Author: George R. R. Martin
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: 6th October 2015
Genre: Fiction, History, Fantasy
Summary:
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms contains the first three prequel novels of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series. The short stories take place almost a century before the series, when the Targaryen family were still in rule of the Iron Throne.
Review:
So, I finally finished my postgraduate dissertation which means I can do things like read, eat and sleep again! Seeing as the world is in a Game of Thrones hype at the moment, when I saw this collection of short stories - it went straight in my shopping basket!
The stories themselves follow a hedge knight and his squire - Prince Aegon "Egg" Targaryen - with appearances from characters, which readers and viewers, will be familiar with. Whilst prequels can be a bit annoying, and a way to lech off of fans for more money, I think that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a valuable contribution in constructing the fictional world of Westeros and its history. In a sense, it acts as a shorter, and less detailed version, of The Silmarillion and what it does for Lord of the Rings series and Middle-Earth.
Like all of Martin's writing, it is well written, fast-paced and entertaining. However, I did find myself getting bored at times. The stories are accompanied by illustrations by Gary Gianni. I may have completely misunderstood their purpose but, for me, this gives the impression that the stories are to be taken as childhood stories, or fables, which were told to the children in the main series.
It is not as detailed as The Song of Ice and Fire main book series, however, it provides valuable detailed background information and will satisfy hard-core fans until Winds of Winter comes out - whenever that may be. However, I cannot help thinking that maybe he should focus on that, instead of writing more prequels... I know which one I would prefer...
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