"The Dragonslayer of Merebarton" by K.J. Parker

[[deleted user]]

This is our discussion of the fantasy short story....

The Dragonslayer of Merebarton by K.J. Parker
(2013)

This story first appeared in Fearsome Journeys.
It was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #125 and can be read online at Clarkesworld Magazine website, with an audio reading also available there. if you don't like Kate Baker's reading, you can instead listen to it read by Daniel Foley at PodCastle.

[Rafał]

I enjoyed it very much. The description of the dragon in the library book made me really laugh. You can´t say much about a 1 hour reading story but it´s worth this 1 hour of reading for sure.

[Hillary]

"I was mending my chamber pot when they came to tell me about the dragon."

Great first line, great opening, funny & sly in so many ways. Man, I really dig Parker.

Another line I appreciated: "We both grew up silently ashamed of our fathers (his father Ossun was the laziest man on the estate; mine--well) and we're both quietly disappointed with our children."

Parker often portrays medieval attitudes in their full oddity or brutality while still making them seem relatable or flirts with anachronism by addressing modern perspectives in a way that highlights the humanity of historical figures.

[Hillary]

Enjoyed the discussion of the equipment, which is also very typical for Parker

Re the ending: (view spoiler)[ I appreciate the anticlimax, which is so much the point of the story

but there's still something about the end that seems a little off to me compared to the beginning -- maybe it's that the hunting "sixth sense" seemed out of character for the mostly practical Dodinas (I did like the joke about his relationship w/his father though)

The reveal about Luitprand was a bit shocking but seemed in line with Parker's humour & w/likely attitudes of medieval nobility ... but I wondered if L. was one of those disappointing children and if so how he disappointed. Indifferent flute playing? All we know about Dodinas' other child/ten is that there must be a boy who's too young to hold the estate in his own right (hide spoiler)]

[Hillary]

Rafał wrote: "The description of the dragon in the library book made me really laugh."

I liked how the dragon is treated as s fully natural creature, with a presumed taxonomy (even if the characters don't think about it in quite those terms)

[[deleted user]]

Hillary wrote: "Parker often portrays medieval attitudes in their full oddity or brutality while still making them seem relatable or flirts with anachronism by addressing modern perspectives in a way that highlights the humanity of historical figures.."

That's a great observation. Parker's wry narrations have a slightly modern take on his faux-medieval alternate world.

" I’m guessing the lizards who actually do the fire-starting are resentful younger sons. Tell you about my brother in a minute.)"

In this case our aging knight/narrator (Dodinas le Cure Hardy) has an engaging cynicism mixed with fatigue. Like me in the mornings. :)

[Brendan]

A cute story. I appreciate that there was a bit of class analysis of a feudal society (our knight is astonishingly self-aware) and I'm generally in favour of stories with classical-age antipersonnel siege weapons. Did medieval armies actually use Scorpions or is this an alternate-timeline invention by the author?

That being said, a story of a medieval knight slaying a dragon is inherently capped at around three stars.

[Cat]

Well, um, this was ok. It had some amusing lines, it had action, there were some great descriptions... but... the main character didn't appeal to me, I found his cynicism tiring after awhile. And overall, I just found it forgettable. As in, a few hours later, I'm struggling to remember the plot or anything that happened. I felt like it was a two and a half star story but I rounded it down for sheer forgettable-ness.

[Donald]

Cat wrote: "Well, um, this was ok. It had some amusing lines, it had action, there were some great descriptions... but... the main character didn't appeal to me, I found his cynicism tiring after awhile. And o..."

It sounds like we had a similar response, though I didn't find the cynicism quite as tiring (and rounded up) to account for the 2 star difference. It was pretty forgettable - mild amusement for a short while, but this short story just felt like a bare sketch whereas I've read plenty that really flesh everything out despite not being longer.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I'm giving it 3 stars. I've only read one other story by K.J. Parker which was Heaven Thunders the Truth. Both this story and that one had a unique take on the Fantasy genre and a hero with a witty sense of humor about his situation. I think I'll read more by this guy.

This was my favorite line: "He’s a good huntsman, Marhouse. Come the end of the season, he always knows exactly where all the game we’ve failed to find must be holed up."

[[deleted user]]

Randy wrote: " I think I'll read more by this guy...."

If you want to read more of his short stories, many are available on-line (free) in various on-line magazines. I linked to sources for several in our discussion of Parker's Academic Exercises collection.

Many of Parker's short stories seem set in the same alternate world as this story, but apparently at different times, though Parker hasn't explicitly said so.

Of the stories listed at the topic above, I recommend "The Sun & I" for a fun origin of the "Invincible Sun" religion, one of whose Brothers seems referred to in this story. His "Let Maps to Others" and "A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong" are excellent and each won World Fantasy Awards (2012 & 2013).

[Andrea]

I liked his description of a "knight" as not being a single person but a group of people each playing their own part...especially since the knight can't even dress himself. And in this case we have two knights but its a member of the entourage that actually defeats the dragon. It also had some amusing moments, like picturing them all obliviously sitting in the bushes by the dead goat while the dragon is flying about devastating the countryside.

I didn't love it but I'd be willing to read more from Parker. I have a trilogy of his that one day I'll get around to nominating.

I'll read the rest of that Clarkesworld Issue, I've already finished the other dragon themed story "Dragon's Deep".

[[deleted user]]

One of the things I liked about the Knight protagonist was his age (56, if I remember correctly.) He's really a retired Knight, and his cynicism seems at least partly born from fatigue. He and his wife are scraping by on a farm, he hasn't worn his old armor in years, but he dusted off again (and probably lets out the girth) for the occasion, as do his companions.

Parker tells the story with the would be Dragonlayers muddling through, really with no idea how to find or kill a dragon, until the rather anticlimactic and tragic ending. The entire story is somewhat of a confession.

He tells this little story when as a teen he was told to go release some chickens into the woods, and that he goes to some effort to keep them from falling prey to the foxes by spreading them out (because it's the clucking at each other that attracts the foxes; all take his word for it.) And yet despite his efforts, the cocks find each other and begin fighting, because it's what they do.

"They do it because it’s what they do. Someone once said, the man who’s tired of killing is tired of life. Not sure I know what that means."

[Hillary]

Brendan wrote: " Did medieval armies actually use Scorpions?"

I always trust that Parker has done his research & it's evident that he knows much, much more about weapon types than me. (While I usually find his descriptions fascinating, they do occasionally drift into tedious. I think " Dragonslayer" strikes a good balance.) it seems to me the armaments are usually historically accurate, but I don't know enough to tell if he bends the rules with things he thinks are really cool. Wikipedia tells me the scorpion was in use by the Romans but seems mum on whether it persists into the Middle Ages. I wonder if the "heirloom" in the story is so old it dates back to pseudo-Rome.

The reference to the thaler makes me think we're somewhere in the pseudo-Holy Roman Empire.

G33z3r notes that Parker's fantasy settings seem to hew fairly close to real history. In his work, I've definitely identified pseudo-Toman, pseudo-Byzantine, & pseudo-Hun cultures, but I've never been able to tell if the former have quite the relationship they do in "real" history or if the latter are more or equally as successful as Genghis & descendants

[Hillary]

Andrea wrote: "I'll read the rest of that Clarkesworld Issue, I've already finished the other dragon themed story "Dragon's Deep""

I thought that one was on the "pretty good" side of OK. I've enjoyed several of Cecilia Holland's historical fiction novels.

[Caitlin]

I liked but didn't love this one. I enjoyed a lot of the elements (wry humor, cynicism and a knight story that isn't just the same old) but I struggled to feel anything for any of the characters. Entirely possible it was just the length of it but I just didn't care that much about what happened to them.