George R.R. Martin ’s epic - fantasy setting of Westeros is highly addictive , and for good reasonableness . It ’s such a richly imagined domain , with such a ample backstory , there ’s enough material to ghost about for years . And his new book , collect his “ Dunk and Egg ” stories , showcases just what a slap-up stage setting it is .
Martin ’s new book , A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms , collects three novelette that were antecedently published , star Ser Duncan the Tall ( aka “ Dunk ” ) and his squire , Egg . These novellas only appeared before now in various anthology that Martin co - edited , so it ’s great to have them all in one place at last .
The “ Dunk and Egg ” tale take seat roughly a one C before A Game of Thrones , and they show us Westeros ( more or less ) at peace , in line to the wild and churning version we ’re seeing in A Song of Ice and Fire . And the freehanded twist of these stories is that Egg , the squire , is actuallyAegon Targaryen , Daenerys ’ great - granddaddy , who is destined to sit on the Iron Throne as King Aegon the Unlikely .
I wo n’t give away much of what actually happens in these stories , and the plots are n’t really the distributor point anyway . The point is the relationship between the impoverished hedge knight Dunk ( sometimes address “ dip the Lunk ” ) and his in secret royal gallant , as they move around around try out to do the ripe thing and make a few coins here and there .
Even though Egg is actually a prince and entitle to fancy discourse , he and dip wind up sleeping in ditches a lot of the time , and there ’s a big “ underdog ” feeling to these stories that will find very familiar to buff of Firefly and other news report of honest rogue . Dunk is n’t the practiced horse in Westeros , or the smartest , or the best fighter — he loses as many fights as he wins , in fact . But he always takes care of Egg , no matter what , even if he also threatens to clout Egg in the auricle on a very regular foundation .
Fans of the relationship between Brienne and Pod will also find a circle of the same wry , embattle cameraderie and humor in Dunk and Egg .
The good story of the three , in fact , is in all probability the second one , “ The Sworn Sword , ” which is purely about Dunk and Egg facing a no - winnings position in which everything turn out to be much more complicated than it first appears , and they still have to try and do the right matter , with increasing difficulty . This is actually the closest that Martin has come to showing what it ’s care to be a member of the smallfolk in Westeros — the character in the other volume tend to be novel , or at least noble - neighboring , and the adventures of a role that absolutely everybody see down on give us a whole new windowpane on the Seven Kingdoms .
You do it that flake that everybody always references in Shakespeare ’s Henry V where King Harry goes incognito before the fight and listen to ordinary soldier talking about their hopes and fears ? There ’s a lot of that in the Dunk and Egg tale , too . Egg , undercover as a poor squire , is forced to listen to a lot of ordinary people ’s opinions about the Iron Throne and his family members and politics , and sometimes it ’s not what he wants to learn .
And you also pick up a sure amount of new stuff about the chronicle of Westeros — and one event , in peculiar , hangs over the whole series . The Blackfyre Rebellion took spot nearly a generation earlier , but for mass who fought on the lose side it remains a major huffy point . And even though this is a Westeros with a comparatively stable government , the changeless treatment of the Blackfyre Rebellion supply a way to talk about the same issue of taking over and legitimacy that become such a Brobdingnagian issue in the main book serial .
And Martin ’s preoccupation with the use and nature of power comes through powerfully in these books , as Dunk and Egg strike at first hand what it ’s wish to be on the receiving end of inequitable power . The fact that Egg can go back to his royal family and subsist in luxury again at any time does not change the harshness of the injustices that he and Dunk are subjected to — if anything , it only realise them seem more intense .
More than anything , the Dunk and Egg stories bear witness that the star of Martin ’s saga is not Tyrion , Jon Snow , Daenerys or any other character — it ’s Westeros , the land that ’s full of rich history and packed with unforgettable characters .
Edited to add : One thing I forgot to observe is the nontextual matter byGary Gianni , which tote up a ton of vividness and humor to the procedings . He absolutely enamor the flightiness and ferociousness of Martin ’s writing , and bring off to create the definitive versions of the principal type — the ones who you already sort of project in your read/write head from the way that Martin described them . Even if you ’ve read these stories before , it ’s deserving getting the book just to see the copious illustration by Gianni .
get in touch with the source at[email protected]andfollow her on Twitter @Charliejane . Top image from the Dunk and Egg comic strip series , all other art by Gary Gianni from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
book reviewBooksepic fantasyFantasyGame of ThronesGeorge R.R. MartinTelevision
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