By Force Alone

A very different and interesting look in a much known legend. Merlin, Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, all of them totally different, and maybe more real, if you can san so of mythical characters.

I can’t believe how much I love this book. Some characters, no matter how brief their story was, I cared for them.
It did take me a while to read. Perhaps it’s the writing. It’s full of dark humor and blood and gore and I didn’t expect to shed tears at the end.

Anyone affecting praise for this bit of cynical rubbish is like the dogs following the cart referenced by this books less than authorial writer. Dont waste your time.

book delivers as advertized

This is a pretty crazy retelling of the Arthurian cycle. All of our old friends are there, just not in the custom we’re used to. The Knights of the Round Table are basically a street gang that seizes and consolidates power in a Dark Age, very diminished Britain, after the Romans have left and just as the Angles and Saxons are moving in. Guinevere leads a gang of highway(wo)men. Lancelot is a Judean ninja. Merlin is part fae/part human with the form of an adolescent boy. Galahad is decidedly un-pure. And so on.

No chivalry. No puissance. No courtly love. The primary motivation for Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, et al, is power, with a side of wealth.

So a large part of the fun is seeing how Tidhar brings all of the characters onstage, and how she incorporates all of the strands of the story – Grail, Questing Beast, Lady of the Lake, etc.

Her language is sharp, the action moves right along, and the characters are just likeable enough for there to some emotional attachment and sadness as the saga rolls to its conclusion. Recommended.

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