The Bright Sword

When gifted young knight Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place on the Round Table, he quickly discovers that he’s too late: the king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.

The survivors aren’t the heroes of legend either, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Table, 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.
It’s up to them to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance, even as God abandons Britain and the fairies and old gods are returning, led by Morgan le Fay. They must reclaim Excalibur and make this ruined world whole again.

But first they’ll have to solve the mystery of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell.

The first major Arthurian epic of the new millennium, The Bright Sword is a story about imperfect men and women who are looking for a way to fight darkness and reforge a broken land

Review

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 colourful 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, author of A Game of Thrones

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, author of The Changeling and Lone Women

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, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning

About the Author

Lev Grossman is the author of the No. 1 bestselling Magicians trilogy, which has been published in thirty countries and adapted as a TV show that ran for five seasons. 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 and the New York Times, among many other places. He lives with his wife and children in New York City.