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Sir Thomas the Hesitant
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…there were other tables, some almost as lofty, some not so much. Among those in the not-so-lofty category, the Table of Less Valued Knights was far and away the unloftiest. The Knights of Less Valued Table were the workhorses of the court, performing the inglorious duties that are nevertheless essential to a realm’s operation and taking care of any requests that the other orders found… uninteresting.
What’s Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights About?
Thomas is the second son of a soldier turned farmer, his older brother—the favored and talented son—has recently been imprisoned for daring to ask the local Baron for aid for the struggling local populace, suffering under famine.
Thomas goes to Camelot to become a Knight—with the goal of using this position to help the people of his valley and hopefully get enough glory to impress his parents.
He is made a knight (to his surprise) and is assigned to the Table of the Less Valued Knights—those knights who keep the nation running by performing the needed, but unglamorous tasks, freeing up others to tackle the bigger, flashier tasks. It’s a noble calling, a better life than Thomas had before—now the question is, can he still use this role to help his family and their neighbors?
It’s the Characters and Relationships
The story is simple and straightforward, and charming enough. But what elevates this novel are the characters around Thomas and his relationships with them.
He meets and befriends an evil wizard who is working to put that life behind and simply be a healer. There’s a giantess with esteem issues, which lead to her changing size. Thomas’s little sister will steal your heart. And when it comes to best friends/sidekick characters, you won’t find many as fun as his fellow Less Valued Knight, Philip the Exceptionally Unlucky.
There’s a cute romance between Sir Thomas and one of Guinivere’s Ladies-in-Waiting, Marie. Marie’s an intelligent woman who’s constantly prodding Thomas to understand what’s going on around him and how he ought to respond. It’s not that Thomas isn’t that intelligent, he’s just naive and needs someone with a bit more experience to point things out and remind Thomas what he cares about.
And Thomas’ magic sword? You have to see it in action to believe it.
As far as the standard Camelot characters go, this Arthur is heroic and wise (an increasingly uncommon take on the King), Gawain might not be as heroic as you’d want, but he’s a lot of fun. Kay and Bedivere make up for Gawain on the heroism front.
So, what did I think about Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights?
You want a hard slog like that to end with the bad guy losing. Through some last minute opportunity, or some deep fault of the villain, or even just sheer stubborn grit on the part of the hero, you want the good guy to stand alone in the end, battered but victorious.
[This fight] didn’t end like that.
It’s not every day I get to use words like “wholesome” around here, but it fits. Why does that strike me as a bad thing? It shouldn’t be, it just conjures up images of someone trying to be squeaky-clean enough for 1980’s Saturday Morning TV, and while this book would be, it doesn’t feel like Perrin forced anything into that mold. It just is that way. Nor does it feel like he’s constrained by this kind of writing, it just feels appropriate to the type of story he told.
The subtitle to Perrin’s website is “Agreeable Stories for Kind-Hearted People Who Take an Interest in Words.” This is a pretty good description of the book. Agreeable—full of kind-hearted people (and some who aren’t so kind-hearted, but they get theirs).
This isn’t written for an MG crowd, but it’s an increasingly rare “adult” novel that I wouldn’t blink at letting a middle-grader read. It’s the anti-grimdark.
What this is is a lighthearted, optimistic tale told with a wink and a smile. There’s peril, there’s bravery of the uncommon and very real sort, there’s hope, there’s struggle, and there are clear lines between good and evil. It’s also pretty entertaining, too. Perrin has a crisp and appealing style that ensures the reading experience will be pleasant.
I liked this, I wish I could read more things like this (aside from the sequel, which I’ll be getting soon). It’s a thoroughly pleasant way to spend a few hours. You should give it a chance.
