Marvelous ... Grossman affects a breezy 21st-century style that still allows plenty of room for magic. He gives each knight a new and extensive history that frees them from the ur-narrative while honoring it ... Grossman’s take on the Arthurian legend may lack the grandeur and tragic gravitas of White’s classic The Once and Future King, but he excels at colorful characterizations and vibrant action scenes, which are legion. Like White, he uses humor liberally and masterfully ... As Grossman’s splendid, offbeat quest reaches its conclusion, we see Arthur’s waves of Saxon invaders and their many predecessors refracted in a different light, one that helps illuminate our own tumultuous, battle-torn age in the way that only the best epics can.
Resoundingly earns its place among the best of Arthurian tales ... The book is long, more than 600 pages, and it feels long. The story meanders, but other than a few back story chapters that are, if not unnecessary, perhaps mistimed, nothing feels superfluous. This is a narrative that demands and rewards patience ... Grossman...is at the top of his game with The Bright Sword, which is full of enviable ideas and execution. Few authors could accomplish what he has, grounding such an ambitious novel in so much tradition and history while still making it accessible and deeply affecting.
Wonderful ... Mr. Grossman combines the many versions of the legends, ancient and modern, with his own invention, and includes a wonderful explanation for his choices in the book’s bibliography. Even for those unaccustomed to fantasy, The Bright Sword tells a tale as old as (post-Roman) Britain that continues to delight.
This Arthur feels like a real, three-dimensional person with appropriate flaws and never crosses into being a cliche. Perhaps characterization like this is easier when you’re working from a template, and Grossman is working with one of the biggest templates in literary history ... Written in modern English, with chapter epigraphs and occasional poems in Middle English. This approach is smart and much less annoying than being unnecessarily formal ... The Bright Sword made me love fantasy again. Its many asides are pearls of inventiveness that are a bunch of fun to read whether or not you know the story already.
This battle for the soul of a nation is a powerful theme, but Grossman at times gets too dragged down with clunky monologues as characters brood over weighty questions of God, politics and destiny ... The most thrilling scenes are those where characters step into action. Grossman’s strength is his deep attention to the details in battle scenes, where every blow or parry illuminates a character’s psychology.
he novel puts Arthur into a mythical framework that lets the legends blend into an anachronistic but harmonious whole, while giving Camelot one last quest and one last hurrah that sets England on the path of its mythical history.
Those with little patience will likely find The Bright Sword frustrating, but readers willing to savor the book over many nights will find each chapter a neatly arranged, miniature adventure of its own ... At once full of desperate hope and grievous loss, The Bright Sword is a moody reflection on Arthur’s tale.
This could have been yet another Arthurian tale told ad nauseum over the decades, but here Lev Grossman stakes out a different kind of story that’s all his own ... The best thing about The Bright Sword is doesn’t become bogged down with minutiae, the narrative hums along grandly without stumbling over itself with florid verbiage. Grossman keeps the story humming at a pace with which the reader is comfortable. It’s a fresh perspective on a time-honored tale that brings an energizing twist that avoids the pitfalls of lesser works. Without a doubt this is Grossman’s best work to date.
Breathtaking ... Grossman does a remarkable job of pulling together these disparate strands while providing enough combat and magic to keep the pages turning. Epic fantasy fans will hang on every word.
