The Bright Sword: A Novel of King ArthurNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Editors’ Choice • The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians Trilogy and “master storyteller” (New York Times) returns with a triumphant reimagining of the King Arthur legend for the new millennium Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist • Locus Award Finalist NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, NPR, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, VANITY FAIR, TIME, OPRAH DAILY, TOWN & COUNTRY, ELLE, VOX, PASTE, LIT HUB, POLYGON, KIRKUS REVIEWS “Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword stands out as the best fantasy of the year.” —The Wall Street Journal “Grossman, who is best known for his The Magicians series, is at the top of his game with The Bright Sword.” —The New York Times Book Review “A thrilling new take on Arthurian legend. . . . Marvelous.” —The Washington Post “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 colorful 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, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Game of Thrones A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place at the Round Table, only to find that he’s too late. King Arthur 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 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. But 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 return, 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 steeped in tradition, complete with duels and quests, battles and tournaments, magic swords and Fisher Kings. It's also a story about imperfect men and women, full of strength and pain, trying to reforge a broken land in spite of being broken themselves. |
Contents
Section 1 | 10 |
Section 2 | 25 |
Section 3 | 54 |
Section 4 | 102 |
Section 5 | 120 |
Section 6 | 136 |
Section 7 | 149 |
Section 8 | 167 |
Section 15 | 300 |
Section 16 | 323 |
Section 17 | 405 |
Section 18 | 423 |
Section 19 | 465 |
Section 20 | 491 |
Section 21 | 529 |
Section 22 | 531 |
Section 9 | 169 |
Section 10 | 189 |
Section 11 | 201 |
Section 12 | 241 |
Section 13 | 260 |
Section 14 | 284 |
Section 23 | 551 |
Section 24 | 560 |
Section 25 | 650 |
Section 26 | 655 |
Section 27 | 671 |
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Common terms and phrases
adventure Alasdair armor arms Arondight asked Bedivere Bedivere's blade Britain Camelot castle chest cold Collum thought Constantine Dagonet dark dead Dinadan Dubh Hall everything Excalibur eyes face fairy father feel feet felt fight fingers fucking Galahad Gawain God's gone Grail grass gray Green Knight Guinevere hair hand happened hard head Holy Holy Lance horse Igraine kill King Arthur knees knew Lance Lancelot land Londinium looked Lord lost magic Merlin Mordred Morgan le Fay Morgause Mull must've never Nimue Orwen Otherworld Palomides Picts queen quest Rience Roman Round Table Saxons Scipio shoulder shouted side silver Sir Collum Sir Dagonet Sir Kay Sir Palomides spear stared stone stood stop story sword talk tell thing throne took trees trying turned Uther Villiars voice waiting walked wall wanted wind woman wondered would've