I recently finished The Bright Sword, by Lev Grossman (Viking Press, 2024, 688 pp): I had been meaning to get to it for some time, but I wasn’t actively intent on doing so until its nomination for a World Fantasy Award in 2025. Overall, it’s excellent: satisfyingly long, but dramatically paced (and mercifully: a single volume, with no obvious dangling threads to allow for sequels), imaginative, with well-drawn versions of some of the more minor characters of Arthurian myth. It’s not perfect: the Big Bad reveal doesn’t land perfectly; anyone even casually familiar with Tolkein will see a certain moment