throbbing light machine

That last distinction makes a great deal of sense to me - because I dread that part of the Arthuriana for the very reason you like it! When we read The Once and Future King for bedtime, we ended up stopping after the third book, because I was getting absolutely inconsolable about the impending tragedy. I tend to like first tentative beginnings in the aftermath of total collapse - v. much what I love in both Caspian and the Pevensies, actually.