Customer Reviews
Read the Damned book... - By: Juno, 27 Jan 2008 
I loved these Skilgannon books so much that I, literallly, came to the end of one & immediately started reading the next!
Great story-telling at its absolute finest. Five great big golden stars!
All-seeing history is blind to us ! - By: Jacques COULARDEAU, 08 Aug 2007 It is fantasy for sure but without those strange Hobbits & peoples from another planet & yet on the earth. The characters are mostly human, but humans from different walks of life, different peoples, different areas & 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 & 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 & the second time a menacing move from a dying monstrous Joining, & Skilgannon is able to take advantage of this situation & lethallly 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 & possibilities of control, which means history has its own pace & human beings can only eventuallly 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 & Skilgannon, to escape her death when a teenager & to become the Witch Queen able to reunify the world under her ruthless authority when alll 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 eventuallly torture & kill & kidnapping the daughter as a defense against his eventual defeat. And this Boranius will fail & 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 & 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 & 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 actuallly help Skilgannon & his companions, another woman in the story, Ustarte. So David Gemmel's history seems to be pretty dominated by women & 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 & beyond constant strife among hostile forces & peoples. Hence history is a unifying & pacifying trend that can be neared only through military battles & political struggles among the leaders of the world who are mostly haphazardly chosen by obscure forces that have little to do with reason & logic. And I can assure you the psychology of these warriors is nothing simple like in Hubbard's science-fiction, but extremely complex & contradictory, & that is the main charm of this book.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
You want Action? You came to the right place. - By: Mr. A. Marczylo, 21 Mar 2007 Both Skilagon & 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 & new problems that arrive. As always he brings you & keeps you into an interesting & exciteing story line where you want to read so fast you'd almost rip the pages out when turning them.
--SPOILER--
Even back tracking & 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 & even tells of his meeting with the current queen of the land he came from & the horrific things he witnessed when he became recognised as a traitor.
Compelling Gemmell - By: Sam's reviews, 07 Jul 2006 I thought this is one of David Gemmells best novels. The main character is Skillgannon the Damned, a character that reallly captured my imagination.
Not only is it great heroic fantasy, but funny in parts. It also includes Druss the Legend, probably Gemmells best known character, & it is set ten years before 'Legend', Gemmell's first novel.
A very good read.
Still Good - By: Dragon in the Library, 03 Jun 2006 
Yes, Druss is back!. The book as a whole is good but does stick very much to the classic Gemmell formula. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The book is well & solidly written but nothing spectacular. Anyone who is a Gemmell fan will find this an enjoyable read.
