With half
the world wondering if they will ever see a sixth instalment of A Song of Ice and Fire it seems like a weird
idea for an author to write a historic spin off title set in his captivating
world of fantasy and sex. But there you go, we can’t access the mind of George
and see what his ultimate plan is. I wasn’t really planning on reading this one
either but I found myself short on books when going on holiday last year and it
was two for one in the airport bookshop. Again.
Anyway, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows
the story of Ser Duncan the Tall who isn’t a knight at all. He just lied about
it to everyone after the knight he was squiring for dies and didn’t make him a
knight. It’s quite hilarious really.
On his way
to a tournament to earn some knight points, he comes across a boy at an inn and
despite telling him not to, the boy follows him to the tournament. At the
tournament, he pisses off one of the Targaryen princes and ends up in a fight
for his life which he wins but at the expense of another more favourable Targaryen
who fought for Duncan. All the pieces fall quite nicely together as it turns
out the little boy from the inn is also a Targaryen; Duncan is tasked with
keeping him alive and off they go on an adventure together.
Now, I
thought the entire book was going to be short stories about Dunc and Egg as
they travel about Westeros as that’s what the blurb led me to believe. As it
happens, they go to one keep, Dunc has one fight with a guy and then they go to
a tournament and Dunc loses. That’s the entire storyline of the book. It
doesn’t have a satisfactory ending and I’m left thinking that dear George simply
cannot finish anything. I’m starting to think he watched Lost, saw how that shit ended and thought, ‘fuck this, I’m not
ending anything in case in turns out like that.’ It’s the only logical
explanation I can think of for writing 355 pages and not reaching a
satisfactory conclusion. It’s not even a major cliff-hanger.
After doing
a little research, I found out that it’s actually a collection of three short
stories written at the same time as George was writing the Song of Ice and Fire series which makes sense in terms of the story
breaks.
That’s not
to say the content is bad. The book is actually quite funny. Duncan is an
endearing character and happens to be one of the worst knights ever. It seems
to be pure luck and sheer brute strength that keeps him and egg alive most of
the time. Egg is also hilarious whenever he watches Dunc fight, shouting,’ Kill
him! Get him! He’s right there! Kill him!’ exactly the kind of things you want
to hear a young child shouting.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a very
good and enjoyable read, it’s just the lack of any further developments that’s
the disappointment. I’ll keep an eye out for other spin offs in the future but
I’m not going to hold my breath while the television series is still going
strong.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George
R.R. Martin was published by HarperCollinsPublishers
in 2015. RRP £8.99 (Paperback)
Legends I originally published by Tor
Books in 1998.
Legends II originally published by Del
Ray in 2004.
Warriors originally published by Tor
Books in 2010.
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