The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur
Staff Reviews
From T.H. White to Monty Python, from Tennyson to… uh, Fate/stay night, the Arthur legend has become what each era needed it to be. To write a new King Arthur story is inevitably also to write a story about the King Arthur story, and there is no one better suited to this kind of metatext than Lev Grossman, who writes fantasies for conflicted fantasists. He dives headlong into the thorniest elements of the Arthur myth – worthiness, empire, manhood – and finds a timeless story of the search for meaning and grace.
In a Britain forsaken by the Romans, by God, and finally by Arthur, we follow the last of the knights: the ones the old tales relegated to the margins, each scarred by trauma, patriarchy, or simply the uncaring cosmos. The Bright Sword has the courtly intrigue and captivating backstories of Game of Thrones, but its surreal, apocalyptic setting is more Elden Ring. The characters pull you in with their unique voices and histories. Their self-aware repartee (a familiar mode for Grossman) brings levity to the questing business, but he also knows when to play it straight, and does so to great effect.
Yes, it’s an epic, but I devoured it in a week. Almost every chapter rewrote my expectations of the story’s direction, scope, and themes, yet somehow it still comes together into an incredibly satisfying conclusion. I cried when I finished it, not because of the ending, but because I didn't want to leave the characters and their world. I have been waiting for The Bright Sword since I read the Magicians trilogy in 2017. Fans who read Grossman before me have been waiting since 2014! So, this is Free Trader Beowulf, calling from the future to tell you: it was worth the wait.
Description
A Today.com & Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2024
“For anyone who’s ever craved a seat at the Round Table. Utterly enchanting.” —Rebecca Yarros, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame
“If you love King Arthur as much as I do, you’ll love Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword, a fresh and engrossing take on the Matter of Britain featuring a colorful cast of Round Table knights who don’t often get as much story time as they deserve. The creator of The Magicians has woven another spell.” —George R. R. Martin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Game of Thrones
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians trilogy returns with a triumphant reimagining of the King Arthur legend for the new millennium
A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find that 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 Table, 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 lay 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.
The first major Arthurian epic of the new millennium, The Bright Sword is steeped in tradition, full of duels and quests, battles and tournaments, magic swords and Fisher Kings. It also sheds a fresh light on Arthur’s Britain, a diverse, complex nation struggling to come to terms with its bloody history. The Bright Sword is a story about imperfect men and women, full of strength and pain, who are looking for a way to reforge a broken land in spite of being broken themselves.
Praise for The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur
Advance Praise for The Bright Sword
“For anyone who’s ever craved a seat at the Round Table. Utterly enchanting.”
—Rebecca Yarros, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame
“If you love King Arthur as much as I do, you’ll love Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword, a fresh and engrossing take on the Matter of Britain featuring a colorful cast of Round Table knights who don’t often get as much story time as they deserve. The creator of The Magicians has woven another spell.”
—George R. R. Martin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Game of Thrones
“A novel that is as much about the Matter of Britain as it is our own florid and layered imaginings of it. Breathlessly weaves themes of faith, duty, and selfhood with a classic sword-and-sorcery adventure—this is why we read fantasy.”
—Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning
“Once I picked this novel up, I could not stop reading. The Bright Sword is compulsively readable and expertly told. Lev Grossman transports the reader with such assurance and finesse. Just pick it up and lose yourself inside these pages. You won't want to leave until the tale is done.”
—Victor LaValle, national bestselling author of Lone Women
“Satisfyingly epic but also fast-paced, this novel captures everything that’s grand and magnificent about the age of King Arthur while picking at its edges and delving into its darker depths. All fantasy and mythology fans will want to make time for this moving, entertaining epic. . . . This epic fantasy is sure to be a hit.”
—Booklist (STARRED review)
“Highly recommended for readers who can’t resist a story featuring brave knights, stalwart queens, and magic.”
—Library Journal (STARRED review)
“The story of King Arthur has been told and substantially altered many times over the centuries, and explored by a multitude of contemporary novelists, but the author of the Magicians trilogy makes room for himself here. . . . Very few writers have explored post-Arthurian Britain or focused quite so much on developing the stories of the minor characters in the saga. . . . A fresh take.”
—Kirkus Reviews (STARRED review)
Praise for Lev Grossman's Magicians Trilogy
"The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. Hogwarts was never like this."
—George R. R. Martin
"The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I've read this century."
—Cory Doctorow
"Lev Grossman has conjured a rare creature: a trilogy that simply gets better and better as it goes along."
—Erin Morgenstern
"The best fantasy trilogy of the decade."
—Charles Stross
"Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy."
—Joe Hill
