In Hero in the Shadows, Waylander, the assassin hero of some of Gemmell's earlier books, is now a middle-aged man looking for peace in a world that will, for the most part, let him alone. The crimes of his past come back to haunt him, as he finds himself responsible for a young prince whose grandfather he murdered, and as creatures of doomed legend come back to rule the world with blood and horror. An aging paladin, a loud-mouthed braggart whom a magic sword has chosen, and a kitchen girl who is unusually handy with her knives become his allies, along with a priestess who is not telling all she knows, or all she is.
Gemmell is one of the best writers of fantasy adventure--this new book is attractively gloomy in its atmosphere and has a pervading sense of the ironic. The action sequences are powerful and well visualized; Gemmell always knows how a particular sort of fight would feel. And there are no simple morals here--most of the characters, heroic or villainous, exist in the gray hinterland between dark and light, where evil acts are often performed in sorrow and good actions often have mixed motives behind them.
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