The Bright Sword

Okay, here's the thing about me. I am not afraid at all of a long book. If there's the promise of a good story inside of that menacing looking tome, I'm happy to dive right in. That being said, even I was slightly taken aback by the sheer length of The Bright Sword. I'm by no means an expert on the subject, but I know that there is plenty of Arthurian lore to pull from out there. Still, what magic could this book hold that required so very many pages? That's what I was determined to find out.

The beginning of the story centers on Callum, a young man who is Camelot bound and determined to become a knight of the round table. He was the type of character that I could get behind. Callum was full of grit and grace in equal parts, while still feeling relatable because of his deep worries about actually being good enough to become a true knight. For the first few chapters, I was hooked. I especially loved when Callum first met the remaining knights of the round table. Broken though they were, you could tell why each of them had managed to get to this place of honor and how much they truly loved their former king.

I also really loved the fact that Grossman gives the reader ample time to meet each of the main characters in turn. As a reader, there is nothing that makes me happier than a good backstory. With his signature witty writing style, Grossman unveils the history behind each of our famous knights. We get the opportunity to see what made them the strong, capable, and also of course deeply flawed men that they are today.

However, here's where my complaints about this book begin. The backstory portions were lovely, but they didn't really flow with the overall story. There is a constant flipping between present day and the past, but not in a way that feels cohesive. It almost felt like the knight's stories could have each been their own novella, while the main story continued on with Callum's journey in the new Britain that is now missing its king. Even worse, and this is one of my biggest pet peeves, it truly felt like nothing these poor, brave men did actually mattered at all. I suppose that does somewhat stay true to the original King Arthur lore. They often set off on trivial quests that seemed to come to nothing. In this context though it just seemed to add a lot of unnecessary length to the overall story.

Which brings me the answer to the first question I had at the start of this book: what could it hold that made it so long? The answer is, a lot of rambling quests, and so very many heavy explanations. The Bright Song started to drag for me about halfway through, and I only kept on because I'd already made it to the halfway point. Happily, things did pick up towards the end again! It just felt like too little too late.

I love Fantasy novels. I love big worlds, sweeping magic systems, solidly written characters and the type of character development that makes you fall in love with the person you're following along with. Whether the book is only 200 pages or 800 pages, as long as I feel the payoff is worth it I'll keep going on forever. In this case, it's my honest opinion that this story could have been much shorter and it would have had a much bigger impact. I'll still happily award it a solid three star rating. Grossman is an absolutely excellent writer. I just think The Bright Sword tried too hard to pull too much in at once and struggled with the heaviness of it all.

I really enjoyed this book! The writing style really felt like a legend, which was fun and different from what I’m used to. The story itself was surprising and kept me thoroughly interested from start to finish. At its core, I think this book is about the dangers of absolute faith in any one thing, whether that’s a person or religion. It’s a really interesting theme and not one I’ve often read about to this extent.

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I really wanted to like this more than I ended up doing. The Bright Sword had some serious promise as a modern retelling of the King Arthur legends, but uh, it falls flat at the end. Literally...the very end just kinda goes limp like a poorly made soufflé. For the most part, I loved Grossman's takes on the characters, I loved the journeys they went on, but dangit I did not love how this book ended.

I love King Arthur. I love when King Arthur is presented as a good, but complicated man. We have that here. Cool, I'm there. Lancelot gets turned into a not-so-nice, too-good-at-everything kinda guy, but whatever. He's never been my favorite of the Arthurian characters. Guinevere is in here, but not really a main character. Kinda lame. Merlin's an ass, and Nimue is pretty badass. I am really tired of ‘retellings' where Merlin is either completely incompetent or a total asshole. Nimue is rarely shown in retellings that I've seen, even though she's a pretty neat character.

I do want to mention there is trans, and gay representation in this book. I think it's done well, and isn't shoved in simply to include it. It works very nicely along with the characters.

If you like the Arthurian legends at all, I'd say this one is worth trying. Maybe you'll like it more than I did. I'm giving The Bright Sword 3.5 stars.

This is a heartbreaker of a book and make no mistake, but also a GEM of a book in its own right. There is both light and dark contained herein, and it all comes together to make something absolutely beautiful, and absolutely bittersweet.
So, first things first: you do not need to be completely familiar with the Arthurian Cycle to understand this story. As long as one knows the broad strokes of the story about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round, the reader will have no problems keeping up.
What DOES matter when reading this book, though, is picking up the themes that Grossman lays down in throughout the novel. There???s quite a few one could pick up, but after some back-and-form with a close friend via messages, I???ve concluded, as she did, that the main theme is that of cycles: of old to new and back again, of faith, and of people. The groundwork for this is laid in the novel???s first chapters, when the protagonist, Collum, observes how successive waves of occupants changed and shaped the landscape of Britain, each one leaving their mark on the land and its inhabitants. He also brings up the concept of a ???golden age???: notably, he observes that ???golden ages??? all come to an end. That bit???s important because, as the reader knows (but Collum doesn???t), King Arthur is already dead.
Tied into that theme is the conflict between Christianity and the pagan faiths of Britain. This is a theme that???s frequently been picked up in other adaptations of the Arthurian cycle, but oftentimes, in those adaptations, one is held up as better than the other. In this novel, though, it???s made pretty clear that returning to the old ways is neither better nor worse than accepting Christianity - mostly because, in the end, it all depends on the people running the show. After all, terrible things have been done in the name of God, just as there have been good things done in the name of the old gods.
Speaking of people running the show, this book also offers a lovely and incredibly human portrait of Arthur himself. I know that this is something a lot of other books, movies, and even TV shows have attempted to do, but this novel???s take on Arthur is such an excellent balance between a legendary hero and a flawed human being. He???s a genuinely good person, and wants the best for the people around him and for his country, and he works HARD to make that so, but he is still human, and therefore is prone to doubts and mistakes. This is King Arthur with impostor syndrome, and it makes him a wonderful character to read about.
While Arthur is certainly important in this novel, the other characters are definitely just as important, if not more so. After all, it is through their eyes that the reader comes to understand Camelot and Arthur himself, and it is through their actions that the fate of Britain is decided. And, just like Arthur, they are all wonderfully, poignantly human while also being pretty damn heroic, especially since most of them have faced rather tough odds before and during their tenure as Knights of the Round Table.
Which leads into the second important theme of this novel, which is another thing my good friend and I circled back to repeatedly over messages: breaking cycles is vitally important for moving forward. This is showcased most prominently in the novel???s overall plot, which follows the protagonist Collum has he helps determine Britain???s future, but it???s also present in the story arcs of the other characters - including the antagonists. Like Collum, they are all caught up in a cycle, whether that is their internal struggle with their gender or sexuality; finding their place in the world at large; or a history of abuse. And to be able to move forward, to avoid getting stuck in a rut, they have to break that cycle and move forward - or find themselves doing more harm than good. It???s difficult to illustrate this well without going into some very big spoilers, but suffice to say that this is a very important theme and plays into this novel???s climax.
Because that???s another thing that the novel focuses on and spends a lot of time trying to get across: all golden ages must one day come to an end, and everyone must move on and keep on living. Time and time again the novel talks about how the age of miracles has ended, and how Britain???s inhabitants must deal with the aftermath. What does one do when one must live in the shadow of a golden age, watching the world move on and slowly forgetting the greatness that once lived in it? What does it mean to have lived through a time when it seemed like all things good and great were possible, only to come to the end of that time with nothing ahead but something lesser? That part really got to me, because we all hope that things will get better in our lifetimes, and we all try to do SOMETHING to make things better while we???re still alive, but what if the chance to do so has long since passed? What???s the point of struggling? What???s the point of living?
And this book says: that???s it - living is the point. One lives, and keeps on going, changing as one needs to, because to give up is to choose stasis, and that just doesn???t work out well for oneself or for anyone. Change is never painless, of course, and it can be sad and terrible and dark, but it is necessary regardless. But what we can do is choose HOW we rise to change, HOW we move with it. We cannot stop change, or make it happen faster, but we CAN choose how we act when it arrives.
Overall this is a beautiful, wonderful book: an interesting take on the Arthurian cycle that is familiar with its origins, but still manages to put a new spin on the legends instead of retelling them. There is a bittersweetness to this novel that will resonate with a lot of readers, and will likely leave them thinking about the story long after they???ve put the book down. 

Hmm like [b:Nicked 200555176 Nicked M.T. Anderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1708658984l/200555176.SY75.jpg 205322389], this is a work of historical fiction that I probably wouldn't have picked up if I weren't already a fan of the author. I don't know a lot about Arthurian legend-and I think a lot of what I know (beyond the very basics that are soaked into American pop culture) is actually from the [b:Legendborn 50892338 Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle, #1) Tracy Deonn https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1598382979l/50892338.SY75.jpg 61991309] books which have their own spin on things–but I did really enjoy this. I think I see the some of Arthurian influence on the Magicians books now (sidenote I know the Magicians books are not everyone's cup of tea but I still fuckin love em).Anyway a fun weird read! I was along for the ride! People who know more about Arthurian lore might like this less? Or more? I have no idea.

Long. Had really high hopes. Some nice additions to the traditional story, but somehow never became emotionally invested in any of the characters. Not sure why.