January Reviews: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, by George R.R. Martin

 

I continued my January reading with George R.R. Martin's excellent collection of three novellas, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. These longish tales follow a humble hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall after the young squire loses his own knight, Arlan, on the road to a tournament. Duncan (Dunk) is leal (loyal), noble, and freakishly strong. He stands close to seven feet in height, and Gary Gianni's excellent pencil illustrations bring him to life with stunning aplomb in this tome. 

Dunk is ambitious. He is poor, but he aspires to such much more and really only wants some stability in his life. When he stumbles upon a young bald boy bathing in a creek, his future takes a new path as the boy takes an instant liking to Dunk and schemes to become his new squire.

The dynamic between Dunk and Egg (so named for his bald pate) early on is endearing, as Dunk doesn't want a squire and thinks the boy will only slow him down. But Egg is tenacious and hard-working, and before too long the pair become inseparable.

I won't get into too many of the plot dynamics, but Egg is so much more than a humble squire. He is descended from royal blood, and he has an acid tongue, a strong personality, and a full grasp of the turmoil that has rippled through the Seven Kingdoms over the last two decades.

The three novels are consistently well-written, with separate, interconnected adventures. Poor Dunk has a knack for finding himself in tough spots, but his honorable demeanor and thick frame suit him well as he navigates the vagaries of a dangerous world.

Martin's characterization is excellent, and Dunk and Egg are drawn with meticulous care. Dunk's consistent laments that he isn't good enough to claim the honor of calling himself a knight can be tedious at times, but it serves the story well as he ingratiates himself to the various forces to which he aligns himself. 

There is a complex dilemma at the heart of these stories (and one that I won't divulge here), but Dunk and Egg are just a few of the figures in these stories whose hearts are in the right place. It's a very satisfying trio of tales, and I hope that Martin revisits their adventures in future stories. They are certainly worth being told...

January Reviews: Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin

 

Two or three years ago, I mowed through the six current books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga. That's a figurative embodied metaphor, of course, because I can mow my own lawn here at the house in thirty minutes and reading those amazing books took me the best part of a full year. It was like going to Westeros boot camp, and I was a lowly hedge knight for three hours every evening, eager to lend my sword to any liege lorad with mutton and mead.

It was exhilarating, and I looked forward to those reading sessions all throughout the day.

Martin's stories are told from multiple points of view, allowing the readers all kinds of insights into these lively, round characters. Even though I was reading at the same time that HBO was releasing new episodes of their televisual adaptation (also appointment viewing for us), it was such an enhancement to read those books while seeing the characters on the small screen.

Martin is a wordsmith, a master plotter (I thought we'd never see another writer that could build worlds as adeptly as Tolkien, but perhaps even the great master of the fantasy genre would be impressed with the depth and detail in these tomes...), and a perceptive student of the human condition. He really understands conflict (some of these books will make you wince and squirm and feel a flush of love and joy in a single sitting), and he writes with an active, engaging voice. His understanding of language is impressive, with so many antiquated terms and phrases peppering the writing with great ease.

I loved these books, and Fire & Blood is every bit their equal. In some ways, it exceeds them in its focus on familial history and the broader scope of governance and struggle in the Seven Kingdoms. 

Told in the form of a maester's textbook, the writing is humorous, pointed, and fluid. The work covers long centuries of triumph, tragedy, and conquest before the Ice and Fire books. It's spicy, with lots of sex and romance (if you can call it that) subplots, and there are dozens of dragons in this book. The tale of the Greens and the Blacks, which forms the foundation for HBO's spinoff equally excellent House of the Dragon, is simultaneously heart-breaking and revolting, as these characters stoop to the very depths of treachery in their lust for the Iron Throne. The violence is not for the faint of heart, but it never feels gratuitous or indulgent. It merely serves the narrative arch that sitting atop the Iron Throne and ruling the Seven Kingdoms is Westeros's finest drug--a narcotic so powerful that it causes men, women, and children alike to cast aside any façade of human decency in its pursuit.

This is one of the best books I've read in the last year or so, and I most highly recommend it to those that love the venerable fantasy genre...