THE KING OF SHADOWS by Robert McCammon

Maybe it was bound to happen at some point. Maybe it was too much to hold out hope that McCammon could maintain the high quality that I’ve come to expect from the wonderful Matthew Corbett series, even with it being eight books deep at this point. Well here it is, this book marks the dip in quality. 

I’m not sure why this book was even written. It blows my mind that the author thought that it would be a good idea to have a random side quest for the entirety of the penultimate book in a 9 book series, when the momentum should actually be rising to a climax. But, it’s exactly what happens here, grinding the overall story to a halt while Matthew and his unlikely band of colleagues find themselves stuck on a mysterious Mediterranean island isolated from society. It’s all the small issues I had with The River of Souls but times 100 here. 

But like with River of Souls, I could forgive it if said side story was interesting on its own. But it’s the opposite. It feels lazy and pedestrian and not even remotely interesting, with a strange, half-baked cop out of an answer as to what was happening on the island. It also had side quests within the side quests, as we spend like 200 pages flashing back to the origins characters we don’t really give a shit about. 

So essentially, the book reads like the rejected drafts of about 4 supplemental novellas that take place in the Matthew Corbett universe that were cobbled together in an unsatisfying collection and labeled the 8th book in the main series. A total disappointment. 

GRADE: D 

A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS by George R. R. Martin

If you're a Song of Ice and Fire or Game of Thrones fan like myself, then you know what I mean when I say that there really is such a thing as "Westeros-Withdrawal". Westeros-Withdrawal is a serious condition, affecting those of us who were sucked into the World of Ice and Fire, and during the long wait for anything new from the mythology, there's a feeling of malaise and loss that can't really be filled by anything else. Doses of Star Wars lore is enough to provide a little respite, but not enough. I had been trying to hold off on reading this, in an attempt to stretch out my access to new material as much as possible, but my enjoyment of the absolutely fantastic new House of the Dragon show blew all that effort to smithereens. 

Set around 80 years after the events in House of the Dragon, and nearly a century before the events in Game of Thrones, this book is a collection of the trilogy of great novellas focused on the travels of Ser Duncan the Tall, a low-born hedge knight dedicated to maintaining his honor, and his squire, a little bald boy named Egg. Anyone with a deep knowledge of Westerosi history knows that these two characters end up making a big name for themselves in the history of the Seven Kingdoms. And during these tales, we dive deeper into the events that shaped who they turned out to be and illustrates how they unknowingly had a hand in shaping history as we know it. 

The stories here are as good as anything in the main Game of Thrones series, but this time there's a real focus on the street-level happenings, as opposed to the highborn drama in the main series. And that's pretty refreshing. It's a love letter to the small folk and to knighthood, but also serves as a great buddy tale, showing the growing kinship between this simple knight and his special squire. 

GRADE: A-