The Bright Sword Book Review: The Arthurian Novel I Didn't Know I Was Waiting For

Rating: ★★★★★

"The Bright Sword" Book Review:

Lev Grossman already proved with The Magicians trilogy that he could take beloved fantasy tropes and make them feel dangerous and real and emotionally devastating. Now he's done it to King Arthur, and the result is extraordinary.

The Bright Sword begins after Arthur is dead. A young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot for what he thinks will be the start of his story, only to find the king's body cold and the Round Table shattered. What's left? A handful of knights — some famous, some not — trying to hold a kingdom together without the man who was supposed to hold it together for them. It's a post-Arthurian novel in the truest sense. Not a retelling. An aftermath.

Grossman assembles a ragtag group of surviving knights, and each one gets a backstory that reframes what you thought you knew about Camelot. These are not shining paragons. They're complicated people who did terrible things in service of an ideal they're no longer sure was real. The quests they undertake after Arthur's death are strange, violent, magical, and shot through with a melancholy that never becomes self-pity. Grossman respects the mythic weight of this material while refusing to let it become stiff.

The prose is gorgeous. Grossman writes action sequences with a visceral clarity that puts you inside the armor, and he writes emotional scenes with a gentleness that earns every moment. There's a sequence involving the Green Knight that is one of the best things I've read in fantasy fiction in years.

Nicholas Guy Smith narrates with the gravity and warmth this material demands. The audiobook is fifteen-plus hours, and I wished it were longer.

Five stars. This was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, and it should be on every fantasy reader's shelf. Grossman took the most-told story in the English language and made it feel brand new.

If You Liked The Bright Sword, Try:

• The Once and Future King by T.H. White — The classic Arthurian novel that Grossman is clearly in conversation with. Read this first if you haven't, or reread it after The Bright Sword for a completely different experience.

• The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch — A literary novel inspired by the same Arthurian legend, told through a contemporary lens. Same moral weight, different century.

• Circe by Madeline Miller — Another mythic retelling that makes ancient characters feel achingly contemporary. If Grossman's approach to legend resonated, Miller's will too.

From Luke Stoffel's Bookshelf

If you enjoyed this book review, check out How to Win a Million Dollars and Shit Glitter — a boy raids his neighbors' pantries for cereal sweepstakes pieces, cleans toilets backstage at a Tony-winning musical, surfs in Hawaii until a volcano goddess curses him, and buries his best friend at twenty-seven. Part con-artist origin story, part elegy for every American who was told to dream big and handed a rigged game.

Learn More: How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter by Luke Stoffel