Genre: Novella, Fantasy
Rating: A-
The second in the Tales of Dunk
and Egg series, “The Sworn Sword” follows hedge knight Duncan the Tall and
his royal squire, Egg, into the service of the landed knight Eustace
Chequey. Chequey’s family were once
great lords in the Reach but have since fallen on hard times, made all the much
harder by a drought that is ravishing the land.
It is up to Dunk and Egg to discover just what’s happened to the Chequey
water, preferably without starting a war between Chequey and the Lady Rohanne,
Chequey’s wealthier neighbour. It is
also up to Dunk to show Egg a bit of humility – neither of which prove to be
particularly easy tasks.
I said in “The Hedge Knight” that it was nice to read a Martin story
without being constantly confused; in “The Sworn Sword” this confusion
returns. Not in full force, thankfully,
but there are plenty of references to what happened to the duo in Dorne that lead
the reader to question just what the hell happened in Dorne – and what happened
with Tanselle Too-Tall. This story
reveals a lot more of the history of Westeros, although unlike its predecessor
this is more in the form of what Dunk learns about his surroundings and in the
exchanges between him and Egg than in their actual actions. I really like the growing relationship
between Dunk and Egg – more so here than in “The Hedge Knight” – and I enjoy
the way in which this future king is being taught. Of course, I think I would enjoy a story that
dealt with dragons more, but I understand why Martin is straying from this – it
makes sense both from the perspective of the plot and from that of training Egg
in general. My one thought at the end of
this story was that I really hope “The Mystery Knight” doesn’t jump too far
forward, as I would really like to see Dunk and Egg at the Wall.
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