Showing results by author "David Gemmell" in All Categories

Druss, Captain of the Axe: the stories of his life were told everywhere. Instead of the wealth and fame he could have claimed, he had chosen a mountain lair, high in the lonely country bordering on the clouds. There the grizzled old warrior kept company with snow leopards and awaited his old enemy, death.

Even in death, Skilgannon the Damned's name lives on. Now, as an ancient evil threatens to flood the Drenai heartlands in a tide of blood, he returns.... A thousand years after they fell in battle, two heroes - Druss and Skilgannon - are revered throughout the war-torn lands of the Drenai, where men and women live in abject fear of the dark sorceress known as the Eternal.... But what if the soul of one such hero could be called back from the void, his bones housed again in flesh?

Three lives will change the destiny of nations. Helikaon, the young prince of Dardania, haunted by a scarred and traumatic childhood. The priestess Andromache, whose fiery spirit and fierce independence threatens the might of kings. And the legendary warrior Argurios, cloaked in loneliness and driven only by thoughts of revenge. In Troy they find a city torn apart by destructive rivalries - a maelstrom of jealousy, deceit and murderous treachery.

While the warlike and heartless Aenir ravage the territory outside the mountain fastness of the clans, Sigarni, the Hawk Queen, arrives in this alternate version of her own universe through a gate in space and time. Taliesen, last of the gatekeepers, has no idea why she has arrived but knows that heroes are needed.... Only Caswallon, loner, warrior and thief, realises the true extent of danger and horrors that his people are about to face.

After the bloody battle of Colden Moor, the warlike highlanders had lost their independence. They lived in surly subservience to the Outlanders, and only a teenage girl survived to represent the line of kings: Sigarni. Sigarni the silver-haired. Huntress, whore, princess. All of these she was called. But those who pierce the veil of the future knew that a leader was coming to the North - a leader descended from Ironhand, mightiest of the highland kings.

The Great Bear will descend from the skies and with his paw lash at the ocean. He will devour all the works of Man. Then he will sleep for 10,000 years, and the breath of his sleep will be death. The prophecy had come true. The world spun. Tidal waves lashed the planet, and a new ice age dawned. The few survivors of a once-great empire struggled to rebuild. Then two moons appeared in the skies, unleashing a terrible evil that threatened not only the new empire but the survival of the world itself.

The soul of Uther Pendragon is chained in hell. The sword of power is lost in swirling chaos. The realm is under threat from barbarian hordes - led by an undead god from the vaults of prehistory. And a new Dark Age is dawning over Roman Britain. Then comes a man called Revelation, seeking a child born of a demon.... Seeking the legendary Lord of the Lance.... Seeking the sword to save the realm.

The war of Troy is looming, and all the kings of the Great Green are gathering, friends and enemies, each with their own dark plans of conquest and plunder. Into this maelstrom of treachery and deceit come three travellers; Piria, a runaway priestess nursing a terrible secret, Kalliades, a warrior with a legendary sword, and Banokles who will carve his own legend in the battles to come.

His name is Parmenion. Despised by Spartans and Macedonians alike, he must fight for his place in the world. Yet he will survive. Dark forces have marked out his destiny as the most fearsome warlord Greece has ever known. For he will become the Lion of Macedon - and will reshape the glory of Greece before he faces the wrath of hell....

Darkness falls on the Great Green, and the Ancient World is fiercely divided. On the killing fields outside the golden city of Troy, forces loyal to the Mykene King mass. Among them is Odysseus, fabled storyteller and reluctant ally to the Mykene, who knows that he must soon face his former friends in deadly combat. Within the city, the Trojan king waits. Ailing and bitter, his hope is pinned on two heroes: his favourite son Hektor, and the dread Helikaon who will wreak terrible vengeance for the death of his wife at Mykene hands.

Skilgannon the Damned had vanished from the pages of history. Following the terrible triumph at Perapolis, the General had taken the legendary Swords of Night and Day and ridden from the lands of Naashan. No one knew where he had gone, and the assassins sent by the Witch Queen could find no trace of his passing. Three years later, as a mob intent on murder gathers outside a distant monastery, they are faced by a single unarmed priest. In a few terrifying seconds their world is changed for ever, and word spreads across the lands of the East.

They called him Bane the Bastard - though none said it to his face. Born of treachery, his name a curse, he grew up among the warriors of the Rigante. They valued his skills in war, but they feared the violence in his heart. And when, as a Wolfshead and Outlaw, he left Rigante lands, they breathed sighs of relief. But Bane would return, the destiny of the Rigante in his hands, the fate of the world resting on his skills with a blade.

The Drenai fortress of Dros Delnoch has fallen, and blood-hungry Nadir hordes sweep across the land, bringing desolation and despair. But with the Nadir triumphant, slavers seize a young girl in the tiny realm of Gothir, and a peasant boy steps off on a quest that will shake the world. To rescue her, Kiall must cross the savage steppes and journey through the Halls of Hell, facing ferocious beasts, deadly warriors and demons of the dark. But the boy is not alone. With him are the legendary heroes of Bel-Azar....

Parmenion, the Lion of Macedon - a lone hero in search of salvation and instead finding destiny. Alexander, the Dark Prince - a child who will become Alexander, founder of the greatest empire the world has ever known. He will conquer all, save for the Chaos Spirit, the immortal evil that dwells in his soul. Together they will be forced into other dimensions, across time, into enchanted worlds full of wonder and sorcery....

The tyrannical rule of the Deacon and his Jerusalem Riders has unleashed upon the world a sea of bigotry and hatred, where Unbelievers and Mutants are massacred in the name of God and Peace. And the long-vanished Jerusalem Man is now considered a saint of the new order. To speak ill of his memory is heresy. But when the church in Pilgrim's Valley is burnt to the ground and its congregation is slaughtered, a rider appears and hunts down the killers. And word spreads - the Jerusalem Man is back!

For centuries the tribes of the Nadir have suffered under the despotic tyranny of their Gothir overlords. Disunited and distrustful of one another, the tribes await the coming of a Messianic warlord, who will unite them against the oppressors. Into this swirling, chaotic landscape come three men who will change the fate of the continent.

High in the wooded, peaked mountains of Skeln, the woodsman, Dakeyras, and his beautiful daughter, Miriel, live a life of harmonious solitude. Unbeknown to them, a group of grim-eyed, bloodthirsty warriors stalk the mountains. Men who have never known defeat, to whom revenge and torture are meat and drink. For 10,000 in gold they are eager to kill the woodsman. Battle-hardened warriors all, they have no fear of this task - but they should have.

The Knights of the Gabala were legendary protectors of the Nine Duchies - until they disappeared through a demon-haunted gateway between worlds. Manannan, the Coward Knight, held back. Now he lives in torment. Yet war is coming to the Duchies - and with it Manannan's chance for redemption. But to regain his honour and save his land, he will have to confront his deepest fear. He must ride through the gateway and seek out his lost companions in the unknown world beyond. And the secret he will learn there will tear his soul apart.

Chaos and terror stalk the land, the King slain by traitors, the great Sword of Power vanished beyond the Circle of Mist. Saxons, Angles, Jutes and Brigante tribesman mass together to destroy the realm, aided by the powers of the Witch Queen and the Lord of the Undead. Against them stand a weakling boy and an old mountain warrior. But the boy has the blood of kings, and the warrior is Culain, the legendary Lord of the Lance. And he alone knows the dread secret of the Witch Queen.

Druss. The Legend. Saviour of Skeln Pass. Protector of Dros Delnoch. The most famous - and dreaded - of Drenai's heroes. But before all men knew Druss, he was a young husband, hewing tress instead of men - most of the time - and held in check by his beloved wife, Rowena. When she is stolen by slavers, Druss becomes a killing machine intent on only one thing: Rowena's return.