
The Bright Sword
A Novel of King Arthur
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Narrated by:
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Nicholas Guy Smith
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Lev Grossman
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By:
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Lev Grossman
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Editors’ Choice • The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians Trilogy returns with a triumphant reimagining of the King Arthur legend for the new millennium
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, NPR, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, VANITY FAIR, TIME, OPRAH DAILY, TOWN & COUNTRY, ELLE, VOX, PASTE, LIT HUB, POLYGON, KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword stands out as the best fantasy of the year.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Grossman, who is best known for his The Magicians series, is at the top of his game with The Bright Sword.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A thrilling new take on Arthurian legend. . . . Marvelous.”—The Washington Post
“If you love King Arthur as much as I do, you’ll love Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword, a fresh and engrossing take on the Matter of Britain featuring a colorful cast of Round Table knights who don’t often get as much story time as they deserve. The creator of The Magicians has woven another spell.”—George R. R. Martin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Game of Thrones
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 ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.
The survivors aren’t the heroes of legend 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 return, 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 steeped in tradition, complete with duels and quests, battles and tournaments, magic swords and Fisher Kings. It's also a story about imperfect men and women, full of strength and pain, trying to reforge a broken land in spite of being broken themselves.
©2024 Lev Grossman (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Interview: "The Bright Sword" reimagines the legend of King Arthur for today’s age
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Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?
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it did a good job keep me listening but disappointed at the ending
- By Tristan M. on 12-21-24
By: Eric Buchman, and others
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George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
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It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
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A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
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Don't waste your money!
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An excellent dead ringer of the ridiculous depths of the art world
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Quick read excellent narration
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An excellent dead ringer of the ridiculous depths of the art world
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The writing, the pace.
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A Wonderful Short Suprise
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Compelling story of life in retail
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Held me hostage for way too long without payoff
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In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family's social position.
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The performance was superior!
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It’s March 1918, and World War I is raging in Europe. In the trenches in northern France, a group of British officers, led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope, ready themselves for a major German attack while facing their worst fears. R.C. Sherriff drew on his own experiences in World War One to create the play, which premiered in 1928 and is now considered one of the preeminent works about the horrors of war.
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Gripping and powerful.
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Wizard West was dead for nearly an entire day before he noticed. And it is up to Faye, the daughter of West’s groundskeeper, to inform the wizard that he is a ghost who has lost all of his magical powers. (But not before the wizard tries transforming her into a cat!) To make matters worse, the enchanted castle of Celurdur—the only home that Faye has ever known—will fall apart at the next full moon if its foundation spells can’t be renewed.
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The imagery is amazing
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Annabel Hayes—born, baptized, and orphaned in the sleepy conservative town of Dayton, Tennessee—is thrilled to find herself falling quickly and deeply in love with George Craig, a sophisticated attorney newly arrived from Knoxville. But before the end of their first year of marriage, their lives are beset by losses. The strain on their relationship is only intensified when John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at the local high school.
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Characters who draw you in to the time and issues
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Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith's powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown of the Twin Cities. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame, and critical pessimism to wonder and imagine how we can strive toward a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures.
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Wow!
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The 23rd Hero
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In a world ravaged by climate change, a mysterious time travel agency known as the Program sends carefully selected Heroes back in time on missions to prevent environmental damage before it happens. Sloane Burrows secretly longs to be a Hero and restore the natural world of her childhood—a world she can envision with absolute clarity because of her superpower memory. But her father raised Sloane to believe her “freak memory” is a shameful flaw that should be hidden from the world. Sloane stuffs her dream of being a Hero and conceals her memory to the point of making herself sick.
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Wow, what a performance!
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Hamlet's Children
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Story
When grave misfortune leaves thirteen-year-old Terry Sayre without relatives to care for him in the summer of 1939, his only option to elude foster care is to accept asylum abroad with his mother's Danish kin, people he met only briefly as a child. Terry begins life anew in his grandparents' home, but within months of his arrival, the Second World War breaks out.
By: Richard Kluger
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Martyr!
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Story
Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest.
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One of the best novels I have ever read/heard.
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What listeners say about The Bright Sword
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- Anonymous User
- 08-28-24
A new twist on King Arthur
I have read & listened to many many books on King Arthur. This by far was the most entertaining and the most original King Arthur story I've encountered! It has elements of some really old and accurate information that pertains to his story, plus loads of fun bits & bobs that will make you laugh out loud! Don't hesitate on this one, it's a gem!
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5 people found this helpful
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- angela
- 08-13-24
Absolutely PERFECT!
I’m sure I would have enjoyed the hard copy just as much, but the narration is fabulous. A real treat!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Matt Feeley
- 08-27-24
Wonderful
A rollicking adventure that I could not stop listening to. The author does a wonderful job breaking the main narrative up with chapters reveling important facts about each character.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-15-24
Meh
Lots of good things but I struggled to care or stay awake. I loved the magicians but the large ensemble of characters in this one and a rather oafish main character who didn’t really transform in a meaningful way except he got good at fighting.
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- Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
- 07-16-24
Outstanding retelling and addition to Arthuriana
We get not only a fantastic addition to the legend of King Arthur and his Knights -- that of Callum, arriving weeks after Arthur has fallen and Camelot hosts only a handful of remaining heroes, and the adventure that befalls them -- but also fantastic retellings and renderings of Arthur, Bedivere, and more. We see through Bedivere's devoted eyes the young boy Arthur pulling the sword from the stone, growing into his kingship. And many other glimpses besides which I dare not begin to spoil the delight of here. Wonderful narration from Nicholas Guy Smith, and just a hint of modern snark from Grossman atop Abercrombian duels and battles and realism.
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3 people found this helpful
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- John F. Kaess
- 08-04-24
Not really a story
It seems like a book if short stories stitched. Together with random jumps in time and place. Very disappointing.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Thistle
- 09-14-24
Gorgeous
I loved the gorgeous blending of historical facts and myths with the high medieval gloss as the author calls it. I'm a serious Arthur nerd so it hit all the best notes for me. if you want a better understanding of how many beautiful, subtle details of all of Arthurian legends are in this book I highly recommend Dorsey Armstrong's Great Courses lecture seri
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- Giveaman Amask
- 08-23-24
Instant Classic
This is a great story with beautiful writing. The narrator is exactly right for the material, and does a great job with it. If you have read Lev Grossman’s other work—and especially if you have watched the TV adaptations—you will not be surprised by brief discussions of gender and sexuality that seem unusual for stories of The Knights of the Round Table. I like it when an author surprises me, so I found this refreshing.
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- Kathleen
- 08-07-24
Interesting perspective
I really enjoyed this version of the King Arthur Story. I was intrigued by the humanization of the Knights of the Roundtable, their faults as well as their talents. Overall, I would recommend it as an enjoyable read.
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- Matthew Stovall
- 10-10-24
The characters
I loved the story from start to finish. I couldn’t stop listening. Recommending it to everyone I know.
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