Fun fact about me: I have a secret soft spot for Arthurian tales. If I come across a book or movie that claims to be some sort of retelling of the legends surrounding King Arthur and his Round Table, I am immediately there for it. There was an early obsession with the animated Sword in the Stone, perhaps sparked by the scene where Merlin magicks his entire library into his traveling bag? It advanced when we were required to read a section of T.H. White’s Once and Future King in a high school literature class. Spoiler alert: I gladly read the whole thing. Multiple times. In the decades since, I have picked up and watched many more iterations of the legend, always chasing the feeling of excitement and adventure that those early experiences with the story gave me.
In more recent years I have particularly enjoyed the more radical reimaginings that have emerged from the minds of other slightly obsessed individuals like myself. There is an incredibly fun young adult adaptation called Once & Future by Vermont’s own powerhouse writing couple of A.R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy - a queer found family celebration set in space! And an impressive novella by Nicolla Griffith called Spear that takes the story of Percival and the Holy Grail and replaces it with a young girl who must dress as a boy to join King Arthur’s court. Retellings are big these days in all forms of mythology and legend, and it turns out that my favorite book of 2024 (so far) also falls into this realm: I absolutely adored Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword.
Some of you may know Grossman’s name from his earlier series The Magicians. If you tried that and didn’t love it but Arthurian stories pique your interest, I highly recommend giving him another shot. After a decade of working on his craft, Grossman emerges here as a truly talented writer. At nearly 700 pages this one is quite the brick in hardcover, but don’t let the page count scare you: this book absolutely soars.
The Bright Sword follows Caleb, a young man who has grown up hearing tales of Camelot, its court, and the valiant knights of the Round Table. Upon reaching adulthood, he has set off to finally join those knights and have adventures worthy of the tales he’s heard all his life - only to find out at his arrival that Arthur is dead, and all that remains of the legendary round table are the leftover knights, the individuals that no one has heard of.
The book goes on to follow this rag-tag group as they figure out what to do now that their beacon is gone, all the while giving you glimpses into the lives of each of the knights that remain. The cast is diverse, relatable, and each character is worthy of their own ballad. Grossman takes this legend and brings it to life in a way that feels incredibly current, while still keeping it placed in the past in a way that both fantasy and history readers will enjoy. I was so impressed with this book, and I look forward to the day when I can take the time to adventure with the leftover knights again.
Kari Meutsch and Kristian Preylowski co-own and run the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock.