by Patrick Ogle
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is a sprawling, ramshackle take on the King Arthur and Camelot stories. It is packed with clever references, new takes on familiar characters and re-imaginings of characters that were side characters in Le Morte d ' Arthur and the like. The basic story here is about a young, wannabe knight from the north who travels from a dingy island to magnificent Camelot. When he arrives he finds that Arthur and nearly all the Knights of the Round Table are dead. Nothing is left. Then he, and a handful of misfit denizens of the round table, try to set things right.
The book's best parts are the stories of the various knights told through flashbacks. Many of these are knights and characters that are supporting characters in the original legends. Grossman fleshes them out a bit here and makes us care about and for them. Likewise new characters are developed well. If there is a problem it is that the plot is otherwise, vaguely unsatisfying and the ending seems a bit rushed. Keep in mind this book is damn near 700 pages. It almost feels, at the end, like the author said "Shit...I'm getting up toward 700 pages...quick! End this." The book shines when the characters are on quests, even when these quests go nowhere.
Yet the book never bores or drags (ok maybe one fight scene at the end goes on a few pages past what was advisable) and I didn't read it obsessively like I sometimes do. Nonetheless I finished the book in 4 days. I would point out that Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur is also a ramshackle book and one that has a fairly nebulous plot line that meanders. So this book is part of a long tradition. It is a fun read
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is a sprawling, ramshackle take on the King Arthur and Camelot stories. It is packed with clever references, new takes on familiar characters and re-imaginings of characters that were side characters in Le Morte d ' Arthur and the like. The basic story here is about a young, wannabe knight from the north who travels from a dingy island to magnificent Camelot. When he arrives he finds that Arthur and nearly all the Knights of the Round Table are dead. Nothing is left. Then he, and a handful of misfit denizens of the round table, try to set things right.
The book's best parts are the stories of the various knights told through flashbacks. Many of these are knights and characters that are supporting characters in the original legends. Grossman fleshes them out a bit here and makes us care about and for them. Likewise new characters are developed well. If there is a problem it is that the plot is otherwise, vaguely unsatisfying and the ending seems a bit rushed. Keep in mind this book is damn near 700 pages. It almost feels, at the end, like the author said "Shit...I'm getting up toward 700 pages...quick! End this." The book shines when the characters are on quests, even when these quests go nowhere.
Yet the book never bores or drags (ok maybe one fight scene at the end goes on a few pages past what was advisable) and I didn't read it obsessively like I sometimes do. Nonetheless I finished the book in 4 days. I would point out that Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur is also a ramshackle book and one that has a fairly nebulous plot line that meanders. So this book is part of a long tradition. It is a fun read
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