After the last couple of Song of Ice and Fire books,
the question that’s been mostly occupying me regarding George RR Martin is
whether or not he can tell a story with a good ending. Because for all this world-building
is compelling, his main novels have become a great sprawl with no end in sight –
and when that end comes, will it satisfy? There are so many characters to root
for who will ultimately be enemies…‘Is it all going to end with a whimper?’ I
ask, trying to avoid directly quoting TS Eliot. And so I came to the (currently)
three Dunk and Egg novellas, short stories from the same world, a little under
a hundred years before Game of Thrones. The first made me think that
yes, Martin knows how to craft a good, solid ending. The others made me wonder.
After all, The Hedge Knight was kept so exaggeratedly simple it was almost
cartoonish – and the others were more ambitious, but soon began to sprawl
themselves, and now the larger tale feels very much unfinished.
What is remarkable about the stories is just how intricate
Martin’s world-building is. These characters are mentioned in the main series,
especially by Maester Aemon, who knew them, but what’s impressive is more
subtle – characters talk of the entire era, of the political situation and the
power struggles, of how men compared one king with the next, and the quirks of
the men around the royalty.
Focusing on just one point-of-view character makes for neat,
compelling storytelling – as long as there is a decent setting, which the two
stories with tournaments have – and I very much liked Sir Duncan and his
relationship with the cocky but still childlike squire with a secret. I care
about them. I’m interested in Bloodraven and how he becomes what he is in the
main series. Though we already know the ultimate end for Dunk and Egg, I quite
possibly want to know what happens to them next more than any of the characters
in the man series. These novellas had their flaws, but they still very much
engaged me.
