The last line….so good. This is the perfect book. After a long day at work it completely took me into a world of adventure and wonder. Arthurian tales can be so hard and toxically masculine but somehow the author found a way to make this novel soft and magical. Thank you for writing this Lev.

I’ve always enjoyed Grossman’s writing. The imagery he evokes takes me into the story fully. The issues I have with this book, however, are that there is too much backstory. I like multidimensional characters, but this book is at times more of a collection of loosely related short stories than a novel with a compelling plot. The other issues I have are the abrupt personality changes from some of the characters. Morgan’s change is never explained, and although Lancelot’s change is, it’s not believable. There is a lot of deus ex machina in this book, so prepare yourself for God, fairies, giants, etc saving our plucky travelers at the last moment. I kind of went with it because I feel that’s sort of in the spirit of Arthurian legend anyway.

A dark and belittling portrayal of Arthur and the remaining knights. The author reduces them to helpless victims of random magic and their own inappropriately modern psychological issues, in a tone that implies it’s all funny, but it in no way is funny. If you’re waiting for something to get better in the book - it never seems to gets better, although to be honest I got so disgusted I quit reading halfway through. The attempt to explain why Camelot declined seems shallow and blithe. It makes a mockery of Arthurian mythology.

I couldn’t put this book down. I love all of Grossman’s work!