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A review by andrewlawston
Stormrider by David Gemmell
4.0
This was my first experience of David Gemmell, and I was very impressed. Stormrider is a cracking fantasy novel which is notable for not being a Tolkien knock-off. It starts with a bang, as an apparently demonic bear pursues a warrior and a small child across a frozen wilderness in a lengthy action sequence. After this, the supernatural calms down for quite a while, and the book's tone shifts to a military novel, chronicling a civil war.
The characterisation is spot on. Characters shift their allegiances and attitudes, but are always solidly drawn. A tyrannical lord is revealed to have a secret hobby. His implacable henchman seems to tire of killing, even in the novel's bloody final chapters. And the Stormrider himself never lost my sympathy, even in the middle of some appallingly unsympathetic acts.
This is the fourth and final volume in Gemmell's "Rigante" series, but frankly I didn't feel as though I was missing any crucial information. I may or may not go back and read the first three books, but I shall certainly be reading more Gemmell of some sort.
The characterisation is spot on. Characters shift their allegiances and attitudes, but are always solidly drawn. A tyrannical lord is revealed to have a secret hobby. His implacable henchman seems to tire of killing, even in the novel's bloody final chapters. And the Stormrider himself never lost my sympathy, even in the middle of some appallingly unsympathetic acts.
This is the fourth and final volume in Gemmell's "Rigante" series, but frankly I didn't feel as though I was missing any crucial information. I may or may not go back and read the first three books, but I shall certainly be reading more Gemmell of some sort.