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.
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