The Bright Sword
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 earlier at the Battle of Camlann, and just a handful of the Round Table's knights remain — not the legendary heroes like Lancelot or Gawain, but its overlooked oddballs: Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight; Sir Dagonet, Arthur's fool, knighted as a joke; and Nimue, who was Merlin's apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill.
Together they must rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance, as God abandons Britain and the fairies and old gods return, led by Morgan le Fay, while rival factions form around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It falls to this ragtag fellowship to reclaim Excalibur, restore the broken land, and solve the mystery of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell in the first place.
Lev Grossman's first major Arthurian epic of the new millennium is steeped in tradition — duels, quests, tournaments, magic swords and Fisher Kings — while telling a story about imperfect people trying to reforge a broken world in spite of being broken themselves.
A gifted young knight from the backwaters of Britain who arrives at Camelot seeking a place at the Round Table, only to find King Arthur dead and the Round Table shattered.
A powerful sorceress leading the fairies and old gods in a world where God has abandoned Britain.
The Saracen Knight, one of the "oddballs" of the Round Table who survived King Arthur's death.
Arthur's fool, who was knighted as a joke and is one of the surviving knights of the Round Table.
Merlin's former apprentice who turned on him and buried him under a hill, now joining the surviving knights.
The Bright Sword has been a finalist or nominee for several major honors rather than an outright winner to date: it was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Locus Award, and a nominee for the 2025 World Fantasy Award and the Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy. It was also named a best book of the year by outlets including the New York Times, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal.