Sulien ap Gwien was seventeen when the Jarnish raiders came. Had she been armed when they found her, she could have taken them all. As it was, it took six of them to subdue her. She will never forgive them.

Thus begins her story--a story that takes her back to her family, with its ancient ties to the Vincan empire that once ruled in Tir Tanagiri, and forward to Caer Tanaga, where the greatest man of his time, King Urdo, struggles to bind together the squabbling nobles and petty princes into a unified force that will drive out the barbarian invader and restore the King's Peace.

Ringing with the clash of arms and the songs of its people, rich with high magic and everyday life, The King's Peace begins an epic of great deeds and down-to-earth people, told in language with the strength and flexibility of sharpened steel.

From Booklist

This variant of the Arthurian tales begins with Sulien apGwien's encounter with Jamish raiders, which makes her a lifelong foe of those invaders of her native Tir Tanagiri and draws her into supporting King Urdo, who rules at Caer Tanaga. He seeks to unite the squabbling nobles to drive out the invaders and restore peace. Walton writes with almost poetic skill, and the world she constructs is finely built despite the obviousness of her variations on Celtic and Norse cultures. She exercises her creativity more in realizing the Vincan empire and the local variant of Christianity. So open an adaptation of the Arthurian tales can hardly claim originality; it must stand or fall on its execution, which in this case is most worthy. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A nicely paced, unpredictable plot that keeps the reader guessing who might be back-stabbing whom, coupled with musical language and natural conversations, sets this well above the fantasy average."

--Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtfully reweaves Arthurian legend with history into a vivid, fluent narrative."

--Kirkus Reviews

"A richly woven narrative, this debut novel from Jo Walton depicts a meticulously researched alternate account of the Arthurian legend."

--RT Book Reviews

"Walton writes with almost poetic skill, and the world she constructs is finely built."

--Booklist

"Jo Walton's splendid re-imagining of the Matter of Britain has a rich immediacy that calls to mind the best of Thomas Malory and Rudyard Kipling. The King's Peace is the novel that The Mists of Avalon should have been." --Debra Doyle

"The people, the politics, the details of warfare and daily life, all ring as true as the steel sword the heroine wields so doughtily. This is much more than a retooling of the Matter of Britain: it is a fully-imagined, living, magical world." --Delia Sherman

"There is not an ill-written sentence...Never lacks immediacy or loses its historical quality. Sulien is a soldier first, honorable, capable, and trustworthy, and she is a wonderfully believable character." --VOYA

"A truly engrossing character-driven novel with strong female characters...Highly recommended." --Vector

"I really liked this sideways take on the Matter of Britain and I highly recommend it." --Mythprint

"Walton writes with an authenticity that never loses heart, a rare combination in a genre where we are so often offered one or the other. The King's Peace is a proof that no matter how mined-out a subject may seen, a dedicated writer can dig down to a true vein of legend and hammer out gold." -Robin Hobb

"Beautifully and thought-provokingly tells a story set in a world and a history almost like ours, but different enough to be in itself a kind of elvenland. It's good to know that there will be more." -Poul Anderson

The King's Peace

Similar The King's Peace