Read History
2026 | Score: 4
I would say this is an overly average book in pretty much every aspect, with a few interesting ideas but not enough to keep me interested. Definitely more of a YA book than I thought going into it, set in an achingly average fantasy world. The writing was fine (arms akimbo excluded) and the dialogue a lot better than most books I score this low, but it really just didn’t have anything to hook me as a reader. The characters were probably the best written part but still were only slightly above the mean. I think this is fine for a YA series but there are a lot of better books doing classic fantasy tropes a lot better. I will say it did a great job sticking to what it set out to do by keeping Conrad as primarily a “squire”, not letting him suddenly become some god of the sword which happens fairly often.
Format: Audible
Days: 5
Date: 7/23/2026 -> 7/28/2026
Summary (Spoilers)
The Squire
Duncan M. Hamilton
Blood of Kings #1
The Squire Summary
In the prologue a young trader, Verna, is taking some illicit Telarian steel to sell in Shandahar, and meets a local leader who is planning to use his magical amulet to get the steel for a great value, however Verna kills him and steals the amulet.
Conrad is a young man (12) living in the north with his family who herd cattle. Cattle have started turning up dead so they go to get the nearby village warriors. The night after the warriors left they show up again but attack Conrad’s parents. As he tries to flee a demon/draugr grabs him and is about to kill him, when Conrad touches the strange amulet on its neck. He sees a vision of an ancient king and warrior, which seems to disorient the draugr and he is able to flee. A group of warriors find him and bring him south with them, fleeing the monsters.
Conrad learns he is travelling with Nicolo and his group of mercenary bannerets. They are traveling south to a warmer climate for the winter and bring Conrad with them since they can’t find any local orphanages or similar facilities. They begin to train him to act as squire for the group and start his own banneret training. While escorting a burgess (merchant) they are attacked by bandits and kill all the attackers, but the burgess dies in the process. At the next town they are asked to deliver something to the princess of the region, and travel with Heidi, a young woman.
They are once again attacked, and Heidi is “taken captive”, however this was intentional as she wanted to question the group. The one she captures dies before he can tell her much, however, seemingly due to magic. They meet with the princess and tell her Conrad’s story. Heidi is a member of the intelligentsia, and she and the princess have been working to figure out who is causing these draugr attacks. The princess hires Nicolo and his crew to stay at the palace and investigate when needed. This gives Conrad the opportunity to join the squire academy, a great place to study and learn.
He is taught by “The Walrus”, a renowned swordsmaster. The very first day he manages to make an enemy of Munfred, the local bully, and takes a good number of beatings from him throughout the book. He also becomes friends with Arno, a boy his age. Together they spend most of their free time searching through the palace for the legendary Proctor’s Regalia. One day while searching Conrad finds a pillar marked with the same symbol as the amulet the draugr was wearing that almost killed him. He brings Nicolo, Heidi, and the crew and they find an almost untouched library.
They are also sent out to investigate rumors of a draugr attack on a local village, and arrive to find it seemingly deserted, before Conrad wakes up the draugr and they have to flee. They find chunks of Telarian steel (A magic metal prized by everyone), and learn it is one of the only things that can hurt the monsters. As they flee, one of their number, Henny, dies.
Munfred’s father is very rich and recently got the royal charter for Telarian Steel, and Munfred has been bragging about the sword he is getting made. When it arrives Conrad sneaks in and sabotages the handle. When Munfred shows it off it breaks and he is embarrassed and blames Conrad, but it wasn’t even what Conrad did that broke it. Conrad gets sent into the city and is captured by two northern druids who tell him a story of an old king (F-something), who got turned into the first draugr. Conrad is one of the line of five ancient kings, and if the draugr absorbs his power it will be very bad. Because of this they plan to kill him but Nicolo’s group saves him and takes one of the druids hostage to question.
Later, Conrad takes his credential exam and does well, but gets a feeling when near Munfred’s father that reminds him of demon magic. He goes to Nicolo and Heidi and we learn Munfred’s father is Verna from the prologue. They chase him down and capture him and learn he has been using the amulet to take advantage of people but nothing worse, but on the way back to the palace he also dies from unknown magic. THE END.