Sword Stone Table Anthology Review

Arthuriana tends to hold its characters up as the be-all, end-all narrative: the greatest king and knights that ever lived, the most powerful sorcerers to exist, the civilization that we will never achieve again. Of course, there are a lot of fundamental issues with this viewpoint. Namely, the Arthurian myth is by no means universal when it marginalizes a lot of people. However, Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices achieves the feeling of Arthuriana being much more widespread in influence through a selection of short stories reinterpreting the legend through a LGBTQIA+ and/or BIPOC lens.

A kind of universality by allowing a legend to permeate all human experiences while stressing that life is fundamentally varied is something an anthology can achieve well. The creators of this book also made the brilliant decision to break it up into three sections — once, present, and future — to contribute to the sense of a mythos that can apply to all people throughout time, all poetically slotting into place with the obvious reference to the Once and Future King.