Review of "Spear" by Nicola Griffith

I received an ARC of this book from Tor in exchange for an honest review.

It's taken me a while to sit down and write this review, because it felt challenging to do justice to this book. Arthurian retellings are a dime a dozen, and I went in expecting something quick and forgettable. Instead I was delighted to find that despite the small page count, this was a book that rewarded slow, careful examination; after reading the author's note at the end, I had to go back and look at the details, the word choice, and a world that emerges slowly, like a landscape hidden behind a fog bank. Griffith has not so much retold the Arthur story we all know as approached it from the side, telling a parallel story that dances in and out of the parts of the myth we know. Her characters are beautifully drawn--I especially liked Llanza, her take on Lancelot, whose tangled relationship with Arthur and Guinevere is given a new and more positive look. Equally at home describing afternoons spent in quiet forest landscapes and a single intense moment of furious combat, Spear has a direct and naturalistic style that reminded me favorably of Andrew Krivak's The Bear, a very different book in many ways but also a similar myth-inflected tale of a girl who spends most of her time alone in the woods. The plot is interesting both for its own sake and to explore the contours of the Arthurian myth, parsing the unfamiliar Welsh names and references as the reader wonders which parts of the story we know will hold true in this lake-water reflection of the tale many grew up with. Spear is a different knightly tale than I expected, and one I look forward to returning to on many a misty morning.

Five out of five stars. A slim, focused novel full of beautiful imagery and interesting angles on familiar stories.