A rudderless nation, lost in uncertainty, is the uneasy world of Arthurian England in “The Bright Sword,” the new novel by Lev Grossman. The tale begins with a poor orphan who flees to Camelot with the dream of serving King Arthur. Just one problem: King Arthur is dead.
A rudderless nation, lost in uncertainty, searches for its next commander in chief. There’s an uneasy sense that the country’s glory days have passed, and that a monumental turn in history is coming — for good or for ill. How do you find a leader to unite such a fractured, polarized land?
Only a few ragged remnants of the Round Table are left, and no one has any idea who the next king will be. The theme of an anxious nation searching for a leader when no one has a clear mandate to govern gives the novel a distinctly modern sense of angst. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if we could just make every candidate try to pull a sword out of a stone and be done with it?
However, most of the characters get little development beyond their brief backstories, so few of the knights stand out as truly compelling or memorable characters. The most interesting member of the court of Camelot is Nimue, a formidable enchantress and one-time apprentice to Merlin, who doesn’t provide the most glowing reviews of her former mentor.
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.
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