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One of the best things about this
book is the cover. |
David Gemmell is one of my favourite fantasy authors. I
first discovered his writing when my brother lent me his copy of Lord of the Silver Bow, the first volume
in Gemmell’s Troy trilogy which he
was nearing completion before he passed away. His wife, Stella Gemmell,
finished the trilogy and has since published a novel of her own titled The City. Since I’m a fan of Greek
mythology and The Iliad I was excited
to read it and Gemmell really impressed me. He mostly ignored a lot of the specifics
of classical writing on the subject. It’s difficult to believe but Homer and
Virgil didn’t have as much of an influence on Gemmell’s story as you would have
expected. He definitively walked down his own path but that’s alright with me.
At that point in his career he knew his strengths and by focusing on soldiers
and other characters with strong personalities and by severely limiting the use
of magic along with the presence and influence of the gods, he managed to write
a trilling and action packed historical fantasy trilogy. This led me to reading
several of his books and I’ve enjoyed every one.
After finding copies of most of the
Stones of Power series at my local used book store (
Bay Used Books) I read up a bit on the series before reading it. The cover of the first
two books looked radically different than the other three. As it turns out,
they’re two separate series that are tied together by the titular Stones of
Power. From what I can tell there aren’t that many more connections between
both stories. Sadly, I do not own a copy of the final book in the
Jon Shannow trilogy which also happens
to be the concluding volume of
The Stones
of Power. Hopefully I can find a copy by the time I get to that point in
the series. I decided to start with
Ghost
King and its sequel
Last Sword of
Power because they were published first and they’re also first in chronological
order. It’s always fun when that happens. I was really looking forward to
Ghost King because it’s yet another book
where Gemmell retells a well-known fantasy story. This time it’s the legend of
King Arthur. Unfortunately, it’s kind of crap.
Have you ever built up an author (or director, musician,
etc.) in your head as being one of the greats? Maybe even a genius in their
respective field? Now I don’t think David Gemmell is a genius, but I’ve always
considered him a skilled writer who excels at certain types of stories. Those
stories often focus on tough men put in situations where their survival is in
question but the situation often leads to their redemption as heroes for having
done the honourable thing in said difficult situation. I’ve pointed out his
weaknesses as a writer before (female characters!) and his stories can be
similar when looking at them side by side (yet they’re usually varied enough in
the details to remain separate individual works). Sometimes he plays with big
ideas and when he does, he rivals many of the other great fantasy authors. To
be clear, I think David Gemmell is pretty great and up until a few weeks ago,
at least, he was one of my favourite fantasy authors, comfortably sitting
amongst the other greats in the literary pantheon of my mind.
