By Force Alone
Autor Lavie Tidharen Limba Engleză Paperback – 4 mai 2021
Descoperim aici o Britannie a anului 535 d.Hr. care nu are nimic din noblețea curtoasă a legendelor clasice: drumurile romane se surpă, bibliotecile scot fum, iar bărbați cu săbii se bat pe cadavrul unei civilizații apuse. By Force Alone nu este doar o altă repovestire a mitului regelui Arthur, ci o deconstrucție viscerală și profană a modului în care se nasc legendele din minciuni auto-servite și fapte sângeroase. Lavie Tidhar înlocuiește cavalerismul cu o energie punk, transformând Masa Rotundă într-o adunare de gangsteri medievali.
Subliniem originalitatea sistemului magic, care nu se bazează pe vrăji abstracte, ci pe o prezență organică și terifiantă a folclorului britanic autentic. Insula este bântuită de swaithes, boggarts și Jenny Greenteeth, creaturi cu pofte obscure care fac din mediul rural un spațiu ostil și imprevizibil. Această abordare amintește de Blackheart Knights de Laure Eve prin ritmul alert și atmosfera de „urban fantasy” aplicată unui context istoric, dar se diferențiază prin tonul mult mai cinic și ancorarea în mizeria veridică a Epocii Întunecate.
Reținem că această lucrare deschide seria Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet, continuând explorarea realităților alternative și a miturilor fondatoare pe care Lavie Tidhar a început-o în volume precum Unholy Land sau antologia Multiverses. Dacă în lucrările sale anterioare autorul jongla cu detectivi și elemente SF, aici folosește aceeași precizie chirurgicală pentru a eviscera convențiile genului fantasy istoric, oferind o experiență de lectură care se simte ca un „Peaky Blinders” al epocii post-romane.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 1250753465
Pagini: 416
Dimensiuni: 158 x 233 x 24 mm
Greutate: 0.63 kg
Editura: Tor Publishing Group
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte cititorilor care s-au săturat de versiunile igienizate ale Camelotului și caută un fantasy istoric curajos. Veți câștiga o perspectivă proaspătă, aproape obraznică, asupra figurilor legendare precum Lancelot sau Guinevere, totul într-un ritm de rollercoaster. Este o lectură densă, plină de umor negru și violență grafică, ideală pentru fanii lui Joe Abercrombie sau Richard Morgan.
Despre autor
Lavie Tidhar este un autor polivalent, laureat al World Fantasy Award pentru romanul Osama și al Campbell Award pentru Central Station. Originar dintr-un context care îmbină diverse influențe culturale, Tidhar este recunoscut pentru capacitatea sa de a traversa granițele dintre genuri, de la thriller și literatură polițistă până la science fiction și ficțiune istorică. Critica literară l-a comparat adesea cu Philip K. Dick sau Kurt Vonnegut pentru modul subversiv și inovator în care abordează temele politice și identitare. Prin proiectul Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet, el își propune să rescrie istoria mitică a Marii Britanii dintr-o perspectivă modernă și iconoclastă.
Descriere
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.
Recenzii
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
Lavie Tidhar has created something wonderful, an extraordinary blend of history, legend, and sheer, lunatic inspiration. I loved it
A violent, funny, absurd epic - Tidhar remains an utterly original voice in contemporary fiction
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
You can always trust Lavie Tidhar to create something brilliant, savage and endlessly entertaining
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
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'
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
A comet that blazes a brilliant new path through dusty old territory. Bold and inventive, it smashes Arthurian myth to bits, sweeps up the brightest, weirdest, most enchanting pieces, and reshapes them into a wildly original tale. Legend has it that King Arthur will return when he's most needed, and this Arthur - this flawed, ambitious, irreverent boy-kingpin - is exactly the one we need now
Everyone is a bastard here, from Guenevere to Arthur to Merlin; I have never come across a more despicable bunch of characters, this is surely an indictment of Lavie Tidhar's warped and degenerate brain. Without a doubt this is the best Arthurian tale ever written, it has ruined the entire mythology for me
A New Weird Britain take on Arthurian mythos... It's an immense remix of the myth, done with an extremely ruthless eye. Lavie is an extremely clever writer'
A bloody, bravura performance, which Tidhar pulls off with graphic imagery and modern vernacular... By Force Alone is Tidhar's scatological contribution to the field of Arthurian romance, a salutary antidote to the more romantic glossings of recent modern fantasy'
At a time when many in a fractious, divided Britain are looking to the past for comfort, Tidhar seeks to remind us - in dizzying, profane fashion - that our nation was, like so many others, built on nothing more romantic than bloodshed and conquest
Every new book by the fiendishly ingenious and canny Tidhar is so radically different from his previous ones that I always await the next with bated breath... The result is stunningly unique and the way he threads his daring if not sacrilegious additions into the fabric of the Camelot tale is like a punch in the gut... Uproarious, provocative and utterly gripping'
In true Lavie Tidhar style, we get something much more entertaining, bizarre and fantastical... If you're looking for something riotously, uncompromisingly graphic and frenzied, then this book well certainly stand out from the crowd'
Iconoclastic, provocative, poetic and profane. King Arthur re-imagined - as you'd expect from the author of A Man Lies Dreaming and The Violent Century as well as the World Fantasy Award-winning Osama and the Locus Award short-listed Central Station
London-based Israeli author Tidhar's latest fantasy is a ferocious and often very funny reinvention of the King Arthur myth, taking in references from Tolkien to Brexit
Plunging a broadsword into the heart of Arthurian legend, Tidhar's novel depicts the Knights of the Round Table as a bunch of sweary, sweaty thugs. So much for the glories of a magical, mythical past. Britain, it seems, has forever been a land of factional infighting, presided over by a brutal, uncaring elite
A highly original take on Arthurian legend featuring aliens, a radioactive no-go area, a dragon sighting and the hunt for the Grail
Quite simply, By Force Alone is brilliant, thought-provoking entertainment, which reinvents events from a fictional past that resonate with a real-life, post-Brexit, Britain