SF/F Review - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, by George R. R. Martin
Synopsis: A slow-witted but good-hearted hedge knight roams the Seven Kingdoms doing good as best he can, while trying to hide that his squire is an incognito young prince Aegon.
Book Review: I had been soured on the Westeros world by how badly the last seasons of GoT were bungled, so I was reluctant to start in on this. I had somehow COMPLETELY forgotten what a stellar writer Martin is. This book (actually a collection of three stories about the same characters) reminded me within just a few pages.
Martin made me care about the protagonist almost immediately. I was very quickly on his side, apprehensive about the dangers he faced, and rooting for him to prevail. The world is alive and bustling with people. The problems are complicated, and the answers can be hard. The writing flows extremely well.
Martin is known as the guy who started the grimdark deconstruction of fantasy. He was fully immersed in the High Fantasy of the 80s/90s, knew it like he knew his own hands, and decided to remove plot armor from those characters and see what happens to them. We got Game of Thrones.
In this series of stories he goes back to the older pre-deconstruction fantasy, to bring us noble knights and wise rulers again. But he does it with an eye for realism. We get characters that have to make do with a lot of suck in their victories, because while they are good and doing good, they don’t have plot armor, so they have to be realistic in what they can achieve. In a way, the book was very nostalgic, bringing me back to the High Fantasy days of nobility and honor. But it came with a modern filter on it, an acknowledgement of realpolitik and the capricious shittiness of medieval life. It was both uplifting and not saccharine.
The third story is the weakest of the three IMO, as our slow-witted protagonist is lost among all the political scheming, and therefore we readers don’t have any emotional stakes for most of the story. By the time we get injustice and emotional stakes, the story is almost over. That being said, the book is easily worth the price for the first two stories alone!
I feel bad for the recommend I’m about to (not) give. This is good writing, and I enjoyed the stories. If I had read these when they first came out (late 90s and early 00s!) I’d probably be gushing over them. I’m not sure I’ll remember much about these stories in a year’s time though… they are good examples of something I’ve already finished mining, and continued on from. They were refreshing and nostalgic, but I can’t say that I would grab 2-weeks ago me and tell him he has to read this! So I am defaulting to Not Recommended. However, if you think you’d like something like this after reading this review, you would be right about that.
Book Club Review: The simple pleasure of a well-executed tale makes for nice reading. But it doesn’t leave one all that much to talk about. Some reminiscing on several of the great scenes, but ultimate, not that much to spark conversation. Regrettably, also Not Recommended.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, by George R. R. Martin on Amazon, sponsor link