Is there an audiobook of The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur?

Yes. The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Lev Grossman and Nicholas Guy Smith.

How long is the The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur audiobook?

The The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur audiobook runs 23 hr 10 min.

Is The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur on Kindle Unlimited?

No. The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 12, 2026.

The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur by Lev Grossman book cover for the Book of the Day fantasy book review

Our score

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDJuly 2024

PublisherViking

Genres

Fiction Fantasy Historical Fiction

Themes

Rebuilding after the heroes are goneFaith, doubt, and competing godsBelonging and the lives of outsidersBrokenness and the will to mend it

The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur

Name: The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur
Price: 6.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman picks up the Arthur legend at its lowest moment — the king dead, Camelot in ashes — and hands the salvage operation to the misfits. The Bright Sword is a melancholy, talky, often funny epic about second-string knights trying to rebuild a world that's already lost its meaning.

The Review

Our take

Most Arthur stories end at Camlann. This one starts there. By the time Collum, a young knight from the far north, reaches Camelot, Arthur is two weeks dead and the great names are mostly gone — fallen, scattered, or grieving in the rubble. What's left are the knights nobody wrote songs about: a Saracen who never quite belonged, a fool given a sword as a joke, a sorceress who betrayed her own master. Grossman's gamble is that these are the interesting ones, and he's right. There's real pleasure in watching the legend's footnotes step into the light and discover they have to carry the whole thing now.

The structure is the boldest move here. Grossman keeps interrupting the present-tense rebuilding with long backstory chapters — each major knight gets a turn, an origin folded in like a tale told around a fire. It slows the momentum, and some readers will feel the forward drive stall while we detour into someone's wound. But the cumulative effect is worth the patience. These interludes are where the book does its deepest work, taking minor figures and giving them griefs and shames specific enough to ache. The novel is less a quest than a series of reckonings, and the pacing reflects that: contemplative, digressive, more interested in why a person breaks than in how a battle is won.

What I admired most is how seriously Grossman takes the metaphysics. This isn't decorative magic. Britain is caught between a Christian God who seems to be withdrawing and the older, hungrier powers — fairies, forgotten gods, Morgan le Fay — flooding back into the vacuum. The internal logic of that shift holds up. You feel the ground going soft under the characters' feet, the rules of the world genuinely up for grabs, and the stakes follow from that: not just who rules, but what kind of reality everyone will have to live inside. The wonder here is the unsettling kind, where the marvelous and the dangerous are the same thing.

Grossman writes belief and doubt with unusual tenderness. His knights are anxious, modern in their interiority even as the trappings stay medieval, and the central mystery — why the brilliant, lonely Arthur fell — turns out to be a question about character more than conspiracy. The tone moves easily between dry comedy and genuine sorrow, sometimes in the same scene. The prose is clean and confident, occasionally a little fond of explaining its own ideas, but it earns its emotional landings. The recurring image of a broken land waiting to be made whole could have gone abstract; instead it stays rooted in people who are themselves broken and trying anyway.

Why you should read

Readers who love Arthurian retellings with fresh angles
Fans of character-driven fantasy over fast quests
Anyone drawn to faith, doubt, and clashing gods
Lovers of melancholy, idea-rich epic fantasy

What to expect

A contemplative pace with long backstory interludes
Tone swinging between dry comedy and real grief
Worldbuilding where magic carries genuine danger
A mystery about character more than plot mechanics

If the book has a limit, it's that ambition occasionally outruns shape. With so many backstories competing for room, the present-day plot can feel thin between the set pieces, and a reader hungry for relentless quest momentum may grow restless. But that's the cost of what Grossman is actually after, which is a meditation on faith, failure, and the work of rebuilding after your heroes are gone. He's written an Arthur novel for people who suspect the most honest part of any legend is what happens after the legend ends.

Reviewed by Rowan · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur?: Yes. The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Lev Grossman and Nicholas Guy Smith.
Listen to The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur audiobook?: The The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur audiobook runs 23 hr 10 min.
Is The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur on Kindle Unlimited?: No. The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 12, 2026.
How much does The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $6.99, Paperback $14.30, Hardcover $10.31. Prices as of August 28, 2026 at 3:20 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur about?: Most Arthur stories end at Camlann. This one starts there. By the time Collum, a young knight from the far north, reaches Camelot, Arthur is two weeks dead and the great names are mostly gone — fallen, scattered, or grieving in the rubble. What's left are the knights nobody wrote songs about: a…
Is The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur worth reading?: We scored The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur 4.5 out of 5. Lev Grossman picks up the Arthur legend at its lowest moment — the king dead, Camelot in ashes — and hands the salvage operation to the misfits. The Bright Sword is a melancholy, talky, often funny epic about second-string knights trying to rebuild a world that's already lost…