David Gemmell - Rigante 04 - Stormrider

One glorious spark, one moment of Rigante rebellion has ignited a revolution and forged a legend. In the mountains of the north, the outlaw leader known as Ravenheart waits, knowing the forces of the blackhearted Moidart will come, led by the brutal ruler's only son, Stormrider. Unaware that the fate of the world lies in their hands, sworn enemies Ravenheart and Stormrider will be forced to unite—and face the vengeance of an ancient evil.

For immense armies of darkness are advancing on the highlanders, and it seems as if nothing will stop them. They crush their victims with ease, until only a few thousand men stand before them, with no help in sight. But these are not ordinary men they face. They are clansmen, and more than that, they are Rigante. . . .

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David Gemmell - Rigante 03 - Ravenheart

Eight hundred years have passed since King Connavar of the Rigante and his bastard son, Bane, defeated the invading army of Stone. In that time, Connavar has become a legend, and the Rigante have lost the freedom so many gave their lives to preserve. A conquered people, they live and die under the iron rule of the Varlish, their culture all but destroyed. One woman remains who follows the ancient paths once trod by the Rigante.

She is the Wyrd of Wishing Tree Wood, and she alone knows the nature of the evil soon to be unleashed on a doomed and unsuspecting world. In a perilous land, facing an uncertain destiny, she pins her initial hopes on two men: Jaim Grymauch, the giant Rigante fighter, a man haunted by his failure to save the friend he loved from betrayal, and Kaelin Ring, a youth whose deadly talents will earn him the enmity of all Varlish.

One will become the Ravenheart, an outlaw leader whose daring exploits will inspire the Rigante. The other will forge a legend and light the fires of rebellion. The Wyrd knows that ultimately all hopes will rest on a third man. Of the bloodline of Connavar the King, he will need to overcome generations of fear and hatred if he is to achieve his destiny. For he is a Varlish nobleman, and - worse - the son of the Rigante's greatest enemy...

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David Gemmell - Rigante 02 - Midnight Falcon

Bane the Bastard is the illegitimate son of the Rigante king who men called Demonblade. Born of treachery, Bane grew up an outcast in his own land, feared by his fellow highlanders, and denied by the father whose unmistakable mark he bore–the eyes of Connavar, one tawny brown, the other emerald green.

Hounded from the country of his birth, Bane found acceptance across the seas–only to have it stripped away in an instant by a cruel and deadly swordsman. Now fighting as a gladiator in the blood-soaked arenas of the Empire, Bane lives for one thing: revenge. And he pursues his goal with the same single-minded determination that won his father a crown.

But more is at stake than a young warrior’s quest for vengeance. The armies of the Stone are preparing to march on the lands of the Rigante. The fate of human and Seidh alike will be decided by the clash of swords–and by the bonds of twisted love and bitterness between a father and a son . . .

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David Gemmell - Rigante 01 - Sword in the Storm

Fierce and proud, the Rigante dwell deep in the green mountain lands, worshiping the gods of air and water, and the spirits of the earth. Among them lives a warrior who bears the mark of fate. Born of the storm that slew his father, he is Connavar, and tales of his courage spread like wildfire.

The Seidh--a magical race as old as time--take note of the young warrior and cast a malignant shadow across his life. For soon a merciless army will cross the water, destroying forever the timeless rhythms of life among the Rigante.

Swearing to protect his people, Connavar embarks on a quest that will take him into the heart of the enemy. Along the way, he receives a gift: a sword as powerful and deadly as the Seidh who forged it. Thus he receives a name that will strike fear into the hearts of friend and foe alike--a name proclaiming a glorious and bitter destiny . . .

Demonblade.

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David Gemmell – Skilgannon the Damned 02 - The Swords of Night and Day

In this engrossing science fantasy, the latest in British author Gemmell's long-running Drenai series (White Wolf, etc.), 1,000 years have passed since the age of the heroic sword fighter, Skilgannon. A priestly class has reawakened ancient technology that allows them to prolong life indefinitely, create lycanthropic man-beast combinations called Jiamads and fashion magical weapons such as the two legendary blades Skilgannon once carried, the Swords of Night and Day.

The greatest of the priests, Landis Khan, brings Skilgannon back to life in order to fight against the arrayed armies of another of Landis's resurrections, the empress Eternalâ€"aka Queen Jianna, Skilgannon's former lover and nemesis. Druss the Legend, the ax-fighter friend of Skilgannon from the past, has also been brought back in body. Skilgannon and Harad, the clone of Druss, join forces with Askari, a clone of Jianna, and various temporal locals, in a fight against the Eternal's Mongol-like hordes of were-creatures and ravaging soldiers.

Though the story brims with standard swordplay and unremarkable battle sequences, the puzzling out of what a possessed sword might actually be (a nanotech-based artificial intelligence?), or how resurrection works (bio-engineered cloning?) provides delightful diversion and should make this one popular with idea-starved fantasy readers.

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David Gemmell - Skilgannon the Damned 01 - White Wolf

David Gemmell is Britain's most popular writer of hard-edged heroic fantasy. White Wolf opens a new subseries, "The Damned", set in the world of his Drenai saga and featuring the invincible axeman Druss the Legend--now well into middle age. But the central character is Skilgannon the Damned, deadly wielder of a very special pair of swords and a former general whose nickname comes from a war atrocity that he does not deny. His attempt to make a new life as a monk ends abruptly when civil unrest threatens the monastery and Skilgannon's old fighting skills come into play with appalling effectiveness.

In flashbacks to decades earlier, a young Skilgannon painfully and plausibly learns the warrior's art, until his boyhood finishes in a blaze of horror. He finds true love, but his lady is also in love with power and gives the orders for a city-wide bloodbath that makes him forever The Damned. Now known as the Witch-Queen, she won't forgive him for leaving her... Other stories intertwine with Skilgannon's.

There's a young lad who wants to be a swordsman; a fey girl haunted by voices; twin brother fighters, one with a personality ravaged by brain cancer; and Druss the Legend, still indomitable but beginning to worry about his heart. Their paths entwine in a land full of disorder, hostile troops, desperate refugees, and escaped arena beasts (sorcerous hybrids of man and animal).

Gemmell excels at combat scenes, with a pace, timing and gripping conviction rare in the genre. He makes it clear, with grim compassion, that opponents aren't just straw men to be knocked over. Skilgannon is forced to kill people he admires, or who admire him; even legitimate self-defence turns sour when we hear the version told by the dead man's fiancée. At the climax, Skilgannon, Druss and their surviving companions stage an audacious assault on a particularly obnoxious villain's well-defended fortress. Much bloodshed follows, with satisfactory settlement of many debts and a final gleam of hope for the future. More tales of Skilgannon will surely follow.

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David Gemmell - Drenai 09 - Winter Warriors

David Gemmell has a talent for fantasy tales of heroism and villainy that feature characters who, while sympathetically flawed, are almost superhumanly good at what they do. Often these people are warriors: finely drawn, emotionally complex, and struggling with their individual human challenges against the backdrop of epic events.

The heroic figures here are three Drenai soldiers, Nogusta, Bison, and Kebra, whose services have been rejected by their king because they are no longer young. However, while these old friends might be a tad past their best, they are still very good indeed, and when they are called upon to protect the infant heir to the throne, the little prince could not be in better hands. In the midst of flight and eventual, desperate battle against the forces of the demon lord Anharat, they fight not only a human army and a band of demon riders bent on the heir's death but their own doubts about their ability and worth.

Gemmell is particularly deft at describing fine gradations of the friendship between the three men, including the subtleties of liking, of loving, and of the different strengths that come with age. Winter Warriors is both a fast-paced fantasy adventure and a powerful story of living and dying well.

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David Gemmell - Drenai 08 - Quest for Lost Heroes

I could've sworn I already wrote this up. Oh, well.

Chronologically, this is set after The King Beyond the Gate, and before Winter Warriors, making it the next-to-last book in the Drenai Saga. It is set in New Gulgothir, the pitiful remnant of the Gothir nation, that we first saw the Nadir crush at the beginning of Legend.

In this novel, a boy's quest to rescue a fellow villager from slavers crosses that of Chareos, Maggrig, Finn, and Belzer, the four survivors of an epic stand against the Nadir horde, led by Tenaka Khan. Ever since, the mysterious circumstances of that survival have dogged them, and now they learn the vast cosmic reason for their survival.

This is, in my opinion, Gemmell's second best novel (only to be bettered by Legend). He writes best about how people go about dying...not the "littering of bodies", necessarily, but the decisions and reasons people make, and the circumstances they face, and how they present themselves. It's an utterly beautiful novel, and it sets up another great story that's itching to be told.

I heartily recommend this novel.

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Daivd Gemmell – Drenai 07 – The King Beyond The Gate

The King Beyond the Gates by David Gemmell is a follow up novel to the book Legend. This is not really a sequel to Legend though as this story takes place many years after Legend. This series of books is under the Drenai Tales, so it really is just a collection of stories under the Drenai banner.

After reading Legend I was very intrigued by Gemmell's style and flow. For some reason I find him very easy to read. Not easy in the sense that his books don't have character development or a good plot, they have both, but easy in the words he uses and how he writes. The reader is not required to spend a great deal of time trying to figure out what the author is saying. For those looking for a quick escape, Gemmell is definitely an author to look to.

The characters of this book are what really drive this story. Gemmell seems to have a knack for creating very believable characters that the reader can't help but care about. Characters from Tenaka Khan to Scaler are all interesting. They all have `something' that makes them standout on their own within the novel. Each character in this book has faults and insecurities; they are not this all powerful character that the reader knows will never die. The flaws are not some trivial little thing the author throws in there to try to make it interesting. There is a hard edge to some of the characters who know they may die. I don't think I could talk about the characters enough in this book.

The plot of this book was slightly disappointing to me. I feel that this plot is very similar to the plot of Legend, but with a different set of characters. Heroes from the past come out of the hills to stop a great evil and fight a large scale battle. Gemmell tries to throw a couple elements in that are different thereby making the story seem fresh and new. He succeeds, but only to a point. To me, this is not a big problem as I enjoyed each novel by themselves, but I can easily see readers being frustrated by the `recycled' feel this book may have for some.

For those thinking about reading this book, I would suggest starting with Legend and then moving to this one. That way you will understand some of the back story of this book. If you are a fan of fantasy and are looking for a fairly easy read then I recommend this book with no reservations. However, if you are looking for a deep involving plot with multiple characters and locales this book is probably no the best for you. In the end I think this is a fun book to read and think many would enjoy it as well.

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Daivd Gemmell - Drenai 06 - Legend

Legend is one of the most refreshing books I have read in a good long time (probably since the last time I read it). It is not great literature, and it doesn't try to be. What it is is a grand heroic adventure full of awesome, bloody, inspiring battle scenes, motivational speeches and pep talks to shame BraveHeart, brave warriors, beautiful women (most of whom also happen to be brave warriors), magic, sieges, true love, valor, and all that other good stuff. It is the story of a vast empire, soft due to complacency, that is being threatened by the barbarian hordes basically. All that stands in the way of the main barbarian armies is one fortress, vastly undermanned, and the soldiers there aren't really soldiers at all but farmers volunteering as soldiers. And at fifty to one odds against, their chances of holding the fort until their empire can raise a REAL army aren't looking good. Enter Druss, fat old man and legendary warrior, who has never lost a battle, who has never given up, who has never sacrificed his principles.

The main point of this book is, can the defenders hold out long enough, can this living legend fighting with them give them enough hope to survive. The question isn't whether they will win, but rather how long until they lose. Don't look for deep characters or character development here, look for grand heroes and grander villains, who make their point with actions much more than words. But what action! This has quickly become one of my favorite books just to pick up an read.

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