This was really awesome! This is a queer reimagining of the Percival/Peredor/Parzival/Peretor story with a genderbent main character! We follow a queer woman who, raised in a secluded cave by her mother, strikes out on her own and tries to get to Caer Leon to eventually join King Artur's court. I enjoyed this even more than I expected!

Great things I loved:
1. The Welsh inspiration! Arthurian myth has several strains, of course, as many peoples claim it, but because I have a soft spot for Wales and Welsh myth/culture in general, the Welsh origins are my preferred inspiration. It was amazing seeing Wales get the credit it deserves for Arthurian myth! I loved hearing about places I recognized in Wales and having Caerleon be the place of Arthur's court (as this is the place in Wales that he would have been traced to, although there are several English spots people say he lived at... I'm Team Caerleon). I loved the Welsh names, and it almost felt even more like a puzzle because I got to figure out who certain names were for. I love Arthurian myth and it was great to see it reimagined in such a Welsh way here.

2. The writing was gorgeous! If you like prose with a bit more beauty in it, definitely check this out!

3. Historical fantasy of this kind has been mostly a miss for me (see my thoughts on She Who Became the Sun and All the Horses of Iceland), but this totally resonated with me, and I do think if you like one of the ones I didn't love as much, you may like this one as well. It gave me that sort of historical fantasy vibes because as much as Arthurian myth is magical myth, this felt very grounded in the Medieval Welsh time period. As a history major, I recognized many of the things in this. I really loved the slower plot of this and the more emphasis on the time period creating the fantasy more than magic did. This is my favorite of stories of this kind that I've read.

4. This book is QUEER! But that's not all. The author talks about how diversity in historical fantasy is really important because queer, BIPOC, and disabled people did not just appear one day in the 20th century in Britain and I loved that. I definitely saw that in this book. Because of the queerness of this book, new and interesting things could be done with the myth, including a genderbending of Percival, a sapphic romance with the Lady of the Lake, and a polyamorous relationship between Artur/Gwen/Llanza (Lancelot).

In the end, I very much enjoyed this book, and thank you to NetGalley for access to this early, despite me getting to it a bit late.

4.5 stars.
A wonderfully told, queer version of a King Arthurian story about a girl raised in isolation and secrecy by her fearful mother, who becomes a fearsome warrior.

The protagonist, Peretur, teaches herself to hunt and fight, and appears at Caer Leon (Artos’ Court), disguised as a young man, eager to become one of his Companions.

Peretur must prove herself worthy, as Artos instinctively mistrusts her. She demonstrates her martial abilities (which are uncanny), she watches Court life (and susses out the relationship amongst Artos Gwynnefar and Llanza), and the loveliest part of this book is her meeting and getting to know the fierce Nimuë.

This is a gorgeously written and nicely queer interpretation of the ancient legend of Camelot. Nicola Griffith’s story feels like a fable but has the scope and tragedy of an epic, beginning with Peretur’s quiet childhood and youth, as she learns to interpret what surrounds her and gains vital skills, all while some terrible danger looms over her life. The scope expands as Peretur decides to make her way to Artos’ Court.

I loved how Peretur has a strong connection to the land and creatures around her; for example, her quiet understanding of the needs and feelings of her horses Bony and Broc, and her ability to anticipate how someone would move gave her a near mythic ability to fight. But what made the book for me was her powerful connection to Nimuë, and how these two indomitable women managed Artos and Gwynnefar, and kept secrets to prevent disaster to everyone.

This is a glorious, beautiful, intense story.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time; a queer retelling of the Arthurian mythos focusing on Perceval.

I received an ARC of Spear from Macmillan-Tor/Forge in exchange for an honest review.

It has been almost a decade since the publication of Nicola Griffith’s Hild (which I haven’t read—I know, I know!—despite having owned it for nearly that long), and while the sequel is still forthcoming, Spear serves as a self-contained fantasy interstitial for those awaiting Griffith’s next work of historical fiction, or as an introduction to her diverse oeuvre for newcomers such as myself. Spear lacks the emotional heft of a full novel but harbors its own pleasures.

Spear is a genderbent take on the story of Peretur (who you may know as Parzival or Percival) and the Holy Grail. Peretur grows up in the woods under the care of her mother, but she is a precocious and adventurous child who pokes and prods at the boundaries of her world. These early sections are where the novella is at its most engaging: Griffith’s prose is syntactically dense and peppered with proper nouns, which forced me to re-read many sentences multiple times before I could fully parse them. I savored the richness and texture of that experience.

Peretur’s initial encounters with people other than her mother are invigorating—she watches them from the woods, and she becomes a sort of forest spirit in their minds when she starts stealing their possessions and leaving other items for them to find. I was particularly struck by the moment she first observes male-bodied people and the way she attempts to describe them, having no reference point for the human body other than herself and her mother. She becomes attracted to both men and women as she gets older, and because she lives in a cultural vacuum, her bisexuality is utterly unmoored from shame or confusion. It’s extraordinarily refreshing.

Sexuality becomes even more dynamic in Spear when Peretur begins passing as male and her story starts intersecting with that of King Arthur and his court. The “female-bodied person passes as male-bodied person in a patriarchal environment” trope never ceases to engage me—likely because it empowers the text to obliquely address the fluidity of gender as a theme. Spear is deliciously playful at every turn, highlighting the arbitrary nature of the societal constructs that surround gender and sexuality via a character who did not grow up enmeshed in those constructs.

Griffith’s portrayals of other Arthurian characters are equally refreshing. King Arthur himself (“Artos”), although he exists only on the fringes of this story, is given a tantalizingly different depiction: he seems to be on a spectrum somewhere between Frodo and Gollum, enthralled by a magical artifact—his sword, in this case—but not wholly consumed or corrupted by it. It’s less fantastical than it is patriarchal, portraying a man desperately clinging to power and privilege even as he feels the tremors of change begin to destabilize the ground under his feet.

Spear starts to flow more smoothly as it moves away from its opening sections and Peretur interacts with more characters, but it unravels near the end. The pacing accelerates to the point that major plot beats breeze by weightlessly; I suddenly found myself struggling to stay invested, and I craved either a full novel or a story that was smaller in scope—a longer book that would allow Peretur’s relationships to develop naturally over time, or a shorter book that would be content to step away earlier in her journey. Instead, it lands in an awkward middle ground.

Despite this frustration, Spear was, for me, a sumptuous and electrifying introduction to Griffith. I can’t wait to read more from her.

Thank you to Tordotcom and Netgalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such an incredible new take on Arthurian retellings. It approaches the legends from the Welsh tradition, so while there are of course many familiar aspects, the place and people names are different from what most people are probably familiar with, so that's a good thing to keep in mind when you pick this book up. That being said though, I don't think you need to know a great deal about the Arthurian stories to read this book!

It also follows Peretur (more well-known as Percival) rather than Arthur himself, which I really enjoyed because while it's always fun to get a new retelling of Arthur's story, I always want to know the backstories of the other characters as well. Peretur is female in this take on the knight's tale, which added a wonderfully queer element to the story.

The prose in this book was so beautiful, and the world that the author built through it was rich and magical and so vibrant. It was such a pleasure to follow Peretur as she grew and gained a better understanding of herself and how she fits into the spaces she inhabits.

If you're looking for a shorter read that's queer, magical, and has lots of depth, I highly recommend reading Spear!

Usually I just love a story revolving around the Camelot legacy. I was so excited by this title. Disappointingly, much as I longed to relate to this alternative Arthurian tale, I just failed, no I struggled, to become involved.
However, I must give a shout out to Griffith’s excellent author’s notes. These to me were the highlight and would’ve brought my rating up to a five star review if I’d felt at one with the piece.

A Macmillan-Tor/Forge ARC via NetGalley.

SPEAR is gorgeous. Full stop. Griffith is expert at evoking place and time, and then creating characters who are both fully of that place and time and also on the margins of the worlds they occupy. Though there is sadness and loss in this book, it is on the whole a joyous thing, It is easy to fall head over heels in love with Peretur, for the reader as much for those she encounters on her hero's journey. Reading this book feels like having a long and lovely dream, the kind that, upon waking, you feel sad is over, but are grateful to have experienced.

Spear grew out of a short story for the collection Swords, Stone, Table full of deconstructed and gender-swapped Arthurian legends, and Spear is so good that I grabbed the collection immediately afterwards. A girl raised with magic in the woods decides to make her way to Coer Leon to become a knight. With a Gealic perspective and obvious love of the classic British legends, Spear is a masterpiece epic tucked into a tightly plotted novella. Do yourself a favor and read it now, and let the beauty roll over you.

This honestly felt less like a retelling, and more like a story that fully belongs to the Arthurian "canon" (if that even exists.) This is a queer take on the tale though, as we follow a Peretur, a woman that wants to become part of the legendary kings inner circle. This quest is not for glory or for fame - she simply wants to do good in the world, and find a place to belong. It was a nice twist on the typical heroes journey story, where the hero is supposed to do everything themselves. Here the goal was to find belonging, both romantic and platonic.
The prose itself also made this feel like I was reading an old tale - it was gorgeous and lyrical in a way that might be hard to get into for many, but that I think really fit the story itself.

+ The story was also very inclusive in a very natural way - there is disability, queer characters, and a twist to the classical love triangle in these legends. It was also set in Wales!

+ Bonus points for a very fascinating authors notes on the inspirations at the end of the story. This was clearly very well researched, and made me hungry for more Arthurian retellings!

A fantastic and more inclusive retelling of Arthurian legend, with clever and intricate Welsh and Celtic weavings too boot. The tale was subversive, honest, and engaging, and I won't look at the classic Round Table stories the same way again. Griffith really did her research here, and it feels like an uncovered story that always existed. There's an ancient feel to the story, while still being affirming to both the physically disabled and the non-gender conforming. A rare feat, and a new all time favorite.

On the surface, this is everything I love in a book (queer Arthurian retelling! Welsh Arthurian retelling! sapphic!), but it really unfortunately felt like it Was Not For Me, which I don’t think was any particular fault of the book itself, it was honestly probably just the fact that it is Finals Week and also Migraine Week for me. I think if you liked Cursed which was an Arthurian retelling on Netflix that premiered at the start of the pandemic, you’ll really like this book, but I couldn’t get into that for similar reasons (it was the start of a pandemic and I was very stressed about it). Three stars but like, I’m sad about it. Rating systems suck.

A true test of any Arthurian retelling is how it stands up to my complete lack of knowledge - and Spear worked well without having a degree in early medieval British history! However, I found that I preferred the earlier parts of the book somewhat (which focussed more on the coming of age aspects of the tale), and would have liked to have seen the king’s companions developed a bit further - but again, this could be due to my own knowledge of the legends, I may have been missing something. I certainly felt less connected to the last third of the book.
That said, Spear utilises some beautiful prose - there's wonderful, vivid imagery that meant I could really picture the scenes all the way through. I can only imagine that someone with a bit more background knowledge would find this even more enriching - but Spear is a perfectly enjoyable and well-written read even without.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This was a really interesting read. I personally enjoyed the narrative style which felt very reminiscent of the fairytales I used to read as a child, and was well suited for a novella. Unfortunately, I found very little to make me care for the protagonist or her motivations in life. Which led me to be bored throughout.

As for the queer gender bending, I don't obviously mind that, but I didn't see what it brought to the table. It was done just for the heck of it, and that's fine but to me it didn't make the story or the character any more interesting and I wish there was more to it in this aspect.

This was such an enjoyable short novel which is an Arthurian retelling about a woman (people think she is a man) who believes her destiny is to go to King of Caer Leon's court and to be a hero. For those who aren't familiar with the Arthurian myth, I recommend reading a short version out of it because you will get more out of the story. This book has gorgeous artwork (think A Spindle Splintered). For 200 pages, I believe that Griffith has done an amazing job with bringing the story in 200 pages but I also wanted more at the same time. I do have to say that the pacing was a little too fast but understandable since the book was short. The world building was great with this book taking place in the medieval world which was simple and the author got all the basics for readers to know about.

The main character in this book is Peretur and I enjoyed her character. I loved her journey in this story and how it was about the fact that heroes and heroines are the same thing. The author decided to switch the gender which was really creative. Peretur has a great character development and is an amazing role model. There aren't many side characters in this book but there are some and they do make a difference to the story which I liked. The main character in this book is queer but the story didn't focus on romance but more on Peretur's destiny.

The ending was a little arupt in my opinion especially with the fast pacing. This book was very well done but I did have some problems like with the pacing. Though for a short book I totally recommend it because you can read it in one sitting. I honestly don't know which book to compare this too or recommend to fans of but I totally recommend this book!

I absolutely loved this story, a sapphic take on Percival... sort of. Griffith knows her (vast array of contradictory) Arthurian Myth and gleefully does what all Arthurian authors do best -- taking the bits you like from the various sources and finding interesting ways their edges fit together, shoring those rough bits up with some actual historical grounding (in terms of things like what they ate, what they wore, etc, more than events), and then putting your own twist on them at key points to draw out additional meanings and make new connections with other forms of folklore to tell new things.

It's queer, it's diverse, it's smart, and it's beautiful. I loved some of the ways Griffith played with language as Peretur's own culture changed, coming out of the wilderness, picking up language piecemeal, learning high and low languages -- it's not first person, but the narrative style reflects the third person limited view. The very first two sentences are fragments, not even full, and wild chaotic narrative flowing and tumbling over each other, and this changes rapidly as Peretur herself does, with the final lines of the story being much more traditional, orderly narrative -- but the whole thing keeps the mythic feel regardless. And despite being often kept at a mythic distance, the characters are real, their feelings are strong, and you can ache for their complexities.

Just really well done. Even the ending -- which wasn't what I wanted for it, I found satisfying in a deliberately unsatisfying way? It did not want to play out the narrative that you want it to but the narrative that you know it must instead for the stories to survive to our day as they did. And in a story about characters both struggling against and acknowledging their role in a mythic storytelling, I found it deliberate and really powerful.

Really good.

Nicola Griffith’s Spear is a short, lyrical novella that explores the Arthurian figure of Percival in a gender-bending and fascinating fashion. Beautifully written and profoundly queer, I read this in a single sitting and was enchanted by the experience. To truly get the most out of this novella, I think a deeper knowledge of Arthurian myth would be beneficial, but even without it, I really enjoyed Spear and freely recommended it to anyone interested in queer mythological reimaginings.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

The writing is lovely in parts, but the story itself is confusing from the start and often feels impenetrable. I didn't make it all the way through to the end.

Queer and sharp and directed, as inevitable as a driving spear, SPEAR is a story of a girl destined for greatness - in a world where girls and women are (generally) not allowed to be great and even poor boys must be more than great if they come from nothing.

Our main character has a cheat code, a connection to the land and its beasts, that gives her a leg up on most people. But she is also charismatic and true and dedicated to justice and fairness and the ideals (if not necessarily the reality) of the Arthurian court. We also get casual queerness and open mentions of the definite polyamory between Arthur/Lancelot/Gwen that we all know was definitely a thing.

Stories like this - which have the same feelings of the histories and classics that enforce our rigid canon but with an openness to, acknowledgement of, and inclusion of diversity - feel like the proper thing. People who are not white cishet are real and have not only existed throughout history but forged that history themselves.

I love a good Arthurian retelling, and Spear did not disappoint! This short book manages to fill itself with gorgeous prose and a sweeping story, complete with magic, intrigue, and sapphic romance. While I found the beginning to be slow, as soon as the action began the pick up the story flew by. Compared to recent Arthurian stories I've read, Spear is one of the better ones, committing to its forward-thinking additions of gender exploration and lesbian identity. Such a great read full of well-researched and innovative myth!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a fan of Nicola Griffith for years and have read most of her books. My knowledge of King Arthur legends, however, doesn’t go much past Monty Python or a couple of other Arthurian movies.

Spear was a pleasure to read. Many reviews comment on the lyrical nature of the writing and I certainly agree. This is the retelling of one character (Peretur) in the King Arthur legend, who happens to be a woman, and how she brings more to the legend with her history and abilities. It is not really about Arthur at this point, but how Peretur makes her way into her own and into Arthur’s circle. I was taken in and thoroughly enjoyed the book, start to finish.

And then the Author’s Note on Origins. Here I found a wonderful, if brief, education in early Welsh language, character genealogy and early texts related to Arthurian legend. Griffith’s explanation of her choices for a historical basis to her retelling has Spear marked as a reread for me.