I love the uniqueness of an Arthurian tale in which King Arthur is dead and the Round Table has been depleted down to just a few much lesser-known knights. It was so different and so fun to read. There were great action scenes with intense dueling or epic battles. The knights went on mysterious quests. There were extremely well-crafted twists. I loved every character, each one was so complex and oh, they had such interesting backstories! My favorites were the tales of Sirs Dinadan and Scipio but there were none I didn’t like.

I never wanted to put the book down and I didn’t want it to end, but when it did, I was happy with where it went and all that happened. 

There’s a note at the end of The Bright Sword in which Lev Grossman talks about the history of Arthurian tales. They started off simply and each retelling tacked on something new until it became the grand tale we’re familiar with now. Every author of a tale of King Author tweaks it to create their own special version, and while I’ve only read a few, Grossman’s version is by far my favorite.