#BookReview The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman @leverus @PenguinRandomCA #TheBrightSword #LevGrossman #PenguinReads Title: The Bright Sword

Author: Lev Grossman

Published by: Viking on Jul. 16, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Pages: 673

Format: Hardcover

Source: Penguin Random House Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

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.


Review:

Poignant, creative, and compelling!

The Bright Sword is a captivating, mystical tale that takes us back to Camelot two weeks after the death of King Arthur as kingdoms are falling, Britain is in chaos, the remaining colourful, mediocre knights are struggling to find a leader amongst themselves, and a young man with a dream to become a Knight of the Round Table finds himself a little too late but nevertheless swept up in a journey to bring Excalibur back where it belongs and a responsibility to bring harmony to a world cloaked in ruin.

The prose is vivid and rich. The characters are lost, conflicted, and burdened. And the plot is an enigmatic, absorbing tale of life, loss, battles, love, betrayals, friendship, self-identity, magic, confrontations, adventure, courage, and heart.

Overall, The Bright Sword is an imaginative, passionate, epic, fantastical novel by Grossman that combines the classic Arthurian legend with the magic of the supernatural to weave a fresh, contemporary spin on a centuries-old story that is bursting with soul-searching dilemmas, dangerous quests, and complex, intriguing characters.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy—The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land—which has been published in thirty countries and adapted as a TV show that ran for five seasons on SYFY. He is also a screenwriter and the author of two children’s books, The Golden Swift and The Silver Arrow, and his journalism has appeared in Time, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, among many other places. He lives with his wife and children in New York City.