A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (5/5)

In this fantasy novel, George R. R. Martin (popular for the Game of Thrones novels) is once again able to make every page feel like a scene out of a movie with vivid imagery and incredible amounts of description to always keep you engaged. Martin adds to the deep lore of the Game of Thrones world by using existing families from the original novels, making the world feel larger as a whole. The story follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a Hedge Knight making his way through Westeros and encountering challenges along the way. Ser Duncan has to tackle opposing knights, warlords, and infantry alike to serve his purpose wherever he is needed. To summarize, Ser Duncan loses his father figure who was also a Hedge Knight and heads to a local inn. In the inn, Ser Duncan meets a small boy who the knight fittingly names Egg because the boy has a shaved, bald head. At first Ser Duncan and Egg do not get along and Duncan wants nothing to do with him, but over time, Egg is able to win over the hedge knight and becomes Ser Duncan's first squire to keep track of the knight’s food, money, and horses. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it is one of the better stories I have read recently. The syntax makes you keep the pages turning and new settings/plot points are unique to the point where you do not know what is coming next. One thing I also enjoyed was the clever dialogue from many of the characters. The author makes every character speak very naturally and fitting for the setting/time period. To conclude I believe that this novel is one of George R. R. Martin’s strongest stories behind the Game of Thrones series. I would offer one warning for new readers, it would help to know a small amount of the Game of Thrones world before reading this novel, while it is not required, it could definitely help new readers understand the deepness of the story even more.