Try free for 30 days

Preview

1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Bright Sword

By: Lev Grossman
Narrated by: Mr Nicholas Guy Smith, Lev Grossman
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $33.99

Buy Now for $33.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians trilogy returns with a triumphant reimagining of the King Arthur legend for the new millennium.

When gifted young knight Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place on the Round Table, he quickly discovers that he’s too late:The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.

And the survivors aren’t the heroes of legend either, 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 are returning, 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 a story about imperfect men and women, full of strength and pain, who are looking for a way to forge a broken land in spite of being broken themselves.

'For anyone who’s ever craved a seat at the Round Table. Utterly enchanting.'

Rebecca Yarros, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fourth Wing

©2024 Lev Grossman (P)2024 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about The Bright Sword

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Strangely satisfying Arthurian rewrite

After the Magicians this is a far more robust and satisfying work. The magicians engaging as it is, left not a lot of room for sympathy toward the characters.

In this work, it is hard not to like the various contradictory nuances of life and the failings perceived or otherwise of the central characters. It has that post modernity aspect where everything is valued and evaluated through the lens of contemporary thinking, he readily admits to having stolen, borrowed and created to form the physics of his world and it works rather well I think (although flying ships and Gwenivere are not entirely explained but hey, narrative device moves the story along nicely and it’s fiction, not bloody history.

I haven’t enjoyed an Arthurian mashup since the once and future king (shows how out of touch I am but it also shows that I enjoy being absorbed by a tale and in this work Grossman succeeds in being absorbing.

I throughly enjoyed this work. You may too but I suspect that this piece will resonate with a niche that’s more niche than normal.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.