Book Review: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

 

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a 2015 novel by George R.R. Martin set in the Game of Thrones universe. The events occur approximately 100 years before those depicted in the Song of Ice and Fire novels and the Game of Thrones TV series. The story involves a low-born "hedge knight" named Duncan (nicknamed Dunk), who goes by Ser Duncan the Tall, who was knighted by the knight for whom he squired. He looks to make a living competing in various tournaments. While traveling to a tournament, a small boy who calls himself Egg, whom Dunk mistakes for a stable boy at a local inn, asks to be his squire. Dunk ends up begrudgingly taking on Egg, who is definitely not a lowly stableboy, as his squire, and traveling through Westeros and getting into all manner of trouble.

The hardcover version of the book is just over 350 pages. I found that it reads much quicker than the Song of Ice and Fire novels, as there are far fewer characters and the book does not jump between storylines. The book actually has three different stories, with time jumps between each of them. While it does not have as much action or sex as the GoT novels, it is still entertaining. Martin does a great job of focusing the story on the relationship between Dunk and Egg, who have an older-brother-younger-brother dynamic. Of course, everyone wants Martin to actually finish the GoT series, and he received a lot of criticism for going off on side tangents with stories like this. However, if you are a fan of the series (regardless of what you think of Martin's writing pace), you will probably like this one.