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Incorporated Knight #1
The Incorporated Knight
Preferring trade to chivalry, practical-minded Eudoric Dambertson reluctantly sets out to kill a dragon to appease his would-be father-in-law and learns some discomfiting truths about dragon aying. Reissue. AB. PW.
246 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
70 people want to read
About the author
L. Sprague de Camp
759 books314 followersLyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 23, 2020
Worth one reading.
Interesting series of adventures of a born businessman trapped in a noble's life. His love life ain't so good either, but he keeps working toward his goals.
BTW, the monster on the cover isn't in the story, but there are plenty of others to fill the gap.
Interesting series of adventures of a born businessman trapped in a noble's life. His love life ain't so good either, but he keeps working toward his goals.
BTW, the monster on the cover isn't in the story, but there are plenty of others to fill the gap.
February 4, 2022
Well, first four parts released as short stories where good and liked the work on caring of weapons and tools used for the age and time.
However bad representative for women nor such a fun story in general nor good character development.
However bad representative for women nor such a fun story in general nor good character development.
March 11, 2018
The Incorporated Knight is … a book? It’s not a comedy, not in the traditional manner. I never really laughed, though I did occasionally reflect that it was funny. It’s not a serious book either. There’s too much absurdity and sheer bumbling for me to feel attached to the characters or have expectations for the plot. And the plot is rather thin.
Eudoric, our level-headed protagonist and knight, wishes to wife. To this end, he sets off on a quest. By the back copy, you’d think that the book follows him along this winding quest until it eventually leads back to his betrothed. It does, except it doesn’t take the length of the book. It takes maybe a quarter of it, after which he has other betrotheds and plenty of unlikely, winding adventures.
His life is essentially a comedy of errors, except he and his squire are completely unflappable. For it to be a true comedy, someone needs to be flapped. This is where the slight comedy comes from: we note the absurdity and incongruity of what he’s going through, and ascribe humor to it. The humor doesn’t truly feel based in the writing.
I am, I must admit, a little disappointed by the female characters in this story. Most of them are barely on-screen, and none of them are portrayed tremendously favorably. It makes sense that he would have trouble with women romantically—that’s the plot of the book—but the tertiary female characters also tend to be a sorry lot.
Alas.
That Eudoric takes everything in stride and, normally, refuses to hold these women’s faults against them helps mitigate this disappointment. And I love, love, that even in this medieval knight-era story where women are literally property, one of Eudoric’s only rules in courting is that the woman must approve of the marriage.
In general, I'm at a bit of a loss on what to think of The Incorporated Knight. It was clever, in ways, and funny, in others. There was never really any tension or compulsion to keep reading, and yet I finished the book. At no point was I in love—nothing gave me goosebumps or made me pause in appreciation of a perfect moment—but I was undeniably intrigued about where Eudoric would end up.
There are those stories where I’d argue that you need to give it a good 50-100 pages before you can really judge it. This isn’t one of those books. If you’re not interested by the time Eudoric is enmeshed in his first quest, then this might not be the best book for you. If you’re enjoying the easy pace and the gentle, distant humor of it, though, then you’re in luck.
One warning: all of the dialogue is pseudo old-English. It's surprising how quickly you get used to it, but it comes on a little strong.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
Eudoric, our level-headed protagonist and knight, wishes to wife. To this end, he sets off on a quest. By the back copy, you’d think that the book follows him along this winding quest until it eventually leads back to his betrothed. It does, except it doesn’t take the length of the book. It takes maybe a quarter of it, after which he has other betrotheds and plenty of unlikely, winding adventures.
His life is essentially a comedy of errors, except he and his squire are completely unflappable. For it to be a true comedy, someone needs to be flapped. This is where the slight comedy comes from: we note the absurdity and incongruity of what he’s going through, and ascribe humor to it. The humor doesn’t truly feel based in the writing.
I am, I must admit, a little disappointed by the female characters in this story. Most of them are barely on-screen, and none of them are portrayed tremendously favorably. It makes sense that he would have trouble with women romantically—that’s the plot of the book—but the tertiary female characters also tend to be a sorry lot.
Alas.
That Eudoric takes everything in stride and, normally, refuses to hold these women’s faults against them helps mitigate this disappointment. And I love, love, that even in this medieval knight-era story where women are literally property, one of Eudoric’s only rules in courting is that the woman must approve of the marriage.
In general, I'm at a bit of a loss on what to think of The Incorporated Knight. It was clever, in ways, and funny, in others. There was never really any tension or compulsion to keep reading, and yet I finished the book. At no point was I in love—nothing gave me goosebumps or made me pause in appreciation of a perfect moment—but I was undeniably intrigued about where Eudoric would end up.
There are those stories where I’d argue that you need to give it a good 50-100 pages before you can really judge it. This isn’t one of those books. If you’re not interested by the time Eudoric is enmeshed in his first quest, then this might not be the best book for you. If you’re enjoying the easy pace and the gentle, distant humor of it, though, then you’re in luck.
One warning: all of the dialogue is pseudo old-English. It's surprising how quickly you get used to it, but it comes on a little strong.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
August 17, 2019
Amusing
Read
November 23, 2008by L. Sprague de Camp. the other version with this title doesn't have a picture, though the author's name is there.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews