The King's Peace

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
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"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
-- Review