights of the Round Table en 1953, Prince Valiant en 1954, Camelot en 1967, Arthur of the Britons de 1972 a 1973, Perceval en 1978, Gawain and the Green Knight en 1973, Excalibur en 1981, Arthur the King en 1985, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court en 1989, Guinevere en 1994, First Knight y A Kid in King Arthur’s Court en 1995, Prince Valiant en 1997, The Mists of Avalon en 2001, King Arthur en 2004, Camelot en 2011, la serie Merlin de 2008 a 2012, o King Arthur: Excalibur Rising y King Arthur: Legend of the Sword en 2017.
¿Es posible ofrecer una versión novedosa de la leyenda artúrica? Por difícil que parezca, lo es. Tidhar lo ha conseguido en su más reciente novela By Force Alone, que la editorial Head of Zeus va a publicar el próximo mes de junio. Lo primero que se puede decir sobre el libro, sin caer en los «spoilers», es que es difícil discernir al protagonista: ¿es Arthur? ¿es Merlín? Lo cierto es que buena parte de la narración gravita alrededor de la relación entre estos dos personajes, ahondando en el origen del interés del mago por el que se convertiría en rey de Britannia, empezando por las vicisitudes de su padre, Uther Pendragon para llegar al poder y tener descendencia.
Con la gran cantidad de personajes que atraviesan sus páginas -Kay, Lancelot, Morgan, Gawain, el Green Knight, Agravain, Mordred, Uther…- una termina dándose cuenta de que By Force Alone es, antes que nada, una historia sobre relaciones estratégicas, alianzas, intereses creados y compromisos adquiridos. La ambición se presenta como el combustible que alimenta las decisiones, el motor de los conflictos. Y el mundo mágico que Tidhar pinta como una realidad paralela a la real, donde las leyes de la naturaleza y de las criaturas funcionan siguiendo una física exótica y en el que Merlin y Morgan actúan de puentes, seres del aquí y del más allá, entidades que desafían ambas dimensiones pero que no están totalmente cómodos en ninguna de las dos. Las ambiciones de ambos juegan al gato y al ratón (nunca mejor dicho) a lo largo de toda la historia, utilizando a unos y a otros como peones en un tablero de juego que es, al final, una isla entera, una nación: la propia Britannia. Creo que es un gran acierto que Tidhar profundice en el origen de Arthur pero, una vez establecida la corte de Camelot en la segunda parte de la novela, la narración parece coger carrerilla y desarrollarse con cierta prisa. Pero, como señala el propio autor, en los textos artúricos lo más interesante sucede al principio y al final de su reinado.
Mientras leía la novela de Tidhar, y reflexionando sobre el título, me vino a la mente El Evangelio según Jesucristo de José Saramago, otra estupenda ficción sobre el epítome del héroe de Campbell que trata la ambición, en este caso, de Dios. El portugués realiza un «retelling» del Nuevo Testamento a partir de las aspiraciones egoístas de la divinidad y no pude por menos que encontrar numerosas similitudes con la obra de Tidhar. En ambos casos, los autores recurren a diálogos, algunas veces interiores, bien construidos, con personajes que tienen reacciones verosímiles, ingeniosas y chispeantes. Gracias a ellos es posible reflexionar sobre las consecuencias de la ambición, sobre la existencia del libre albedrío cuando fuerzas incontrolables entran en juego, y sobre la creación de leyendas a partir de ficciones inventadas.
En resumen, By Force Alone es un «retelling» de la tradición artúrica en la que Tidhar consigue arrancar sonrisas al lector a lo largo de toda la narración, no solo por las frases llenas de humor, sino por su capacidad para hacernos reflexionar sobre el cinismo con solo unas cuantas pinceladas de su pluma. ¡Recomendadísimo!

The tale of King Arthur is centuries old. It varies slightly through the numerous retellings, mainly by film. Yet it remains a powerful and potent story. The one and true king who will save Britain in it’s hour of need. (Maybe now is a good time for him to reappear?). I’ve read many of these stories over the years, Stephen Lawheads books were the best until now.

By Force Alone is a raucous tale told from another viewpoint altogether. It owes a lot to the humour of Monty Python and Robin Hobbs. The world of Arthur is recognisable, yet the twists put on the story by Lavie Tidhar raise the well known story to the next level. Subtle at times Lavie plays with the characters providing moments when you laugh out loud, yet somehow the story remains serious.

The book is narrated from various sources which adds to the story without being confusing for the reader. The streak of humour is there for everyone to see, yet at times it’ll be obvious whilst at others it’s so subtle you’ll not notice until halfway down the next page, causing you to go back and check you had read what you thought.

An excellent addition to the canon, this book will delight those who read it. Fantasy at its best.

Interesting..... I would not class myself a fan of Tidhars previous books but the premise of this sounded different and it certainly was that, i enjoyed and endured simultaneously. it has not made me a fan but it did keep me interested