{"product_id":"by-force-alone","title":"By Force Alone","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThere is a legend... \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBritannia, AD 535 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story – viscerally entertaining, ominously subversive and poetically profane – of a Dark Age myth that shaped a nation.\u003cbr\u003eEVERYONE''S TALKING ABOUT \u003ci\u003eBY FORCE ALONE\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A bloody, bravura performance, which Tidhar pulls off with graphic imagery and modern vernacular'' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''As eclectic as the \u003ci\u003eSword in the Stone\u003c\/i\u003e and as ruthless as \u003ci\u003eA Game of Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e, this retelling of the whole Arthurian legend stands alongside the very best'' \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''The narrative voice is deadly serious but there''s a strong undercurrent of gleefulness to the profanity, violence and otherworldly magic that makes \u003ci\u003eBy Force Alone\u003c\/i\u003e a whole lot of fun to dive into'' \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''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. \u003ci\u003eBy Force Alone\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A twisted Arthur retelling mixing the historical and the magical with a very modern eye. Brutal and vicious, funny, \u003ci\u003ePeaky Blinders\u003c\/i\u003e of the Round Table'' Adrian Tchaikovsky. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57316414095742,"sku":"NW9781838931292","price":9.13,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781838931292.jpg?v=1778698418","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/by-force-alone","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}