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The Bright Sword
Win a free print copy of this book!
6 days and 05:04:07
10 copies available
U.S. only
A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive.
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides; the Saracen Knight; and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.
But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides; the Saracen Knight; and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.
But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.
688 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 16, 2024
About the author
Lev Grossman
48 books9,334 followersHi! I'm the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy—The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land—which was adapted as a TV show that ran for five seasons on Syfy.
I've also written two novels for children: The Silver Arrow, which the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, People magazine, Apple and Amazon all put on their best-of-the-year lists, and its sequel The Golden Swift. I do some journalist and screenwriting too.
I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, the son of two English professors. My twin brother Austin is a writer and game designer, and my older sister Sheba is an artist. Sometimes I live in Brooklyn, New York, other times in Sydney, Australia, where my wife is from. I have three kids and a somehow steadily increasing number of cats.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
January 3, 2024
The Bright Sword is to King Arthur what The Magicians was to Narnia/Harry Potter and A Game of Thrones was to The Lord Of The Rings: it's a thoroughly modern version of a story deeply embedded in the cultural consciousness that actively engages with the twisted implications of that story. Where The Magicians asked what it would be actually like to go to Hogwarts or Narnia, The Bright Sword asks what it takes to make a person want to go to Camelot and if that would fix things. I beta-read this book a couple times, but do still think I'm being objective when I give it five stars. It's thoughtful and fun and weird and exciting and beautiful and I loved it.
In the original mythology, Arthur is conceived by rape and has an incestuous son with his sister, and Merlin is a sexual predator and the son of the devil. This is not a book that shies away from that darkness or lets it get by unexamined, but that darkness and intensity is balanced by a whole lot of fun: there's cool magic and weird fae and detailed sword fighting. Grossman has been working on this book off and on since 2015, and it totally makes sense to me why. It's a sprawling epic hidden within a classic hero's journey, filled to bursting with ideas, and as could be expected, the whole thing is wrapped in Grossman's typical lyrical prose.
Collum, our protagonist, is a young man driven by the stories he has been told of the Knights of the Round Table and the story he tells himself about himself. He's travelling a land that is torn between the stories that are told of the civilised Christian Romans that have come and left and of the stories told of the wildness and fae that exist outside and through the land. When the audience meets the survivors of Camlann, we see that everybody is struggling with those same tensions as they figure out what their story is, and the interludes in which those stories are told are lovely and well-timed.
This is a book set around the edges of the King Arthur mythology, mostly focusing on the outsiders of Camelot, and mostly taking place after Arthur's death. It's a book that asks "what made them like that?" and "and then what happened?" of the classic myths, and gives us some nuanced answers to those questions. What would it have been like to be queer or to be clinically depressed or to reject the gender roles thrust upon you? What would it have been like to wrestle with a culture of Chivalry in a land that had been conquered in a brutal manner by the same people that had brought that supposed civilisation, to be Christian in a land where the old Pagan ways still very much existed? How can you deal with the sins of your fathers and feel the approval of the Father?
The modern mythology of King Arthur is an amalgam of a rose-tinted view of historic heraldry and of ideas of what it is to be British, but if Arthur existed at all, he lived in British Isles that were suffering so much from the departure of the Romans that they wouldn't even be able to mint their own coins for centuries, let alone make glorious suits of armour for their knights. It would have been a world of crumbling Roman ruins, filled with the echoes of a slaughtered Pagan past and a very religious form of Christianity. The myths were first written at a time when knights and chivalry were A Thing, so of course they imagined a noble history for their ways. In the last century, writers seem to have leaned into the anachronism and magic (The Once and Future King) or cut it out entirely (The Winter King); The Bright Sword cuts a middle path, with magic and knights in suits of armour, but also sub-Roman regional politics and pre-Anglo-Saxon languages. Yes, Palomides the Saracen should have lived several hundred years later once Islam had actually gotten a following, but by including him Grossman gets to make references to the golden age of Baghdad.
This book ends up serving, I think, as a really excellent complement to the original mythology. It examines and deconstructs it without losing track of what makes it so enduring. In that way, Grossman has his cake and eats it too, critiquing the idea of a knight's tale while also giving us a hugely fun example of exactly that.
In the original mythology, Arthur is conceived by rape and has an incestuous son with his sister, and Merlin is a sexual predator and the son of the devil. This is not a book that shies away from that darkness or lets it get by unexamined, but that darkness and intensity is balanced by a whole lot of fun: there's cool magic and weird fae and detailed sword fighting. Grossman has been working on this book off and on since 2015, and it totally makes sense to me why. It's a sprawling epic hidden within a classic hero's journey, filled to bursting with ideas, and as could be expected, the whole thing is wrapped in Grossman's typical lyrical prose.
Collum, our protagonist, is a young man driven by the stories he has been told of the Knights of the Round Table and the story he tells himself about himself. He's travelling a land that is torn between the stories that are told of the civilised Christian Romans that have come and left and of the stories told of the wildness and fae that exist outside and through the land. When the audience meets the survivors of Camlann, we see that everybody is struggling with those same tensions as they figure out what their story is, and the interludes in which those stories are told are lovely and well-timed.
This is a book set around the edges of the King Arthur mythology, mostly focusing on the outsiders of Camelot, and mostly taking place after Arthur's death. It's a book that asks "what made them like that?" and "and then what happened?" of the classic myths, and gives us some nuanced answers to those questions. What would it have been like to be queer or to be clinically depressed or to reject the gender roles thrust upon you? What would it have been like to wrestle with a culture of Chivalry in a land that had been conquered in a brutal manner by the same people that had brought that supposed civilisation, to be Christian in a land where the old Pagan ways still very much existed? How can you deal with the sins of your fathers and feel the approval of the Father?
The modern mythology of King Arthur is an amalgam of a rose-tinted view of historic heraldry and of ideas of what it is to be British, but if Arthur existed at all, he lived in British Isles that were suffering so much from the departure of the Romans that they wouldn't even be able to mint their own coins for centuries, let alone make glorious suits of armour for their knights. It would have been a world of crumbling Roman ruins, filled with the echoes of a slaughtered Pagan past and a very religious form of Christianity. The myths were first written at a time when knights and chivalry were A Thing, so of course they imagined a noble history for their ways. In the last century, writers seem to have leaned into the anachronism and magic (The Once and Future King) or cut it out entirely (The Winter King); The Bright Sword cuts a middle path, with magic and knights in suits of armour, but also sub-Roman regional politics and pre-Anglo-Saxon languages. Yes, Palomides the Saracen should have lived several hundred years later once Islam had actually gotten a following, but by including him Grossman gets to make references to the golden age of Baghdad.
This book ends up serving, I think, as a really excellent complement to the original mythology. It examines and deconstructs it without losing track of what makes it so enduring. In that way, Grossman has his cake and eats it too, critiquing the idea of a knight's tale while also giving us a hugely fun example of exactly that.
November 29, 2023
It’s hard to write a review for this book because of the sheer amount of five-star emotion filling me, but at the same time I feel like I must tell SOMEONE all my feelings about it or I’ll die. At a certain moment near the end of this book I literally yelled ‘YES’ and then jumped out of my seat and ran around my kitchen like an idiot, which is something I’ve never done because of a book before, and thankfully something I did when no one else was home. I adored The Magicians but I am in Palomides-esque love with The Bright Sword.
Lev Grossman checks all of the usual boxes—the characters, the magic system, and worldbuilding and the writing are all there and gorgeous, but he also does more. He writes emotion unlike any other author that I’ve ever read. He brings all the dark, depressing parts of his character’s lives to the surface of their being and then, as he relentlessly whales on them and has them fail over and over and cuts off their fingers, he somehow manages to etch hope into every facet of his stories. Everything sucks in Camelot, he tells us, but there are still adventures and miracles to be had.
And re-the usual boxes: I’m obsessed with the characters, I’m obsessed with Collum, I’m obsessed with Arthur and Bedivere and Dinadan, and I’m going to marry Nimue. I am going to kill Merlin. I would live in Camelot even though I would 100% die a horrible terrible death. I would vacation in the Otherworld even though I would die an even worse death there. I’m going to go back through the book when I have a physical copy in my hands and highlight the shit out of it, then sleep with it under my pillow like I used to do with Crush so I can perhaps absorb some of Lev Grossman’s genius.
There’s too much to say. I loved this book, obviously. I feel like Lev Grossman personally wrote the gay and trans characters in this book for me, specifically, and I will be grateful forever to him for that one. Everyone please read this one as soon as it’s out and then come to my house so we can talk about it and I will be sooooo normal about it I promise. My favorite book of the year by far!!!! And will probably be my favorite book of 2024 as well once it’s actually out!!
ARC acquired on edelweiss :) thank you edelweiss <3
Lev Grossman checks all of the usual boxes—the characters, the magic system, and worldbuilding and the writing are all there and gorgeous, but he also does more. He writes emotion unlike any other author that I’ve ever read. He brings all the dark, depressing parts of his character’s lives to the surface of their being and then, as he relentlessly whales on them and has them fail over and over and cuts off their fingers, he somehow manages to etch hope into every facet of his stories. Everything sucks in Camelot, he tells us, but there are still adventures and miracles to be had.
And re-the usual boxes: I’m obsessed with the characters, I’m obsessed with Collum, I’m obsessed with Arthur and Bedivere and Dinadan, and I’m going to marry Nimue. I am going to kill Merlin. I would live in Camelot even though I would 100% die a horrible terrible death. I would vacation in the Otherworld even though I would die an even worse death there. I’m going to go back through the book when I have a physical copy in my hands and highlight the shit out of it, then sleep with it under my pillow like I used to do with Crush so I can perhaps absorb some of Lev Grossman’s genius.
There’s too much to say. I loved this book, obviously. I feel like Lev Grossman personally wrote the gay and trans characters in this book for me, specifically, and I will be grateful forever to him for that one. Everyone please read this one as soon as it’s out and then come to my house so we can talk about it and I will be sooooo normal about it I promise. My favorite book of the year by far!!!! And will probably be my favorite book of 2024 as well once it’s actually out!!
ARC acquired on edelweiss :) thank you edelweiss <3
June 29, 2024
One of my favourite king Arthur retellings?!
Collum was a common bastard who had no business showing up at Camelot looking for a place at the Round Table. Just a big boy with a sword, from a nowhere island at the edge of the world.
Yet he arrives to find King Arthur is dead and Britain is dying. All that is left is the dregs of the Round Table.
Told from Collum’s point of view in the present and past flashbacks of the remaining knights, the leftovers, Grossman builds a picture of what life was like from Arthur pulling out the sword from the stone to all the quests the knights embarked on and Arthur’s downfall and the consequences.
”We're not the heroes, we're the odd ones out. The losers. But did you ever think that might be why we've lived so long? Losing makes you tough."
Grossman cleverly tells the story of the lesser known knights. The cripple. The fool. The foreigner. The hated Morgan Le Fay. And he throws in subversive twists to consider through a modern lens such as trans identity, homosexuality, imperialism, and abuse.
Of course you think you know it all already, or most of it, but you have probably managed to avoid thinking about the story too closely, the truth hastened past with a certain squeamishness, a dark thread in the otherwise golden tapestry of Camelot. Incest, neglect, prejudice, rape, revenge, and plunder.
Grossman reimagines Arthur as a footnote in his own story, the misbegotten by-product of a rape. A king who never should've been. But one who was honourable and beloved and made the best of his position.
This was delightful! Yes, it delves into the weird and magical, but if you are put off or intimidated after reading The Magicians - don’t be.
The writing isn’t quite as lyrical or profound, making it more accessible, propelling, and the bizarreness never becomes overbearing.
Why would the future be simpler than the past? Stories never really ended, they just rolled one into the next. The past was never wholly lost, and the future was never quite found. We wander forever in a pathless forest, dropping with weariness, as home draws us back, and the grail draws us on, and we never arrive, and the quest never ends.
Thank you to Viking Books for sending me the physical arc in exchange for a review!
High four stars!🌟
Bookstagram
Collum was a common bastard who had no business showing up at Camelot looking for a place at the Round Table. Just a big boy with a sword, from a nowhere island at the edge of the world.
Yet he arrives to find King Arthur is dead and Britain is dying. All that is left is the dregs of the Round Table.
Told from Collum’s point of view in the present and past flashbacks of the remaining knights, the leftovers, Grossman builds a picture of what life was like from Arthur pulling out the sword from the stone to all the quests the knights embarked on and Arthur’s downfall and the consequences.
”We're not the heroes, we're the odd ones out. The losers. But did you ever think that might be why we've lived so long? Losing makes you tough."
Grossman cleverly tells the story of the lesser known knights. The cripple. The fool. The foreigner. The hated Morgan Le Fay. And he throws in subversive twists to consider through a modern lens such as trans identity, homosexuality, imperialism, and abuse.
Of course you think you know it all already, or most of it, but you have probably managed to avoid thinking about the story too closely, the truth hastened past with a certain squeamishness, a dark thread in the otherwise golden tapestry of Camelot. Incest, neglect, prejudice, rape, revenge, and plunder.
Grossman reimagines Arthur as a footnote in his own story, the misbegotten by-product of a rape. A king who never should've been. But one who was honourable and beloved and made the best of his position.
This was delightful! Yes, it delves into the weird and magical, but if you are put off or intimidated after reading The Magicians - don’t be.
The writing isn’t quite as lyrical or profound, making it more accessible, propelling, and the bizarreness never becomes overbearing.
Why would the future be simpler than the past? Stories never really ended, they just rolled one into the next. The past was never wholly lost, and the future was never quite found. We wander forever in a pathless forest, dropping with weariness, as home draws us back, and the grail draws us on, and we never arrive, and the quest never ends.
Thank you to Viking Books for sending me the physical arc in exchange for a review!
High four stars!🌟
Bookstagram
June 14, 2024
Rarely when books market themselves as "a mythological retelling for today's generation" do they actually feel like they're FOR us, and not just a modernized or subversive retelling. The Bright Sword is for us. Lev Grossman grabs the tale of King Arthur and flips it over, exposing all the parts we missed as kids: a group of men drunk on their own mythology, a nation pulled apart by religious fanaticism, and a king burdened with great power and great imposter complex. The knights at THIS round table aren't your average Lancelots. They're depressed, they're in denial of their own trauma and they've been told by the world that they'll never be better than their circumstances. Honestly who better to do this too, the way Grossman writes beautifully miserable losers is LITERALLY it's own art form (re: Quentin my love). Reading him write about mental illness, repressed sexuality or the loss of innocence makes me feel like a disciple at the feet of Jesus, just absolutely consuming every word this man has to say. In my Lev Grossman religion era fr. I read some criticism that this book reads very episodic, but I counter that with ... have you consumed ANY King Arthur content? Episodic as fuck! They go on an adventure, they come home, they spend 10 years looking for the Holy Grail, they come home, rinse and repeat etc etc. This book stays true to your favorite King Arthur legends, but pulls out the dark thread running through them all: if we choose to live within our past, we'll be doomed to spend the rest of our lives in the same cycles chasing the same ends and never truly be happy with what we have and who we are. The Bright Sword says choose your OWN adventure! Follow your own Holy Grail! The path is never easy and nothing is ever given but in the one lifetime we have, we have to try for both each other and ourselves. Big fucking banger.
December 14, 2023
QUICK TAKE: Grossman manages to refresh the fantasy genre and King Arthur legends in a really fun and exciting and contemporary way. Loved the backstories on the characters, and the story really picks up once they begin their quest. Highly recommend!!
Want to read
January 2, 2024iiiiinteresting
Want to read
December 15, 2017Update from the author (as of November 27, 2017):
http://levgrossman.com/2017/11/transp...
http://levgrossman.com/2017/11/transp...
June 20, 2024
5/5⭐️
this is currently my favorite read of this year. arguably one of my favorite books of all time!
the bright sword is my first arthurian novel, and also my first grossman novel. i truly loved every second of this book, from the way characters were presented, but also just the way the world unfolded. the historical 'accuracies' mixed with epic fantasy and grossman's take on the characters, i just loved it. the ability to transform a classic story into your own is just a special talent that grossman clearly did so well with the bright sword. i had so many moments of actually responding to what was happening in the book with real life reactions, and that is something that is pretty rare for me.
i absolutely urge everyone to read this, listen to it, just give it a try no matter how it happens.
thank you, lev grossman, for writing this book!
this is currently my favorite read of this year. arguably one of my favorite books of all time!
the bright sword is my first arthurian novel, and also my first grossman novel. i truly loved every second of this book, from the way characters were presented, but also just the way the world unfolded. the historical 'accuracies' mixed with epic fantasy and grossman's take on the characters, i just loved it. the ability to transform a classic story into your own is just a special talent that grossman clearly did so well with the bright sword. i had so many moments of actually responding to what was happening in the book with real life reactions, and that is something that is pretty rare for me.
i absolutely urge everyone to read this, listen to it, just give it a try no matter how it happens.
thank you, lev grossman, for writing this book!
February 14, 2024
Lev Grossman is such a master at balancing high stakes fantasy with lighthearted humor and moments of grounding. Collum is both so, so endearing as a main character while still being frustrating enough at times that we're glad, as readers, to see him grow as much as he does in this. I'm a sucker for King Arthur stories, and this one is a fantastic addition to the canon. My only complaint is that it is definitely a lengthy one. I felt several times that we were surely nearing the denouement, only to be proven wrong again and again. Yeesh.
Anyway, highly recommend!
Review based on an advanced copy received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Anyway, highly recommend!
Review based on an advanced copy received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 10, 2024
I loved this book so much I was actively angry when it ended and I was suddenly faced with the fact that I was no longer reading it.
March 22, 2024
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
This was an ARC courtesy of Del Rey at Emerald City Comic Con this year.
The Bright Sword follows Collum who is seeking a new life in Camelot, but upon arriving realizes Arthur has already passed and the great age of the Round Table may have already come to an end. The knights he finds remaining are few and are not considered the best the Table has to offer, supported by Nimue, Merlin’s apprentice.
What this book does best are character studies that are interwoven throughout the main plot and enhance the experience of reading the story as you go. They deepen understanding of character motivation while also giving backstory that expands the world. Collum has a believable character arc, at first naive, afraid, and ashamed, slowly coming into his own as he finds validation beyond just being viewed as a knight. Bedivere, Dinadan, and Nimue were also favorites of mine, for various reasons I don’t want to spoil here. What makes this story work is that the characters are the heart of it and Grossman never forgets that, subverting the initial reason a reader entered the story.
Though there are external factors pushing the characters and some typical questing, the plot really exists as a vehicle to get the characters Grossman peels the layers back on slowly but surely, to important moments for each of their character arcs. The main plot is incidental because the story was the friends we made along the way.
I’m a sucker for a found family and this book has that along with some decent queer representation, amongst other identities and distinct character voices for each. It also has some compelling things to say about women being forced into roles by society and the powerful men surrounding them, trans joy and strength, when your worst enemy is yourself, and that forgiveness is not the only path to healing.
Was the book a little longer than it strictly had to be and did one or two of the POVs feel more superfluous? Sure. Did it diminish my enjoyment of the book overall? No. Did I get a bit exhausted hearing “God” every other sentence out of a character’s mouth? Yes, but I liked the characters so much that it didn’t do enough to distract me from how interesting they were.
Grossman did great character work in the Magicians trilogy, but he has done an amazing job here. Join for the Arthurian quest, stay for the lovable band of misfits who were the real adventure all along.
This was an ARC courtesy of Del Rey at Emerald City Comic Con this year.
The Bright Sword follows Collum who is seeking a new life in Camelot, but upon arriving realizes Arthur has already passed and the great age of the Round Table may have already come to an end. The knights he finds remaining are few and are not considered the best the Table has to offer, supported by Nimue, Merlin’s apprentice.
What this book does best are character studies that are interwoven throughout the main plot and enhance the experience of reading the story as you go. They deepen understanding of character motivation while also giving backstory that expands the world. Collum has a believable character arc, at first naive, afraid, and ashamed, slowly coming into his own as he finds validation beyond just being viewed as a knight. Bedivere, Dinadan, and Nimue were also favorites of mine, for various reasons I don’t want to spoil here. What makes this story work is that the characters are the heart of it and Grossman never forgets that, subverting the initial reason a reader entered the story.
Though there are external factors pushing the characters and some typical questing, the plot really exists as a vehicle to get the characters Grossman peels the layers back on slowly but surely, to important moments for each of their character arcs. The main plot is incidental because the story was the friends we made along the way.
I’m a sucker for a found family and this book has that along with some decent queer representation, amongst other identities and distinct character voices for each. It also has some compelling things to say about women being forced into roles by society and the powerful men surrounding them, trans joy and strength, when your worst enemy is yourself, and that forgiveness is not the only path to healing.
Was the book a little longer than it strictly had to be and did one or two of the POVs feel more superfluous? Sure. Did it diminish my enjoyment of the book overall? No. Did I get a bit exhausted hearing “God” every other sentence out of a character’s mouth? Yes, but I liked the characters so much that it didn’t do enough to distract me from how interesting they were.
Grossman did great character work in the Magicians trilogy, but he has done an amazing job here. Join for the Arthurian quest, stay for the lovable band of misfits who were the real adventure all along.
April 9, 2024
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC version of this title in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve been a huge fan of Lev Grossman’s writing ever since reading the Magicians Trilogy years ago. The Magicians is one of the best fantasy work of the twenty first century so far and has one of the most impressive and immersive magic systems of any fantasy I’ve ever read; I am fully prepared to die and be buried on this hill. So naturally when I read Grossman was trying his hand at Arthurian legend I knew I had to read it.
The author did not disappoint and managed to write a book that was both grounded in the mythology yet fresh and compelling, creating an expansive work that hits all the right notes and says something important about stories in general and the Arthurian legends specifically.
The set up for this book is as simple as it is interesting, Collum a naïve, aspiring knight from nothing and nowhere, arrives to Camelot only to find Arthur is dead, the age of legends is passed, and only the C tier knights remain, listless and dispirited. Together they go on a quest to find the next king of Britain and ensure Arthur’s legacy doesn’t fall into obscurity.
Interspersed throughout the story are brief chapters detailing the different characters’ backstories “The Tale of Bedivere” and “The Tale of Nimue” etc. These short chapters were some of my favorites and were doled out with judicious spacing, making me want to know more about each player in this epic tale, always looking forward to the next installment.
I loved Grossman’s take on the Arthurian mythos and could tell he’d done his homework on the topic. He’s right, Lancelot’s perfection is unsettling and makes him hard to relate to, Guinevere’s art for statecraft was probably underutilized, and Arthur’s true genius lay in strategy and knowing people, not in his swordsmanship. I also loved the portrayal of the struggle between the old Pagan Britain and the relatively new forces of empire and Christianity. This tension is rife in the original stories (I mean Merlin, enough said) but it was delightful to read a book that placed that conflict at center stage.
Overall this was a very enjoyable and fulfilling read for me. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Arthuriana and / or liked The Magicians series.
I’ve been a huge fan of Lev Grossman’s writing ever since reading the Magicians Trilogy years ago. The Magicians is one of the best fantasy work of the twenty first century so far and has one of the most impressive and immersive magic systems of any fantasy I’ve ever read; I am fully prepared to die and be buried on this hill. So naturally when I read Grossman was trying his hand at Arthurian legend I knew I had to read it.
The author did not disappoint and managed to write a book that was both grounded in the mythology yet fresh and compelling, creating an expansive work that hits all the right notes and says something important about stories in general and the Arthurian legends specifically.
The set up for this book is as simple as it is interesting, Collum a naïve, aspiring knight from nothing and nowhere, arrives to Camelot only to find Arthur is dead, the age of legends is passed, and only the C tier knights remain, listless and dispirited. Together they go on a quest to find the next king of Britain and ensure Arthur’s legacy doesn’t fall into obscurity.
Interspersed throughout the story are brief chapters detailing the different characters’ backstories “The Tale of Bedivere” and “The Tale of Nimue” etc. These short chapters were some of my favorites and were doled out with judicious spacing, making me want to know more about each player in this epic tale, always looking forward to the next installment.
I loved Grossman’s take on the Arthurian mythos and could tell he’d done his homework on the topic. He’s right, Lancelot’s perfection is unsettling and makes him hard to relate to, Guinevere’s art for statecraft was probably underutilized, and Arthur’s true genius lay in strategy and knowing people, not in his swordsmanship. I also loved the portrayal of the struggle between the old Pagan Britain and the relatively new forces of empire and Christianity. This tension is rife in the original stories (I mean Merlin, enough said) but it was delightful to read a book that placed that conflict at center stage.
Overall this was a very enjoyable and fulfilling read for me. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Arthuriana and / or liked The Magicians series.
March 4, 2024
I really enjoyed Grossman’s The Magicians trilogy, so when I saw that he was coming out with a new novel, I jumped at the chance to snag an early copy. I was not disappointed.
I’ve never been one who is terribly interested in Arthurian literature (or films, etc…), but I think this was right up Lev Grossman’s alley. Magic, myth, gods, religion; Grossman puts all on display in a new and interesting way. Where he really shines, however, is with his diverse cast of characters, and his representation of the world through them.
Much like in his Magicians trilogy, those at the center of this novel are the outcasts, the losers, the weirdos, the whatever-name-they’ve-been-calleds. Grossman not only gives them a voice, but gives them power. Their individuality is not weakness, but strength. Grossman is not checking boxes to pat himself on the back, he is showing realistic characters living in a world that sees them as lesser, and showing their worth. Just because nobody believes in them, or because they don’t fit in, doesn’t mean they don’t matter, or that they cannot get things done in their own way. They’ve been bullied, suffered traumas — some don’t even believe in themselves, in who they are, but in what others have told them they are.
If I had a complaint, it would be that the novel feels a tad episodic at times. That is not inherently bad, and I certainly enjoyed every page of it, but there were times when I reached the end of a section and it felt so complete that I didn’t really feel compelled to pick the book up again for a few days. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing for a 670-page book. It allowed me to dip in and out almost at will. But I think for some, this could potentially be less appealing.
I think Lev Grossman is in peak form here, and I’m excited to recommend this one come July.
I’ve never been one who is terribly interested in Arthurian literature (or films, etc…), but I think this was right up Lev Grossman’s alley. Magic, myth, gods, religion; Grossman puts all on display in a new and interesting way. Where he really shines, however, is with his diverse cast of characters, and his representation of the world through them.
Much like in his Magicians trilogy, those at the center of this novel are the outcasts, the losers, the weirdos, the whatever-name-they’ve-been-calleds. Grossman not only gives them a voice, but gives them power. Their individuality is not weakness, but strength. Grossman is not checking boxes to pat himself on the back, he is showing realistic characters living in a world that sees them as lesser, and showing their worth. Just because nobody believes in them, or because they don’t fit in, doesn’t mean they don’t matter, or that they cannot get things done in their own way. They’ve been bullied, suffered traumas — some don’t even believe in themselves, in who they are, but in what others have told them they are.
If I had a complaint, it would be that the novel feels a tad episodic at times. That is not inherently bad, and I certainly enjoyed every page of it, but there were times when I reached the end of a section and it felt so complete that I didn’t really feel compelled to pick the book up again for a few days. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing for a 670-page book. It allowed me to dip in and out almost at will. But I think for some, this could potentially be less appealing.
I think Lev Grossman is in peak form here, and I’m excited to recommend this one come July.
July 8, 2024
The Bright Sword takes us on a journey of epic proportions. We follow the main character Collum who struggles with the feeling of not being good enough, which I think most people can relate to. From being abandoned by his parents to living with the horrible Alisdair, he had a pretty horrible upbringing being abused and beaten. We follow his journey up to the present day where he eventually was able to be trained towards becoming a knight and now that he is old enough he heads off to Camelot with the hope to join the Knights of the Round Table.
I loved the mythos and how the religious lines were blurred, how the old ways and pagan rituals wrapped their tentacles into Christianity, and the question of whether God had abandoned and left these people. The battles fought are intense and magical, I enjoyed the epicness of this story. The character development is good, the characters are vibrant and full of life, and the story is quite fantastic. My biggest complaint is all of the attempted rape in this book, this is the most I've ever accounted in one book. If the point to be proved is that men are garbage, then point taken. Sure it was medieval times and in war there are horrible atrocities including rape, but the amount in here felt a bit excessive. Otherwise, this would have been a five-star read.
I loved the mythos and how the religious lines were blurred, how the old ways and pagan rituals wrapped their tentacles into Christianity, and the question of whether God had abandoned and left these people. The battles fought are intense and magical, I enjoyed the epicness of this story. The character development is good, the characters are vibrant and full of life, and the story is quite fantastic. My biggest complaint is all of the attempted rape in this book, this is the most I've ever accounted in one book. If the point to be proved is that men are garbage, then point taken. Sure it was medieval times and in war there are horrible atrocities including rape, but the amount in here felt a bit excessive. Otherwise, this would have been a five-star read.
June 20, 2024
This was the only book I read in the midst of a month-long reading slump, and I'm not sure if it was the cause of the slump or if my mood affected my thoughts on this one. The Magicians is very polarizing among my reading friends: I have a couple who loved it and a couple who really did not (I have not read it or watched the series). I also haven't read a lot of Arthurian fantasy so came in with the broad strokes of these characters and storylines but not the finer details.
The Bright Sword mostly takes place after the death of Arthur, with only a few of the lesser-known and minor Knights of the Round Table remaining. Into their midst comes Collum, an outcast himself who has dreamed of Camelot as his ideal and redemption, only to arrive after the glory has gone. There is a somewhat interesting story here about the future of Britain, about the tensions between the gods of the past and Christianity, about chosen ones and legacies. I wish it would have leaned into one of those themes harder instead of trying to touch on them all while also having these episodic adventure/quest sequences, and giving all of the knights modern backstories. (The backstories of the characters were some of my favorite parts, but they weren't integrated into the main story very well).
Because we are focused on the remaining knights and particularly Collum's perspective, some major events like the whole Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot storyline are told at a remove, missing a lot of details and perspective that would have rounded out those stories. This one felt both overstuffed and underdeveloped.
The Bright Sword mostly takes place after the death of Arthur, with only a few of the lesser-known and minor Knights of the Round Table remaining. Into their midst comes Collum, an outcast himself who has dreamed of Camelot as his ideal and redemption, only to arrive after the glory has gone. There is a somewhat interesting story here about the future of Britain, about the tensions between the gods of the past and Christianity, about chosen ones and legacies. I wish it would have leaned into one of those themes harder instead of trying to touch on them all while also having these episodic adventure/quest sequences, and giving all of the knights modern backstories. (The backstories of the characters were some of my favorite parts, but they weren't integrated into the main story very well).
Because we are focused on the remaining knights and particularly Collum's perspective, some major events like the whole Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot storyline are told at a remove, missing a lot of details and perspective that would have rounded out those stories. This one felt both overstuffed and underdeveloped.
March 10, 2024
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley
Collum dreams of the Round Table and serving as a knight to King Arthur. The story starts as Collum makes his way to Camelot, earning his first kill, and eventually stumbling upon the grieving and remaining knights of the Round Table. Unfortunately, Collum arrives two weeks late as King Arthur died at the Battle of Camlann, and left no heir.
The only remaining knights are the lesser-known ones. There's the one-handed Sir Bedivere, Sir Palomides, a prince from Baghdad, Sir Dagonet, the court jester, Sir Dinadan, who has a secret about his identity, and Sir Constantine, another prince from Cornwell among other knights. Collum is greeted with a scene of despair as the knights contemplate their next step and ultimately decide to set out with Nimue, Merlin's apprentice, to secure the legacy of Camelot as it starts to crumble.
Similar to other King Arthur re-imaginings, Grossman grounds this fantastical tale in elements from the period it originates from. It, of course, contains the elements of the sword in the stone, and the lady in the lake, but it also paints a landscape of a world torn between Rome and the pagan ways, between the old gods and Christianity, and the debate of what Britain should become in King Arthur's demise. Grossman excellently balances the historical conflicts and honors the many re-interpretations of King Arthur while adding his narrative of Collum. It felt very much in line with Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King and just as compelling.
Furthermore, Grossman writes a story that feels befitting of everything that has come before it while adding new narratives to this tale. Of course, the same players appear, but their motivations, actions, and fates differ from the original tale. The relationship between Lancelot, Arthur, and Guinevere stands to me as the ultimate test of whether the re-imagining is worth its salt and Grossman does not disappoint. He keeps the courtly love appearance, but it is complicated by the beliefs and political motivations of the characters, which delivers a satisfying twist to the original tale.
Collum fits naturally into this setting and story, but also exists as the element that Grossman added to the tale and exists as his embellishment alone. Similar to Cornwell's Derfel, Collumn serves as the outside perspective and the main source of reason and hope as the knights almost give in to despair. However, his appearance and role in the story are much more positive than Derfel... or at least his outlook is much more optimistic. He stands up to the conflict threatening to tear apart Camelot and calls for a new era as the Round Table threatens to collapse in the aftermath of Arthur's death. In this tale, Collum serves as the paradigm knight and what is needed in this age of King Arthur.
Collum dreams of the Round Table and serving as a knight to King Arthur. The story starts as Collum makes his way to Camelot, earning his first kill, and eventually stumbling upon the grieving and remaining knights of the Round Table. Unfortunately, Collum arrives two weeks late as King Arthur died at the Battle of Camlann, and left no heir.
The only remaining knights are the lesser-known ones. There's the one-handed Sir Bedivere, Sir Palomides, a prince from Baghdad, Sir Dagonet, the court jester, Sir Dinadan, who has a secret about his identity, and Sir Constantine, another prince from Cornwell among other knights. Collum is greeted with a scene of despair as the knights contemplate their next step and ultimately decide to set out with Nimue, Merlin's apprentice, to secure the legacy of Camelot as it starts to crumble.
Similar to other King Arthur re-imaginings, Grossman grounds this fantastical tale in elements from the period it originates from. It, of course, contains the elements of the sword in the stone, and the lady in the lake, but it also paints a landscape of a world torn between Rome and the pagan ways, between the old gods and Christianity, and the debate of what Britain should become in King Arthur's demise. Grossman excellently balances the historical conflicts and honors the many re-interpretations of King Arthur while adding his narrative of Collum. It felt very much in line with Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King and just as compelling.
Furthermore, Grossman writes a story that feels befitting of everything that has come before it while adding new narratives to this tale. Of course, the same players appear, but their motivations, actions, and fates differ from the original tale. The relationship between Lancelot, Arthur, and Guinevere stands to me as the ultimate test of whether the re-imagining is worth its salt and Grossman does not disappoint. He keeps the courtly love appearance, but it is complicated by the beliefs and political motivations of the characters, which delivers a satisfying twist to the original tale.
Collum fits naturally into this setting and story, but also exists as the element that Grossman added to the tale and exists as his embellishment alone. Similar to Cornwell's Derfel, Collumn serves as the outside perspective and the main source of reason and hope as the knights almost give in to despair. However, his appearance and role in the story are much more positive than Derfel... or at least his outlook is much more optimistic. He stands up to the conflict threatening to tear apart Camelot and calls for a new era as the Round Table threatens to collapse in the aftermath of Arthur's death. In this tale, Collum serves as the paradigm knight and what is needed in this age of King Arthur.
Read
May 4, 2024Grossman’s new novel, his first since wrapping up The Magicians trilogy, is an absolute banger. Yes, it’s another reworking of the King Arthur tale in a market saturated with Arthuriana, but like Lavie Tidhar’s By Force Alone, Grossman’s approach is subversive and self-aware (though it’s not as radical as Tidhar’s novel, there’s a distinct lack of Kung-fu Lancelots and Gangster Arthurs).
Our hero is Collum, a resident of the island of Mull who wants to be a knight of the Round Table. When we first meet him, his face is being smooshed by the pommel of a knight’s sword. He bests the knight (Collum is tall, quick and strong) and is forced to kill the man because he refuses to yield. While not the best of starts to his adventure, Collum still has hopes that everything will turn out fine once he reaches Camelot. Expect when he arrives, he is horrified to discover that he’s too late; King Arthur is dead at the hands of his son Mordred, and all that remains of Camelot and the Round Table is a bedraggled group of knights moping around the Great Hall. Collum refuses that this is it, that the Age of Camelot is over, and so begins an epic adventure to find a new King.
This is storytelling as it’s more pure: glorious and dramatic and propulsive. The pages (close to 700) whizz by as we are confronted with angels, green knights, wizards, witches, giants, fairies and elemental forces. Throughout, Grossman delights in reshaping the source material, throwing in anachronisms as a nod to the ever-changing and malleable nature of the text. It’s a genuine thrill ride.
But the book is more than just a playful take on the King Arthur story. Each of Grossman’s surviving knights are “outsiders”. Sir Bedivere is gay. Sir Palomides is a Muslim (though he converts to Christianity), Sir Dinadan is a trans-man, and Sir Dagonet suffers from anxiety and depression. In adding a contemporary gloss to King Arthur’s tale, Grossman recasts the story as one about change: a realisation that there is no such thing as racial purity, that no culture lives in a vacuum, that generations of intermingling have influenced our traditions and beliefs. And what better evidence than a story about a British King built on the ideas of multiple Europeans that has since been co-opted across the globe, reimagined countless times over 1,400 years. Highly recommended.
The Bright Sword is out in June.
Our hero is Collum, a resident of the island of Mull who wants to be a knight of the Round Table. When we first meet him, his face is being smooshed by the pommel of a knight’s sword. He bests the knight (Collum is tall, quick and strong) and is forced to kill the man because he refuses to yield. While not the best of starts to his adventure, Collum still has hopes that everything will turn out fine once he reaches Camelot. Expect when he arrives, he is horrified to discover that he’s too late; King Arthur is dead at the hands of his son Mordred, and all that remains of Camelot and the Round Table is a bedraggled group of knights moping around the Great Hall. Collum refuses that this is it, that the Age of Camelot is over, and so begins an epic adventure to find a new King.
This is storytelling as it’s more pure: glorious and dramatic and propulsive. The pages (close to 700) whizz by as we are confronted with angels, green knights, wizards, witches, giants, fairies and elemental forces. Throughout, Grossman delights in reshaping the source material, throwing in anachronisms as a nod to the ever-changing and malleable nature of the text. It’s a genuine thrill ride.
But the book is more than just a playful take on the King Arthur story. Each of Grossman’s surviving knights are “outsiders”. Sir Bedivere is gay. Sir Palomides is a Muslim (though he converts to Christianity), Sir Dinadan is a trans-man, and Sir Dagonet suffers from anxiety and depression. In adding a contemporary gloss to King Arthur’s tale, Grossman recasts the story as one about change: a realisation that there is no such thing as racial purity, that no culture lives in a vacuum, that generations of intermingling have influenced our traditions and beliefs. And what better evidence than a story about a British King built on the ideas of multiple Europeans that has since been co-opted across the globe, reimagined countless times over 1,400 years. Highly recommended.
The Bright Sword is out in June.
June 27, 2024
THE BRIGHT SWORD is exactly what you would expect from the author who brought us THE MAGICIANS: a modern, sidelong twist on classic fantasy. here, a young knight misses his chance at glory, arriving at camelot after arthur has already died. all that’s left is a shattered kingdom and the most misfit knights.
and yet, there is still adventure to come. that seems to be the thread in grossman’s tales: there is so much more to be told after the ends of the stories we know. this book elegantly weaves together the epic structure of arthurian legends with a sense of postmodern snark that manages to both cut the epic down to size and pay it loving tribute.
the high fantasy style does leave a few of the characters not as well-drawn; we’re left to sketch in the details or just gloss over them. but some of them get their due in glorious ways - most of all, the women of arthuriana who so often get written off. look, we all know that THE MAGICIANS had some… let’s say, questionable depictions of women. i am pleased to say that’s not the case here, with dimensional women making their mark without being “girl boss” cliches either. i often struggle to emotionally connect with the heightened style of high fantasy, but this one absolutely did the trick.
and yet, there is still adventure to come. that seems to be the thread in grossman’s tales: there is so much more to be told after the ends of the stories we know. this book elegantly weaves together the epic structure of arthurian legends with a sense of postmodern snark that manages to both cut the epic down to size and pay it loving tribute.
the high fantasy style does leave a few of the characters not as well-drawn; we’re left to sketch in the details or just gloss over them. but some of them get their due in glorious ways - most of all, the women of arthuriana who so often get written off. look, we all know that THE MAGICIANS had some… let’s say, questionable depictions of women. i am pleased to say that’s not the case here, with dimensional women making their mark without being “girl boss” cliches either. i often struggle to emotionally connect with the heightened style of high fantasy, but this one absolutely did the trick.
May 15, 2024
Goodreads Giveaway
The Bright Sword had a slow beginning. I wasn't really invested in the story or the characters until about half way. However, the longer I stayed with it, the better it became. It took time for Grossman to develop the deeper themes of human imperfection, changing times, the past vs the future, growth, religion, etc. By the end I was satisfied with where the story had gone and Grossman's adaptation of various Arthurian legends. His "Historical Note" at the end really demonstrated how much the tales of King Arthur have changed over time and how they will probably continue to change. I enjoyed the amalgamation of historically accurate details and fanciful additions that Grossman chose to include in his retelling.
I'm not some King Arthur fanatic (honestly I sometimes get tired with how much some people love Arthur), however I have enjoyed various forms of media that involve King Arthur (e.g., The Once and Future King, The Sword in the Stone, Monty Python and the Holy Grail), and I believe The Bright Sword is a worthy addition to the panopoly of King Arthur stories.
I received an Advanced Readers Copy.
The Bright Sword had a slow beginning. I wasn't really invested in the story or the characters until about half way. However, the longer I stayed with it, the better it became. It took time for Grossman to develop the deeper themes of human imperfection, changing times, the past vs the future, growth, religion, etc. By the end I was satisfied with where the story had gone and Grossman's adaptation of various Arthurian legends. His "Historical Note" at the end really demonstrated how much the tales of King Arthur have changed over time and how they will probably continue to change. I enjoyed the amalgamation of historically accurate details and fanciful additions that Grossman chose to include in his retelling.
I'm not some King Arthur fanatic (honestly I sometimes get tired with how much some people love Arthur), however I have enjoyed various forms of media that involve King Arthur (e.g., The Once and Future King, The Sword in the Stone, Monty Python and the Holy Grail), and I believe The Bright Sword is a worthy addition to the panopoly of King Arthur stories.
I received an Advanced Readers Copy.
July 2, 2024
i received an early copy from the publisher & don’t get me wrong this is absolutely a five star book, but i’m giving it a 4.75 only because i’m really not a fan of how the author writes about & from the perspective of women. I understand it’s medieval times and women are repressed but did we really need to hear only about their virginity and nakedness?? don’t even get me started on Nimue’s (basically the only female MC) character arc (spoiler she flees from attempted SA) other than that this book was a wonderful arthurian novel 🤓
July 8, 2024
I love a good King Arthur story, and Lev Grossman does not disappoint! A great mix of fairies and magic and hard medieval life, Grossman’s Camelot takes up the story after Arthur’s death, and peoples it with uncertain, less-than-glamorous knights (aka the relatable kind!) These knights stand before a mighty change in their way of life, and this story follows how they hope, despair, grieve and learn to move on after Arthur, with Grossman’s telltale witty writing. A really great adventure, and a worthy entry in the Arthur pantheon.
February 2, 2024
The writing is uneven, and certain parts make me cringe with embarrassment. But it does what Arthurian stories should do—pull you into a dream inhabited across thousands of minds and hundreds of years—and it does it well.
Want to read
March 20, 2024This sounds so good??
June 27, 2024
Review will be posted on publication day 16th July.
June 29, 2024
This started well, but overall it was way too long. The disjointed structure and constant flashbacks also killed the momentum of the main storyline.
June 30, 2024
An absolutely rollicking good time. Pure epic storytelling, with nothing precious about it, and some refreshing new elements.
May 27, 2024
Fair warning: this is going to be kind of (REALLY) long and probably a bit of a ramble, which is a bit rich for me to do to a book I’m giving 3 stars too, but I have a lot of thoughts. Mostly I love fantasy, especially epic fantasy like this, and I hate wasted potential. So I guess writing this much means I care.
TL;DR- The story is good. Like if I just read a synopsis of the events of the story, I’d think “Man that sounds like an amazing story I’d love to read an expanded version of that”. However, for about the first four hundred pages I was struggling to make much progress and I couldn’t put my finger on why… and then I thought: this is being told from the wrong point of view. Collum is the prototypical young novice thrown into a situation where he has to become heroic and go on great quests with people he considers heroes. He learns lessons, gets his illusions shattered, and eventually is set on the path towards becoming who he wants to be. It’s fine for what it is but it is not enough to hang a 600+ page sprawling fantasy on. His POV can be frustrating because he’s learning, and he can be very naive and quite unsure about who he is and what he thinks. THis is fine if it’s a 300 page coming of age novel, or if he’s one of many POVs, but as it is he just ruins the potential of the story by being the only one whose POV we get. Otherwise, besides being a bit overwritten, it’s a good epic fantasy story with some interesting things to say about God vs. the gods and whether a God who seems to be kind of sanctimonious and controlling is better than a bunch of very human seeming gods who are kind of capricious and rude. If you’re into stories inspired by Arthurian legends this has a lot of good stuff in it, but it doesn’t reach its full potential because of the way it’s told.
(that was a long TL;DR)
Now begins the ramble. For clarification: I like fantasy, I don’t have any issues with a long book as long as it justifies its length and I have always been interested in the Arthurian legends (although admittedly I always think of Monty Python first when thinking of them). This is an Arthurian story that’s not really about Arthur.. It begins after Arthur and Mordred kill each other in battle, and the remaining knights of the round table (minus Lancelot) are gathered at Camelot aimless and lost and not quite knowing where to go next. The current day story is told entirely from the point of view of Collum, a boy whose parents are both dead, and whose stepfather sent him to live with the local lord who basically mistreated and abused him in about every way you can think of for the ten years he was there. Somehow in the middle of all that, Collum managed to get himself trained up in the art of fighting and (naturally) became the best fighter in the Out Isles. He steals the lord’s armor, and runs off south to find Arthur and become a knight, only to find Arthur is dead.
What follows is Collum and the remaining knights, along with Merlin’s former apprentice Nimue, trying to find themselves a new king.
As mentioned above, the story itself is really good. Any story that takes on Arthur these days has to have some sort of hook to pull you in and get a reader to pick it up just because the story has been told so many times and is so well known, and this one does. The outline of it promises grand Arthurian quests from God, run ins with Morgan le Fay who is morally ambiguous and super interesting, some romance, some action, Guinevere and Lancelot, holy relics, angels and demons and just… lots of excitement, a look at knights we’re not necessarily familiar with and maybe a new spin on some of the others, like Morgan and Nimue. The action scenes are epic and well-written. There are some situations where the author overwrites some things, including a few paragraphs of details we don’t really need, maybe in an attempt to sound epic, but it’s fine.
I liked the lesser known knights that were highlighted. Palomides and Dinadan in particular were favorites. I especially liked their flashback chapters and I really wish there’d been a lot more chapters from their POVs. The one I liked least was Bedivere, but mainly because he spends the whole book surly and angry, sometimes inexplicably so, and there’s just no insight or depth to it. He’s mad about Arthur being dead, yes, but he’s not supposed to be stupid, so there’s got to be more than that. Why does he hate Lancelot so much? Collum doesn’t know, so we don’t know, and that would’ve added depth not only to him but to Lancelot.
I really liked the women in the story (Morgan, Nimue, and Guinevere). All of them were great, what we got to see of them, and I liked that they were all women who had carved out a space for themselves in a world that didn’t have a lot of spaces for women. They weren’t “not like other girls” girls, who were just too plucky to keep down, they’re women who have taken what they were given and worked within that (or defied that) in their own way to become what they are. Nimue is the one we spend the most time with and she was a favorite.
The parts of Arthur we see are fine, although I appreciated the flashbacks from his point of view and the one from Guinevere’s because it made him less of the idol that the others see and more of a person. Lancelot is a cipher. You learn very little about him and get very little impression of him before the finale, so that by the end what happens just seems kind of random.
There is some queer rep in the story (I can comment more fully in the spoiler section I suppose) and from the POV of a CIS bi woman, it’s fine. The queer characters’ queerness does have some importance to the story, but it’s not a centerpiece of it by any means. It’s nice that it’s there though, and that neither character is made a spectacle of except by people who are clearly meant to be in the wrong.
I found that the theme of Christianity vs. the Old Gods and whether maybe humans might be better off without either of them being so actively involved in their lives was an interesting one, and there were good examples of the ways in which both the Christian God (in this case very tangibly real… there are angels and demons and holy relics and all the old Arthurian tropes) and the Old Gods can be… not so great. To me the Old Gods come out looking a lot less sanctimonious and a lot more understanding, and Collum’s evolving point of view on this can be interesting, but it can also be kind of confusing when he’s going back and forth on it.
On a side note, I liked that the author did not make gross sexual violence or misogyny an integral part of the story just because it takes place in a time period where that stuff happened all the time. He recognizes that this is a fantasy world, not a strictly historical one, and that in that way he can shape some parts of the story the way he wants. It’s clear that misogyny and sexual violence do exist, he just chooses not to make those centerpieces of the story. (I don’t necessarily hate when this is done, especially if it’s something where the impact is discussed as well as the things themselves, but sometimes I don’t want to have to unpack that).
But the point of view killed it for me in a lot of ways.
It’s not even that I don’t like Collum as a character. He’s fine for what he is supposed to represent. He’s our way into the story, the guy who’s just a normal guy walking into this roomful of men he thinks of as heroes, pulled into a series of quests and battles that could make history. Having him be one of a half dozen POV characters would’ve been fine. He could provide the “newbie” POV and that is valuable in this kind of story. On its own, his journey from the beginning of the book to the end is interesting enough (including a quiet romance that I thought was quite sweet and well done), but living in his head for the whole story makes it so you end up missing out on events that could’ve fleshed out the story, and far more importantly, on context that could’ve deepend the character moments, between the other knights, between the knights and Guinevere and Morgan and Lancelot. Even between the other knights and Nimue.
(For example, there’s one scene between Bedivere and Guinevere that would’ve been a million times better if it had been from one of their POVs, or even the POV of one of the knights who actually had known them for years. As it is, it’s just Collum sitting and awkwardly watching two people who are very tense around one another, instead of us truly understanding the tension. I don’t even need the reasons for tension spelled out for me, but why can’t I know their feelings upon speaking again for the first time since prior to Arthur’s death?)
The only other POVs we experience are in flashbacks of the other knights, Nimue, and Arthur and Guinevere which are some of the best sections. When we’re in other people’s POVs the potential of the story is made clear. Seeing more deeply into the other knight’s heads and motivations really expands on their characters, but one or two chapters which take place in the past just makes you realize how much fuller and more impactful (and better paced) the story could’ve been if we’d had some of their POV in the present.
Some of the things that happen near the end of the book seem to come out of nowhere because we don’t get any foreshadowing. Since we only know what Collum thinks about anything and no one ever seems to talk to him much about their inner feelings (why would they?) it comes as a huge surprise when one character turns out to not be what they seem. We’ve had no idea. I’m not saying I don’t want to be surprised, but I don’t want it to come out of nowhere because that just makes it seem like bad plotting. I’m sure the other characters may have had their own reservations and opinions about this person, but it’s not like we ever got to hear them so how would we know?
It makes everyone into a frustratingly obtuse enigma. Morgan is a complicated character who has good reason to feel the way she does about Arthur and the knights, and she’s never portrayed as outright evil. She’s nuanced even in Collum’s view, but I would’ve loved a couple of chapters from her POV where we learn how she got where she is and what she’s thinking now. Same with Guinevere. We get everyone else’s perception of her but when we meet her she’s a cipher. She’s incredibly intelligent and very strategic, but god forbid we get to see that.
Aside from lack of character depth and perspective, this lack of POVs means that we just… don’t know anything that happens outside of Collum’s presence except through some other character saying something about it later briefly. There are characters who go off and do their own thing for awhile, or who are doing their own thing the whole time and it would’ve given so much more depth and detail to the story to see what they were doing. There are times when this is just “well that would’ve been nice to see” and times when it’s downright disappointing and frustrating that we don’t see it or at least get a more detailed recounting of it.
This is my main issue with the story and it sort of takes what could’ve been a 4-4.5 story and drags it down to 3 stars. Collum as one of a bunch of POVs could’ve been great. Collum as the only one we get… just not nearly enough perspective for a story that’s supposed to be this epic.
(In comparison, fellow doorstop The Priory of the Orange Tree took me three days to read. It was incredibly compelling and part of the reason for that was the multiple points of view. You knew the various different nuances of all the characters and how they related to the plot. Yes, it was a more sprawling story, in that it took place in multiple locations, but even in places where the characters were in the same location, we still got to know all of them. The same with the Song of Ice and Fire. Having more than one point of view gives context to the story and depth to all the characters in a way that a single POV just couldn’t.
If you are going to have a 500+ page book told from one POV, that POV better be a person who has a very strong personality and sense of humor and who either reads people enough to understand them well or talks to people who do. For example, Gideon the Ninth, where Gideon’s personality and sense of humor carry the book, and she actually observes the other characters doing a lot of things. They talk to her and interact with each other in a way that we don’t get in The Bright Sword. Collum doesn’t witness them having deep conversations and doesn’t sit around thinking about their interior lives.).
One other thing that I wish the author had done was put his author’s note at the start of the book rather than the end. The note was essentially explaining that since the Arthurian legends were told by different people over different time periods, they often contain a lot of anachronisms and that he has decided to keep some of those in. It would’ve kept my history minded self from getting distracted by said anachronisms. I know the story is a fantasy based on a legend, but the man has gone out of his way to use the correct terms for when the bells rang in the 900s… it’s not out of the realm of possibility for him to be attempting to stick to one time period.
I did find it distracting when he used terms that clearly didn’t come into common use until the 1700s or later (such as “spit and polish”, “teenagers”, “roughneck” and “street fight”) in a story set somewhere between the 700s and 1200s. I know some people won’t care, and it didn’t ruin the story for me, but it did take me out of it several times. Like, I get that every modern book set in the Middle Ages is going to have to use a few more recent terms just for clarity’s sake, but some of this was slang that could easily have been replaced by some more period appropriate phrase. At one point there’s a paragraph with four 1700s or later terms in the space of three sentences… I realize this may be seen as nitpicky and pedantic and a me thing, but I felt I should mention it for any other people who are nitpicky and pedantic about books set in olden times not using phrases that couldn’t have been invented in those times.
PLEASE BEWARE OF SPOILERS BELOW (BIG ONES) -seriously do not look below unless you have read the book or want to be spoiled)
There were also a couple of times when the author introduced things or put things in for seemingly no reason, things that he put out there that I thought would be followed through on or might end up mattering somehow and were just left dangling. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough that I wondered why some editor didn’t say “maybe just take that out because this book is already nearly 700 pages long”.
For instance, at one point the knights are set on a quest to retrieve a lost Knight of the Round Table. They eventually discover this knight is Sir Kay, Arthur’s asshole foster brother, who is half out of his mind in the land of fairy. They bring him back home, he sits around looking dazed for a few pages, and then he ends up hanging himself. None of the other characters talk about him, comment on him, tell Collum stories about him, seem to have any thoughts about him. He is retrieved, he is present, then he dies. I have no idea what the point of his presence was at all, unless it was to emphasize the pointlessness of the quest. (Another place where a POV from another character who actually knew Kay and had some thought about him would’ve been nice).
Another example is giving us a chapter from Sir Scipio’s POV after he’s already dead. Most of the other POV chapters come at a point in the story where we sort of might want more insight into the knight in question, and then we can kind of understand more of their motivations and what secrets they might be hiding. Scipio’s tells you where he’s from and how he got to Camelot, but it’s unclear why that would be important at the point in the story where it’s placed. It should’ve either been taken out or placed somewhere else in the story when it might have been relevant.
Lancelot being the bad guy all along was… kind of out of left field. There was always some weirdness about him, and he seems to be meant to represent the sort of rigid, all consuming Christianity that focuses solely on the heavenly reward part and ignores having any fun on Earth or coloring outside the lines in any way. In his opinion, everyone should be chaste and pious and straight and faithful or they aren’t in the picture. This is one giant area where I would’ve loved some context, some fleshing out of the character, some looks at the other characters’ thoughts on him, especially Bedivere who never seems to like him at all. I’m not asking for it to be spelled out to me, or to be handheld, I just would’ve liked a little foreshadowing, or at least a little insight into Lancelot and who he is outside of just the shining pinnacle of knightliness.
Dinadan being trans was handled well in my opinion (I know that’s not what they would’ve called it then). I am not trans so I don’t have any personal experience in this area, but he was never made into a spectacle, never misgendered by anyone who wasn’t clearly a villain and in the wrong about it, and never treated as anything other than a knight and the man that he is. I’m not sure if he was made a trans character just to fulfill the particular prophecy he ends up fulfilling and make the bad guys look like assholes, but it wasn’t made a huge deal of and since we only get one chapter from his POV it’s not fully explored. I sort of wish it had been more but that’s not the point of this story I guess.
Bedivere being gay was like everything else about Bedivere, sort of underexplored. The guy gets three POV chapters and I still had very little sense of him as anything other than “loves Arthur which makes him extremely surly to anyone who is mean to Arthur in any way”. We don’t even get to see this love develop. It just sort of exists, and I feel like it would’ve been more impactful if we got to see it. Arthur doesn’t return it which is fine, but some moment would’ve been nice. It would’ve given Bedivere more depth at least.
In terms of giant plot holes, the fact that we never find out exactly what happened between Lancelot bursting into Guinevere’s chambers and Arthur chasing after Lancelot and leaving his throne empty for Mordred to try to take. Why did Arthur chase Lancelot? Did he think he’d actually slept with Guinevere? Did he know the truth and no longer trust Lancelot? Was he the one who tried to execute Guinevere? Why didn’t Arthur ask Guinevere what really happened and if he did why didn’t he believe her? A lot of the events are alluded too but never fully explained and it’s very frustrating.
TL;DR- The story is good. Like if I just read a synopsis of the events of the story, I’d think “Man that sounds like an amazing story I’d love to read an expanded version of that”. However, for about the first four hundred pages I was struggling to make much progress and I couldn’t put my finger on why… and then I thought: this is being told from the wrong point of view. Collum is the prototypical young novice thrown into a situation where he has to become heroic and go on great quests with people he considers heroes. He learns lessons, gets his illusions shattered, and eventually is set on the path towards becoming who he wants to be. It’s fine for what it is but it is not enough to hang a 600+ page sprawling fantasy on. His POV can be frustrating because he’s learning, and he can be very naive and quite unsure about who he is and what he thinks. THis is fine if it’s a 300 page coming of age novel, or if he’s one of many POVs, but as it is he just ruins the potential of the story by being the only one whose POV we get. Otherwise, besides being a bit overwritten, it’s a good epic fantasy story with some interesting things to say about God vs. the gods and whether a God who seems to be kind of sanctimonious and controlling is better than a bunch of very human seeming gods who are kind of capricious and rude. If you’re into stories inspired by Arthurian legends this has a lot of good stuff in it, but it doesn’t reach its full potential because of the way it’s told.
(that was a long TL;DR)
Now begins the ramble. For clarification: I like fantasy, I don’t have any issues with a long book as long as it justifies its length and I have always been interested in the Arthurian legends (although admittedly I always think of Monty Python first when thinking of them). This is an Arthurian story that’s not really about Arthur.. It begins after Arthur and Mordred kill each other in battle, and the remaining knights of the round table (minus Lancelot) are gathered at Camelot aimless and lost and not quite knowing where to go next. The current day story is told entirely from the point of view of Collum, a boy whose parents are both dead, and whose stepfather sent him to live with the local lord who basically mistreated and abused him in about every way you can think of for the ten years he was there. Somehow in the middle of all that, Collum managed to get himself trained up in the art of fighting and (naturally) became the best fighter in the Out Isles. He steals the lord’s armor, and runs off south to find Arthur and become a knight, only to find Arthur is dead.
What follows is Collum and the remaining knights, along with Merlin’s former apprentice Nimue, trying to find themselves a new king.
As mentioned above, the story itself is really good. Any story that takes on Arthur these days has to have some sort of hook to pull you in and get a reader to pick it up just because the story has been told so many times and is so well known, and this one does. The outline of it promises grand Arthurian quests from God, run ins with Morgan le Fay who is morally ambiguous and super interesting, some romance, some action, Guinevere and Lancelot, holy relics, angels and demons and just… lots of excitement, a look at knights we’re not necessarily familiar with and maybe a new spin on some of the others, like Morgan and Nimue. The action scenes are epic and well-written. There are some situations where the author overwrites some things, including a few paragraphs of details we don’t really need, maybe in an attempt to sound epic, but it’s fine.
I liked the lesser known knights that were highlighted. Palomides and Dinadan in particular were favorites. I especially liked their flashback chapters and I really wish there’d been a lot more chapters from their POVs. The one I liked least was Bedivere, but mainly because he spends the whole book surly and angry, sometimes inexplicably so, and there’s just no insight or depth to it. He’s mad about Arthur being dead, yes, but he’s not supposed to be stupid, so there’s got to be more than that. Why does he hate Lancelot so much? Collum doesn’t know, so we don’t know, and that would’ve added depth not only to him but to Lancelot.
I really liked the women in the story (Morgan, Nimue, and Guinevere). All of them were great, what we got to see of them, and I liked that they were all women who had carved out a space for themselves in a world that didn’t have a lot of spaces for women. They weren’t “not like other girls” girls, who were just too plucky to keep down, they’re women who have taken what they were given and worked within that (or defied that) in their own way to become what they are. Nimue is the one we spend the most time with and she was a favorite.
The parts of Arthur we see are fine, although I appreciated the flashbacks from his point of view and the one from Guinevere’s because it made him less of the idol that the others see and more of a person. Lancelot is a cipher. You learn very little about him and get very little impression of him before the finale, so that by the end what happens just seems kind of random.
There is some queer rep in the story (I can comment more fully in the spoiler section I suppose) and from the POV of a CIS bi woman, it’s fine. The queer characters’ queerness does have some importance to the story, but it’s not a centerpiece of it by any means. It’s nice that it’s there though, and that neither character is made a spectacle of except by people who are clearly meant to be in the wrong.
I found that the theme of Christianity vs. the Old Gods and whether maybe humans might be better off without either of them being so actively involved in their lives was an interesting one, and there were good examples of the ways in which both the Christian God (in this case very tangibly real… there are angels and demons and holy relics and all the old Arthurian tropes) and the Old Gods can be… not so great. To me the Old Gods come out looking a lot less sanctimonious and a lot more understanding, and Collum’s evolving point of view on this can be interesting, but it can also be kind of confusing when he’s going back and forth on it.
On a side note, I liked that the author did not make gross sexual violence or misogyny an integral part of the story just because it takes place in a time period where that stuff happened all the time. He recognizes that this is a fantasy world, not a strictly historical one, and that in that way he can shape some parts of the story the way he wants. It’s clear that misogyny and sexual violence do exist, he just chooses not to make those centerpieces of the story. (I don’t necessarily hate when this is done, especially if it’s something where the impact is discussed as well as the things themselves, but sometimes I don’t want to have to unpack that).
But the point of view killed it for me in a lot of ways.
It’s not even that I don’t like Collum as a character. He’s fine for what he is supposed to represent. He’s our way into the story, the guy who’s just a normal guy walking into this roomful of men he thinks of as heroes, pulled into a series of quests and battles that could make history. Having him be one of a half dozen POV characters would’ve been fine. He could provide the “newbie” POV and that is valuable in this kind of story. On its own, his journey from the beginning of the book to the end is interesting enough (including a quiet romance that I thought was quite sweet and well done), but living in his head for the whole story makes it so you end up missing out on events that could’ve fleshed out the story, and far more importantly, on context that could’ve deepend the character moments, between the other knights, between the knights and Guinevere and Morgan and Lancelot. Even between the other knights and Nimue.
(For example, there’s one scene between Bedivere and Guinevere that would’ve been a million times better if it had been from one of their POVs, or even the POV of one of the knights who actually had known them for years. As it is, it’s just Collum sitting and awkwardly watching two people who are very tense around one another, instead of us truly understanding the tension. I don’t even need the reasons for tension spelled out for me, but why can’t I know their feelings upon speaking again for the first time since prior to Arthur’s death?)
The only other POVs we experience are in flashbacks of the other knights, Nimue, and Arthur and Guinevere which are some of the best sections. When we’re in other people’s POVs the potential of the story is made clear. Seeing more deeply into the other knight’s heads and motivations really expands on their characters, but one or two chapters which take place in the past just makes you realize how much fuller and more impactful (and better paced) the story could’ve been if we’d had some of their POV in the present.
Some of the things that happen near the end of the book seem to come out of nowhere because we don’t get any foreshadowing. Since we only know what Collum thinks about anything and no one ever seems to talk to him much about their inner feelings (why would they?) it comes as a huge surprise when one character turns out to not be what they seem. We’ve had no idea. I’m not saying I don’t want to be surprised, but I don’t want it to come out of nowhere because that just makes it seem like bad plotting. I’m sure the other characters may have had their own reservations and opinions about this person, but it’s not like we ever got to hear them so how would we know?
It makes everyone into a frustratingly obtuse enigma. Morgan is a complicated character who has good reason to feel the way she does about Arthur and the knights, and she’s never portrayed as outright evil. She’s nuanced even in Collum’s view, but I would’ve loved a couple of chapters from her POV where we learn how she got where she is and what she’s thinking now. Same with Guinevere. We get everyone else’s perception of her but when we meet her she’s a cipher. She’s incredibly intelligent and very strategic, but god forbid we get to see that.
Aside from lack of character depth and perspective, this lack of POVs means that we just… don’t know anything that happens outside of Collum’s presence except through some other character saying something about it later briefly. There are characters who go off and do their own thing for awhile, or who are doing their own thing the whole time and it would’ve given so much more depth and detail to the story to see what they were doing. There are times when this is just “well that would’ve been nice to see” and times when it’s downright disappointing and frustrating that we don’t see it or at least get a more detailed recounting of it.
This is my main issue with the story and it sort of takes what could’ve been a 4-4.5 story and drags it down to 3 stars. Collum as one of a bunch of POVs could’ve been great. Collum as the only one we get… just not nearly enough perspective for a story that’s supposed to be this epic.
(In comparison, fellow doorstop The Priory of the Orange Tree took me three days to read. It was incredibly compelling and part of the reason for that was the multiple points of view. You knew the various different nuances of all the characters and how they related to the plot. Yes, it was a more sprawling story, in that it took place in multiple locations, but even in places where the characters were in the same location, we still got to know all of them. The same with the Song of Ice and Fire. Having more than one point of view gives context to the story and depth to all the characters in a way that a single POV just couldn’t.
If you are going to have a 500+ page book told from one POV, that POV better be a person who has a very strong personality and sense of humor and who either reads people enough to understand them well or talks to people who do. For example, Gideon the Ninth, where Gideon’s personality and sense of humor carry the book, and she actually observes the other characters doing a lot of things. They talk to her and interact with each other in a way that we don’t get in The Bright Sword. Collum doesn’t witness them having deep conversations and doesn’t sit around thinking about their interior lives.).
One other thing that I wish the author had done was put his author’s note at the start of the book rather than the end. The note was essentially explaining that since the Arthurian legends were told by different people over different time periods, they often contain a lot of anachronisms and that he has decided to keep some of those in. It would’ve kept my history minded self from getting distracted by said anachronisms. I know the story is a fantasy based on a legend, but the man has gone out of his way to use the correct terms for when the bells rang in the 900s… it’s not out of the realm of possibility for him to be attempting to stick to one time period.
I did find it distracting when he used terms that clearly didn’t come into common use until the 1700s or later (such as “spit and polish”, “teenagers”, “roughneck” and “street fight”) in a story set somewhere between the 700s and 1200s. I know some people won’t care, and it didn’t ruin the story for me, but it did take me out of it several times. Like, I get that every modern book set in the Middle Ages is going to have to use a few more recent terms just for clarity’s sake, but some of this was slang that could easily have been replaced by some more period appropriate phrase. At one point there’s a paragraph with four 1700s or later terms in the space of three sentences… I realize this may be seen as nitpicky and pedantic and a me thing, but I felt I should mention it for any other people who are nitpicky and pedantic about books set in olden times not using phrases that couldn’t have been invented in those times.
PLEASE BEWARE OF SPOILERS BELOW (BIG ONES) -seriously do not look below unless you have read the book or want to be spoiled)
There were also a couple of times when the author introduced things or put things in for seemingly no reason, things that he put out there that I thought would be followed through on or might end up mattering somehow and were just left dangling. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough that I wondered why some editor didn’t say “maybe just take that out because this book is already nearly 700 pages long”.
For instance, at one point the knights are set on a quest to retrieve a lost Knight of the Round Table. They eventually discover this knight is Sir Kay, Arthur’s asshole foster brother, who is half out of his mind in the land of fairy. They bring him back home, he sits around looking dazed for a few pages, and then he ends up hanging himself. None of the other characters talk about him, comment on him, tell Collum stories about him, seem to have any thoughts about him. He is retrieved, he is present, then he dies. I have no idea what the point of his presence was at all, unless it was to emphasize the pointlessness of the quest. (Another place where a POV from another character who actually knew Kay and had some thought about him would’ve been nice).
Another example is giving us a chapter from Sir Scipio’s POV after he’s already dead. Most of the other POV chapters come at a point in the story where we sort of might want more insight into the knight in question, and then we can kind of understand more of their motivations and what secrets they might be hiding. Scipio’s tells you where he’s from and how he got to Camelot, but it’s unclear why that would be important at the point in the story where it’s placed. It should’ve either been taken out or placed somewhere else in the story when it might have been relevant.
Lancelot being the bad guy all along was… kind of out of left field. There was always some weirdness about him, and he seems to be meant to represent the sort of rigid, all consuming Christianity that focuses solely on the heavenly reward part and ignores having any fun on Earth or coloring outside the lines in any way. In his opinion, everyone should be chaste and pious and straight and faithful or they aren’t in the picture. This is one giant area where I would’ve loved some context, some fleshing out of the character, some looks at the other characters’ thoughts on him, especially Bedivere who never seems to like him at all. I’m not asking for it to be spelled out to me, or to be handheld, I just would’ve liked a little foreshadowing, or at least a little insight into Lancelot and who he is outside of just the shining pinnacle of knightliness.
Dinadan being trans was handled well in my opinion (I know that’s not what they would’ve called it then). I am not trans so I don’t have any personal experience in this area, but he was never made into a spectacle, never misgendered by anyone who wasn’t clearly a villain and in the wrong about it, and never treated as anything other than a knight and the man that he is. I’m not sure if he was made a trans character just to fulfill the particular prophecy he ends up fulfilling and make the bad guys look like assholes, but it wasn’t made a huge deal of and since we only get one chapter from his POV it’s not fully explored. I sort of wish it had been more but that’s not the point of this story I guess.
Bedivere being gay was like everything else about Bedivere, sort of underexplored. The guy gets three POV chapters and I still had very little sense of him as anything other than “loves Arthur which makes him extremely surly to anyone who is mean to Arthur in any way”. We don’t even get to see this love develop. It just sort of exists, and I feel like it would’ve been more impactful if we got to see it. Arthur doesn’t return it which is fine, but some moment would’ve been nice. It would’ve given Bedivere more depth at least.
In terms of giant plot holes, the fact that we never find out exactly what happened between Lancelot bursting into Guinevere’s chambers and Arthur chasing after Lancelot and leaving his throne empty for Mordred to try to take. Why did Arthur chase Lancelot? Did he think he’d actually slept with Guinevere? Did he know the truth and no longer trust Lancelot? Was he the one who tried to execute Guinevere? Why didn’t Arthur ask Guinevere what really happened and if he did why didn’t he believe her? A lot of the events are alluded too but never fully explained and it’s very frustrating.
December 12, 2023
I'm no shlub about my Authurian Legend, so I want you to know I mean it when I say this is exactly the correct tone for this sort of thing. The trick with Arthur is to know where to be whimsical and where to be authentic and Grossman absolutely nailed it. Also, Merlin is super-duper evil and I'm surprisingly into it.
Read
April 15, 2024DNF. I tried. The premise sounds good, but it's just not holding my interest.
January 22, 2024
I went into this with high expectations. I loved Lev Grossman's previous series, and I love Arthurian legend, so the bar was set high. The Bright Sword did not disappoint. Grossman has a talent for world-building, and here he takes a well know setting and established lore and reworks it just enough to make it his own. His Britain is a world of magic and adventures, but somehow believably so.
Our protagonist, Collum, arrives at Camelot with dreams of knighthood and personal validation only to discover that he's too late to be a part of that golden age. Arthur is dead, the most heroic knights are also dead or scattered, and the kingdom is fractured. Joining the remaining B-List team of knights, Collum sets off on adventure to find a successor for Arthur as old magics reclaim their hold on Britain. As a set up, its great. Arthur's story has been told repeatedly, and we know all about the courtly love of Guinevere and Lancelot so this take gets to feel fresh and unique. What gives this tale it's interest and depth is how Grossman gets to flesh out the lesser-known knights and give them compelling backstories and motivations. Told with wit and a lot of emotional resonance, the best parts of the book are when Grossman delves into the tales of each flawed knight. I found each one heartbreaking and relatable, and it helped to create a picture as to why the Knights of the Round Table each bound themselves in loyalty to Arthur.
I won't spoil anything in a review, but I'll say that the ending was satisfying and fulfills the trope of the 'hero's journey' very well. For me, it was a perfect 5/5 book and despite its length it seemed to fly by. As a librarian, I feel like I could recommend this book not just to adult fantasy readers, but young adults looking for stories about finding their purpose, and for adult fiction readers who are interested in strong character development. It would make an excellent Book Club pick, since it gives a lot of topics and characters to discuss.
Our protagonist, Collum, arrives at Camelot with dreams of knighthood and personal validation only to discover that he's too late to be a part of that golden age. Arthur is dead, the most heroic knights are also dead or scattered, and the kingdom is fractured. Joining the remaining B-List team of knights, Collum sets off on adventure to find a successor for Arthur as old magics reclaim their hold on Britain. As a set up, its great. Arthur's story has been told repeatedly, and we know all about the courtly love of Guinevere and Lancelot so this take gets to feel fresh and unique. What gives this tale it's interest and depth is how Grossman gets to flesh out the lesser-known knights and give them compelling backstories and motivations. Told with wit and a lot of emotional resonance, the best parts of the book are when Grossman delves into the tales of each flawed knight. I found each one heartbreaking and relatable, and it helped to create a picture as to why the Knights of the Round Table each bound themselves in loyalty to Arthur.
I won't spoil anything in a review, but I'll say that the ending was satisfying and fulfills the trope of the 'hero's journey' very well. For me, it was a perfect 5/5 book and despite its length it seemed to fly by. As a librarian, I feel like I could recommend this book not just to adult fantasy readers, but young adults looking for stories about finding their purpose, and for adult fiction readers who are interested in strong character development. It would make an excellent Book Club pick, since it gives a lot of topics and characters to discuss.
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