Another quality anti-hero tale
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Readers of previous Drenai tales will love this entry, for it takes characters and history from each novel and creates an "best-of" story. It features a party like no other, each member drawing on strands from previous novels, even though this is a standalone entry in to the Drenai mythos (another Damned novel follows). At first the introduction of Druss to the party feels like a cash-cow approach, but Gemmell utilised Druss to draw out the complexity of his new character, Skilgannon, a renegade soldier who wishes to turn his back on the past, yet is emotionally tied to it. It's a complex, and initially wordy story, with fleshed out characters and plot twists and events that create a real page-turner. Enjoyable until the end, White Wolf is a quality fantasy read.
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A damned warrior, a quest, and Druss The Legend, what more do you want!
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Brother Lantern is a priest seeking inner peace in an increasingly hostile and unsettled world. Conflict surrounds the priesthood, and now the priests themselves are being targeted by forces intent on causing chaos. As the priests come face to face with violence, Brother Lantern's adherence to their peaceful ways is severely tested as more priests get attacked and all he is meant to do is forgive the attackers and try and find good in them. Then when a violent mob come to the gates of the priest's monastery, Brother Lantern decides he can no longer follow the path of the priesthood, and reluctantly reverts back to his warrior ways, ruthlessly teaching the mob a lesson they'll never forget. For Brother Lantern is no ordinary priest, he is Skilgannon the Damned, mighty warrior, wielder of the swords of night and day, and a tormented soul haunted by the guilt of horrific acts of barbarism that he committed in the name of the Witch Queen.
This is another thrilling book from David Gemmell, full of wonderful characterisation whereby every character has something to contribute to this compelling story. Skilgannon is the tortured soul, deeply ashamed of the acts he has committed in the name of war, desperately seeking some kind redemption for his past, but knowing deep down than nothing can undo what he has done. Nonetheless you can't help hoping that Skilgannon finds some kind of salvation as you realise that he's very much been used as a pawn by the Witch Queen, driven by his loyalty and, even more, his intense love for her, as they were former lovers before she rose to power.
Once Skilgannon makes the decision to give up the priesthood and return to his warrior ways he embarks on an eventful and action-packed quest that brings him into conflict with all kinds of weird and wonderful adversaries, some human, some not human. He also gets to meet some very interesting characters who, for reasons of their own, join up with him, even though they are all aware of his shameful past, some befriending him, others merely tolerating him. One of the characters he meets up with is the awesome Druss The Legend, who makes for a fantastic partner to Skilgannon, giving a refreshingly simplistic and black and white view of the world that counter-acts Skilgannon's deep and complex view of life. Both Druss and Skilgannon have the same fearlessness and air of invincibility about them, Skilgannon the highly skilled swordsman, Druss the powerhouse axeman.
As the story progresses Skilgannon and Druss build up a bizarre mutual respect and friendship, they're hugely contrasting characters, yet strangely complementary. And having two formidable warriors like this join forces gives Gemmell the opportunity to have some truly amazing fight scenes. Most Gemmell fans love his talent for describing a battle, and they certainly won't be disappointed here, with every axe swing and sword thrust being described in vivid and exhilarating detail. There's never a dull moment in this hugely exciting and captivating read, it's another classic from Gemmell.
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Read the Damned book...
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I loved these Skilgannon books so much that I, literally, came to the end of one and immediately started reading the next!
Great story-telling at its absolute finest. Five great big golden stars!
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All-seeing history is blind to us !
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It is fantasy for sure but without those strange Hobbits and peoples from another planet and yet on the earth. The characters are mostly human, but humans from different walks of life, different peoples, different areas and regions. But the most interesting element is that the author tries to center his approach onto those who apparently make history in a world dominated by war. These few men or women can change the future by only winning or losing a battle, which depends mostly on accidental elements. The book is very clear about the haphazard work of fate that keeps in store many possible outcomes to any present situation. Skilgannon wins two battles between himself and Boranius, aka Ironmask, only because of one element that de-concentrates the attention of Boranius. The first time a spear from some soldier of Skilgannon's and the second time a menacing move from a dying monstrous Joining, and Skilgannon is able to take advantage of this situation and lethally attack Boranius. At the same time, even if it is postmodern to state history is entirely open, the book is deeply inhabited with the belief that some forces are beyond human understanding and possibilities of control, which means history has its own pace and human beings can only eventually influence it within the limits it sets itself. And in this novel it is quite clear women are the central axis of history, either as a witch that influences the world along her own desires, or a descendant of that witch that manages, with the help of this very witch and Skilgannon, to escape her death when a teenager and to become the Witch Queen able to reunify the world under her ruthless authority when all the other actors will have been eliminated. Then two of the main warriors are moved into defeating the main opponent to this evolution when he destroys a father by making him a Joining (joining him just after death to a wolf), seducing the mother that he will eventually torture and kill and kidnapping the daughter as a defense against his eventual defeat. And this Boranius will fail and the girl will be saved. A long time before Skilgannon, known as the Damned, had been ordered to annihilate a defeated city by the Witch Qiueen. Only one girl survived and she becomes haunted. The witch we have spoken of already manages to capture her vengeful desire in order to turn it against Skilgannon. And yet that will fail. This girl Garianne will try to commit suicide instead of fulfilling the manipulation. She will be saved by Skilgannon himself with some help from Druss and Skilgannon will be saved in this predicament by the Witch Queen, though she will be unable to get him back into her military service. Furthermore a priestess of some mythical temple will actually help Skilgannon and his companions, another woman in the story, Ustarte. So David Gemmel's history seems to be pretty dominated by women and his history seems to have its own rules that have little to do with our desire to make history what we would like it to be. And beyond these dominating women we feel history is an unescapable, unavoidable battle between hostile forces with some kind of a promise to see the whole humanity reunify in a way or another: a trend to unity that can only progress through and beyond constant strife among hostile forces and peoples. Hence history is a unifying and pacifying trend that can be neared only through military battles and political struggles among the leaders of the world who are mostly haphazardly chosen by obscure forces that have little to do with reason and logic. And I can assure you the psychology of these warriors is nothing simple like in Hubbard's science-fiction, but extremely complex and contradictory, and that is the main charm of this book.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
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You want Action? You came to the right place.
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Both Skilagon and Druss show how real heroes are supposed to fight. Druss's Axe cleaves though many men as do Skilagon's swords. The story line has lots of twists and new problems that arrive. As always he brings you and keeps you into an interesting and exciteing story line where you want to read so fast you'd almost rip the pages out when turning them.
--SPOILER--
Even back tracking and talking about Skilagon's past when he was just the child of a hero known as Fire Fist. In no way is this boreing however. It explains in detail of his life and even tells of his meeting with the current queen of the land he came from and the horrific things he witnessed when he became recognised as a traitor.
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