Book Review: The Knight Saves The Dragon
A brilliantly subversive second-person short story by Rebecca Crunden.
I never know how much to say about short stories in reviews. They’re short, so the reviews should be short, too, right? If that’s a thing at all, I’m not sure this one bears that out! I’ve read some of Rebecca’s work before—You can read my reviews of Dust & Lightning and A Touch of Death here—and I’ve got plenty more of her books still to read. The Knight Saves the Dragon is a bit different, however, and it demonstrates her range as a writer as well as her ability to write a diverse array of styles.
Blurb
The king has sent you to save the princess and kill the great dragon, but you will slay no dragon. You will save no princess.
Review
First of all, the title of this book says it all. It’s about a knight who saves a dragon instead of a princess. The end, right? Absolutely not. It’s a gutsy move to give away the ending right on the cover, and shares company with scant few other books in that regard. However, another writer might have been tempted to keep the big twist a secret. The story certainly would have lent itself to that. The knight being sent on a mission to save the princess and kill the dragon, but in a surprise twist, they save the dragon instead! Shock!
But that’s not what happens here. Rebecca’s skilful use of present tense prose and second-person POV makes the story so much more interesting than if the dragon-saving aspect had been played as a surprise narrative twist. As the reader, you are the knight, and you know exactly what you’re doing right from the off: Subverting the rule of a cruel and evil king. The way the story played out was surprising in and of itself even though you know what’s going to happen on a simplistic level, and it made plenty of room for deep lore about the nature of dragons and their relationship with the kings of men. And it even incorporates a surprise narrative twist different to the one you’d expect with a premise like this.
There’s very few characters present in this story who actually have any speaking roles. It’s mainly you—the knight—and the dragon. The dragon’s story proves to be much more complex than it appears, and he’s an interesting character in himself.
I was really impressed with this one, an exemplar of short story writing, and I can’t wait to get into more of Rebecca’s collection.
