Review: The Mystery Knight

Jason
Tuesday
10:20 pm

Hi all. Remember me? In case you don’t my name is Jason and I write for GeekSix.com. Sorry to have been a bit absent as of late, but such is the life of a dad with a sick kid who leaves town to go to a professional conference.

At least you guys can be proud as I presented at said conference on how to embrace technology to enable academic advisors to be able to advise over distances instead of across a desk. Totally did half of the presentation in my hotel bathroom via Skype.

Anywho, prior to all of that going down I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Tor Books’ latest fantasy anthology Warriors. If any of you are fans of the couple of Legends anthologies that Tor put out, there are some common authors between the two, Robin Hobb, David Weber and an old bearded man named George R.R. Martin.

Martin’s new novella The Mystery Knight is what really got me looking forward to diving into the book. Martin had a novella in each of the two Legends anthologies as well. All three center around a hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his faithful companion, Egg, who is quite more than he appears.

In what I call “The Adventures of Dunk & Egg,” you have the land first presented in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, only a couple of generations before the fact. Each is a standalone story for the most part with little intertwining between then outside of the main protagonists. And the latest adventure has Dunk and Egg taking part in a jousting tournament that perhaps they should not have stuck their nose in.

Overall it is always nice to get back to the land of Westeros and see familiar names and landmarks as they flash across the page while I read. And of course it is nice to see what Dunk and Egg are up to. But The Mystery Knight doesn’t hold the shine that the previous two novella had.

The story is entertaining in itself, but it seems like Martin had just got done watching A Knight’s Tale and might have been inspired by the wrong source. From mystery men to mystery jousters, it all seems a little forced. And all the set up for the surprise ending seems a bit odd considering it is just a novella and will probably not be linked back to the main series. But I still maintain the story is entertaining enough to bring me back to the next adventure of Dunk and Egg.

But what really gets my goad here is that Martin has time to slap together a couple hundred of pages for Dunk and Egg, but in his main series of A Song of Ice and Fire, he bemoans the fact that fans want the next book. A book that was said to be mostly written when it was split in half with 2005’s A Feast for Crows. The man has even gone as far as to lash out at fans for always asking for the next book. So instead he took his ball and went to Ireland to contribute to HBOs upcoming television adaption for A Game of Thrones.

Now honestly can I expect Martin to bend knee to fandom? Of course not. He has his own life, soul and energy to worry about. After all does anyone really want a rush job of a book with little heart in it? See my point. Double edged sword. Fun to dance on the edge eh?

Also in all of this is the consistent reference to Martin having a chance of “pulling a Jordan.” This is in reference to Robert Jordan passing away before he could finish his epic Wheel of Time series. So my turn to be appalled at the fandom for their insensitivity. The Wheel of Time found Brandon Sanderson to wrap up the series. Martin has stated that if he goes, his story is going with him.

And now after writing this I see a little Tyrion Lannister in Martin. Tricksy little devil. Well done sir, I await your next move.

Back to Warriors, I am looking forward to Hobb’s entry (I went back to finish the 100 pages or so of The Gathering Storm) so I can get a feel for her writing before diving into her more popular works. I was also curious about Diana Gabaldon but quickly realized I really cannot stomach fantasy romance. I was always under the assumption that Gabaldon was more of a fiction writer, but nope.

But for what it offers and what it gives, I am giving Warriors a thumbs up.

And as with all anthologies it will be a good pick up when I am looking for new authors to read once I get my reading queue down to a manageable level.

Next six books up?

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
• The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson) by Rick Riordan
• A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein (reread)
• The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Mix in there the final two Wheel of Time books set to be released the November and next as well of the possibility of A Dance with Dragons seeing the light of day and that small list will last me until 2022.

Not enough hours in the day.