The Bright Sword

This is a heartbreaker of a book and make no mistake, but also a GEM of a book in its own right. There is both light and dark contained herein, and it all comes together to make something absolutely beautiful, and absolutely bittersweet.
So, first things first: you do not need to be completely familiar with the Arthurian Cycle to understand this story. As long as one knows the broad strokes of the story about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round, the reader will have no problems keeping up.
What DOES matter when reading this book, though, is picking up the themes that Grossman lays down in throughout the novel. There???s quite a few one could pick up, but after some back-and-form with a close friend via messages, I???ve concluded, as she did, that the main theme is that of cycles: of old to new and back again, of faith, and of people. The groundwork for this is laid in the novel???s first chapters, when the protagonist, Collum, observes how successive waves of occupants changed and shaped the landscape of Britain, each one leaving their mark on the land and its inhabitants. He also brings up the concept of a ???golden age???: notably, he observes that ???golden ages??? all come to an end. That bit???s important because, as the reader knows (but Collum doesn???t), King Arthur is already dead.
Tied into that theme is the conflict between Christianity and the pagan faiths of Britain. This is a theme that???s frequently been picked up in other adaptations of the Arthurian cycle, but oftentimes, in those adaptations, one is held up as better than the other. In this novel, though, it???s made pretty clear that returning to the old ways is neither better nor worse than accepting Christianity - mostly because, in the end, it all depends on the people running the show. After all, terrible things have been done in the name of God, just as there have been good things done in the name of the old gods.
Speaking of people running the show, this book also offers a lovely and incredibly human portrait of Arthur himself. I know that this is something a lot of other books, movies, and even TV shows have attempted to do, but this novel???s take on Arthur is such an excellent balance between a legendary hero and a flawed human being. He???s a genuinely good person, and wants the best for the people around him and for his country, and he works HARD to make that so, but he is still human, and therefore is prone to doubts and mistakes. This is King Arthur with impostor syndrome, and it makes him a wonderful character to read about.
While Arthur is certainly important in this novel, the other characters are definitely just as important, if not more so. After all, it is through their eyes that the reader comes to understand Camelot and Arthur himself, and it is through their actions that the fate of Britain is decided. And, just like Arthur, they are all wonderfully, poignantly human while also being pretty damn heroic, especially since most of them have faced rather tough odds before and during their tenure as Knights of the Round Table.
Which leads into the second important theme of this novel, which is another thing my good friend and I circled back to repeatedly over messages: breaking cycles is vitally important for moving forward. This is showcased most prominently in the novel???s overall plot, which follows the protagonist Collum has he helps determine Britain???s future, but it???s also present in the story arcs of the other characters - including the antagonists. Like Collum, they are all caught up in a cycle, whether that is their internal struggle with their gender or sexuality; finding their place in the world at large; or a history of abuse. And to be able to move forward, to avoid getting stuck in a rut, they have to break that cycle and move forward - or find themselves doing more harm than good. It???s difficult to illustrate this well without going into some very big spoilers, but suffice to say that this is a very important theme and plays into this novel???s climax.
Because that???s another thing that the novel focuses on and spends a lot of time trying to get across: all golden ages must one day come to an end, and everyone must move on and keep on living. Time and time again the novel talks about how the age of miracles has ended, and how Britain???s inhabitants must deal with the aftermath. What does one do when one must live in the shadow of a golden age, watching the world move on and slowly forgetting the greatness that once lived in it? What does it mean to have lived through a time when it seemed like all things good and great were possible, only to come to the end of that time with nothing ahead but something lesser? That part really got to me, because we all hope that things will get better in our lifetimes, and we all try to do SOMETHING to make things better while we???re still alive, but what if the chance to do so has long since passed? What???s the point of struggling? What???s the point of living?
And this book says: that???s it - living is the point. One lives, and keeps on going, changing as one needs to, because to give up is to choose stasis, and that just doesn???t work out well for oneself or for anyone. Change is never painless, of course, and it can be sad and terrible and dark, but it is necessary regardless. But what we can do is choose HOW we rise to change, HOW we move with it. We cannot stop change, or make it happen faster, but we CAN choose how we act when it arrives.
Overall this is a beautiful, wonderful book: an interesting take on the Arthurian cycle that is familiar with its origins, but still manages to put a new spin on the legends instead of retelling them. There is a bittersweetness to this novel that will resonate with a lot of readers, and will likely leave them thinking about the story long after they???ve put the book down.