By Force Alone, by Lavie Tidhar

Anyone can write a dark take on the King Arthur mythos, but only

Lavie Tidhar would do so while including legendary martial artist

Lancelot, a Holy Grail sequence that riffs on STALKER, and a vision of

kingship that's less noblesse oblige than perpetual grifting. The result

is a resolutely 2020 version of well-trodden territory: a cold-eyed

assessment of the realities of power that is nevertheless a lot of fun

to read.