The Bright Sword

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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.