--- description: Find out why "The Bright Sword" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. title: 'The Bright Sword' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt200a1e9236947123/698a8d0e929fad2e82c01f5e/The-Bright-Sword-Lev-Grossman.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 13, 2024 # The Bright Sword by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/) ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent  Arthurian legends have been passed down for centuries. There would seem to be little left to mine from the story of the king who pulled a sword from a stone. Yet _The Magicians_ author and former TIME book critic Lev Grossman manages to conjure an ambitious, nearly 700-page narrative about Camelot—albeit Camelot in its latter, less glorious years. Collum, an aspiring knight, ventures to the fabled city to earn a place in Arthurian legend, only to find the castle in shambles and its legendary king dead. A ragtag group of remaining knights embark on a series of quests to restore Camelot to—well, they don’t know what. There is a certain episodic quality to the novel, reminiscent of video games: the plot sometimes meanders between its fantastical battles as the characters execute more mundane tasks. But the colorful cast buoys the story as they wrestle with the disappointing gap between legend and reality. **Buy Now:** _The Bright Sword_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780735224049 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3O0huuu "undefined") | [Barnes & Noble](https://fave.co/3AmKObF "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172845/the-bright-sword/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172845/the-bright-sword/"},"headline":"The Bright Sword","datePublished":"2024-11-13T13:09:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:42:37.090Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172845/the-bright-sword/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt200a1e9236947123/698a8d0e929fad2e82c01f5e/The-Bright-Sword-Lev-Grossman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"creator":"Eliana Dockterman","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt200a1e9236947123/698a8d0e929fad2e82c01f5e/The-Bright-Sword-Lev-Grossman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172845/the-bright-sword/","name":"The Bright Sword"}}]}] ```