The second in GRRM’s "Dunk & Egg" series, "The Sworn Sword", is really equaled only by Neil Gaiman’s entry in the Legends II anthology, "The Monarch of the Glen". Following Dunk and Egg on their progression through life, the story opens a year and a half after the events of "The Hedge Knight" (also reviewed here) and finds the two in the midst of a terrible Summer drought in the Reach (which itself followed the Great Spring Sickness, which slaughtered tens of thousands in Westeros, including King Daeron the Good and his two most immediate heirs). Dunk has sworn his sword to Ser Eustace Osgrey, an old, done knight who dwells on the dual-losses of his family and its ancient honors. Gnawing at the bones of faded glory, Ser Eustace draws Dunk and Egg into a potentially-fatal conflict.

This story is fundamentally different than its predecessor, in that it no longer deals with pagentary and tournaments, but rather focuses on the difficult path of chivalry when taking part in petty feuds and casual injustices are part-and-parcel of what it means to be a sworn man in feudal Westeros. As if to highlight the "low fantasy" quotient, the story opens with Duncan and Egg returning to Standfast—an ancient, humble seat of the Osgreys—from a wine purchasing mission when they come across the rotting, fly-covered bodies of a pair of men hanging in a crow cage. Egg, his head filled with stories of gallant bandits, wonders who they were, and Dunk supposes they might be rapers or murderers,  or merely poachers or men who were caught stealing a crust of bread as they and their families starved during the long, hard drought. "There are lords and lords… Some dont need much reason to put a man to death," Dunk tells Egg, before they move on. But when they meet with Ser Eustace’s other sworn sword—a cruel, unpleasant hedge knight called Ser Bennis of the Brown Shield—Dunk comes to learn that the local stream has suddenly dried up while he’s gone. Suspicious, and unheeding of Ser Bennis’s warning to leave it alone, he goes to investigate ... and sets into motion the outbreak of a long-simmering feud.

When it was announced that GRRM would be releasing an original novella set approximately 90 years before A Song of Ice and Fire, there was quite a lot of excitement in the fan community. I recall buying the book on the date of release from my university’s bookstore and reading it even as I made the 45-minute walk home in 90 degree weather (the dustjacket—and the actual cover itself—did not particularly appreciate that).  Among all the fine stories in Silverberg’s collection of original tales from various masters of the fantasy genre, this was the best (something which was acknowledged by its being a nominee for the 1999 World Fantasy Awards, along with fellow Legends alumni Ursula K. Le Guin and her Earthsea story, "Dragonfly"). Seven years on and having spawned a gorgeous and successful graphic novel adaption, the story itself seems to be withstanding the test of time quite well.

"The Hedge Knight" tells the tale of Ser Duncan the Tall (more often known as "Dunk"). The story opens as the spring rains fall and Dunk buries his master, the old hedge knight Ser Arlan of Pennytree, who plucked him out of the stews of Flea Bottom to become his squire. Faced with the choice of what to do now that he no longer has Ser Arlan to help him make his way through the world, Dunk chooses to risk all in a tournament at Ashford, where a young man might make a name for himself and, more importantly, find himself a place as some lord’s sworn man if he acquits himself well. Before he gets to Ashford, however, he runs into a boy—apparently an orphan, as himself was—who’s as bald as an egg, which might explain the name he gives for himself: Egg.  The interaction between the two is touching, as Egg asks the young knight to take him on as a squire, and Dunk refuses him. As one can guess, however, this will not prove to be the last time Dunk hears from Egg.

The highly anticipated third volume in Martin’s best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series closes the first "movement" of the series. With the series brought just shy of the halfway point, and only three novels left to go, many expected a certain amount of firm closure on many of the major plot threads. Instead what they got were more twists and turns than can be enumerated. Being veterans of the major discussion boards for the series, we can testify to the fact that very few of the sudden turnarounds and revelations were predicted by the dedicated fan base, even when (or especially when?) Martin had laid out plenty of clues. In hindsight several of the revelations led to the thundering sound of many hands slapping foreheads. Unsurprisingly, most fans wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

That said, A Storm of Swords is the grimmest, darkest, grittiest of the three novels, and also the largest. It starts more slowly than A Clash of Kings except for the prologue, which this time is nearly as harrowing as the opening prologue to A Game of Thrones, and for some characters the chapters seem to largely involve moving from one location to another. Some readers will find this annoying, boring, or senseless, but under careful scrutiny one can see that there’s a certain pattern to the movements. For example, at a pair of points in the novel, characters who have just gone through many and strange adventures come within moments of coming into contact with one another, to possibly joyous or catastrophic results. But Martin doesn’t play such games of coincidental meetings and keeps them apart, usually ignorant of who they’ve just missed. It can be frustrating, but that’s just the point - all this need for speed and secrecy is frustrating to the characters as well.

Picking up shortly after the events in A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings begins slowly but soon accelerates as events foreshadowed in the previous novel come to fruition. The beginning is the weakest part of it all (save for the fascinating prologue which brings into the reader’s view one of the characters who major events will centre on), as Martin takes his time to refresh memories and to carefully put the pieces on the board. But once they’re there, tension builds to a crescendo which explodes into yet more chaos. There’s several major battles, some on-stage, some off-stage, and the horrors of warfare are emphasised by the journey of one of the characters. Once-fertile, scorched lands surround the human cruelty and misery which falls so hard upon the peasants who are caught in the midst of the lords’ wars.

Standing out in particular among the POV characters are Tyrion’s chapters. An obvious favourite character of the writer, the witty, brilliant dwarf is caught up in the race to prepare a city for assault while having to juggle the incessant, power-hungry demands of his sister and the cry for justice and food from the starving, frightened population. Martin is very quick with Tyrion’s caustic, raunchy speech, and equally adept at portraying the decent, duty-bound man who is seen as a monster by those he tries to help. The final chapters for the character are exciting, leaving some readers breathless with excitement - and perhaps shock. Martin never fails to surprise, or to show that reality can be very different from the songs.

In a day and age where door-stopper fantasy series with no apparent endings are hitting the bestseller lists, it’s often hard to consider new entries into this particular sub-genre with any seriousness. After all, if Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind are the heights of the field, what’s the point of trying anything else? But each book (or series) should be judged on its own merits - and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire proves that there’s still room for diamonds among the rough.

The first book in the series (for a long while planned as six volumes, but the exigencies of the publishing world now make seven the likelier number) is the award-winning A Game of Thrones. Describing it isn’t easy, because a short summary will miss one of the precious facets of the work. But here’s an attempt to give the feel: