Spear (Griffith novel)

Spear
Book cover depicting a steaming bowl against a dark background, with a rider carrying a spear emerging from the steam.
AuthorNicola Griffith
IllustratorRovina Cai
LanguageEnglish
PublisherTor.com
Publication date
19 April 2022
Pages192
ISBN978-1-250-81932-1
Websitenicolagriffith.com/spear/

Spear is a 2022 fantasy novella by Nicola Griffith. Drawing on Arthurian mythos, the book refashions the story of Percival and the Holy Grail but makes the character of Percival a woman.[1] The protagonist of Griffith's version is Peretur, a girl raised alone in the wilderness by her mother, who develops a magical ability to communicate with animals. She sets out to explore the world dressed as a boy and seeks to join the service of King Arturus as a knight. At his court she becomes involved with his search for the Holy Grail and discovers that her own heritage is connected to it.

Griffith wrote Spear after being invited to contribute to an anthology of Arthurian retellings: her planned short story grew into a longer work.[2] Griffith uses Welsh names for many characters and draws on Celtic mythos, such as the Tuath Dé and their treasures, thereby depicting a "Celtic Arthur".[3] Peretur endures a series of challenges that bear close resemblance to stories in the Arthurian tradition, but one reviewer described her journey also as one of "understanding, of her past, of other people, and of the world".[3] Griffith also explores how the Roman conquest made Britain more cosmopolitan than depicted in conventional adaptations: the novel also explores queerness, disability, and ethnic diversity.[3]

Spear received critical acclaim, particularly for its prose, exploration of gender and sexuality and disability, and attention to historical detail. The Chicago Review of Books wrote that Griffith "threads the needle" by incorporating queer and polyamorous characters without couching their identities in modern language,[4] while T. S. Miller of Strange Horizons praised the depiction of Llanza as a character with a limp who remained peerless in combat, as a "refreshingly casual" depiction of disability.[3] Gary Wolfe of Locus praised Griffith's "luminous, rhythmic prose",[5] while the Chicago Review called the book "an instant classic, born of classics".[4]

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