Title: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Author: spearshake
Rating: Unrated (I would say T)
Genre: Adventure/Medieval Fiction
Status: WIP
Pairings: N/A thus far
Summary: Daeron Snow, the King's bastard, was raised in Winterfell by Eddard Stark. But when he turns six-and-ten, King Rhaegar sends for him. Desperate to avoid the viper's pit of King's Landing and the life of a royal bastard, Daeron seizes a tragic opportunity to take to the road as a hedge knight, where adventures and dangers abound.
A series of novellas inspired by George R. R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33023536

I have recently gotten back into asoiaf fanfiction probably due to the second HotD season, and I firmly think this is one of the best fics I've read in the genre.

It's an AU Rhaegar-wins story that follows a bastard Jon (Daeron in the story). It is not a Jon who goes to KL, gets introduced to the royal family, fucks Daenerys and Rhaenys then becomes a prince-type fic. As the summary suggests, the fic is inspired by the Dunk and Egg series (a fantastic read for asoiaf fans btw), so it follows Jon trying his hand at being a knight. It's clear very early on that Jon becoming a royal is not where this fic is headed.

It does a lot right. It starts simple with some pretty basic elements and builds on them gradually - there's no AU worlbuilding crammed down your throat. It has OCs, but only a few, not so many that you forget their names. The OC's here are really really well written too - not in the sense that they're the most 4d characters ever, but they feel real to the universe, and I honestly thought a couple of them were canon.

It also does a lot in the Rhaegar-wins trope that's pretty refreshing. Particularly in the way Jon treats himself and is treated by the realm. He doesn't feel entitled to anything from Rhaegar, and enjoys attention from him rather than the opposite (similar to his relationship with Ned). The knights in the story aren't Stark wanky honor types, they're swords for hire vying for spots with lords. I thought that Jon's character was pretty well done too - he retains a lot of what makes book Jon great - the desire to amount to something beyond the world's judgement of him, his headstrong nature and being a natural leader while also shirking some of the guilt of bastarddom (since he knows who his mother is here, and is generally more at peace with it). Each part is better than the previous one imo, the third is a particular highlight for me.

It's not perfect - it rushes in a decent number of places, especially towards the end of the third part. Also if you've read the Dunk and Egg books recently, the first two parts are kinda predictable. I do think the author could do more to make this work his own - maybe introduce some romance or something idk.

Overall though I greatly appreciated its adherence to canon's tone and found it to be a very refreshing depiction of a knighted Jon Snow.

4/5.

 

very very good, loved it

 

Daeron got into a fight afterwards he fainted from injuries he wakes up a week later.. he had been asleep for a week. You mean he was in a coma for a week?! Liking the fic but I can’t help nitpick at some of the writing. Also Daeron’s motivation isn’t clear to me.

Edit - interlude was good answered part of the Daeron’s motivation question.

 

How does the story treat Robert? Does it demonize him? Does it turn his family against him? Why, yes it does! Of course it does!

Honestly, this gets boring and makes the fanfic overall dull. I don't care for Daeron. I don't care for his 'Oh woe is me', I'm actually more interested in how the North actually handled Ned Stark kneeling to Rhaegar just because he handed him his sister back, along with their bastard.

The fic does have decent writing, it's good from a technical standpoint, but it's just not my thing.

I guess it's a personal thing, almost every fanfic that follows canon-Rebelllion outcome has people lamenting Rhaegar dying, exalting him, while almost every fanfic that has Rhaegar winning demonizes Robert. I think I've only seen it once or twice that it doesn't do that.