I don’t know how I stumbled upon this book, because I mostly left my interest in fantasy behind in my teens (talkin’ to you, Tolkien). But, wow. I couldn’t put The Bright Sword down and even raved about it to my wife, who couldn’t give a hoot about medieval tales. Young Collum, intent on becoming a knight, arrives at Camelot two weeks too late: King Arthur has dead, most of the Round Table with him, and what’s left is the second string — Bedivere, Dagonet the fool, Palomides, Dinadan, Constantine, and this young man who came to join them and finds the job already over. They are a ragged and motley bunch. Now they have to figure out who’s gonna rule Britain, with the old gods still around and unhappy about the new religion, and the Saxons coming. Grossman gives each of the leftover knights their own long backstory, and the book is really about people who weren’t chosen and have to carry on anyway.