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David Gemmell (1948–2006)

Författare till Legender från Drenai 1 Belägringen

90 verk 27,224 medlemmar 294 recensioner 108 favoritmärkta

Om författaren

Särskiljningsinformation:

(ger) Pseudonym: Ross Harding

Foto taget av: from Lifeinlegacy.com

Serier

Verk av David Gemmell

The King Beyond the Gate (1985) 1,282 exemplar
Lord of the Silver Bow (2005) 1,217 exemplar
Stormsvärd (1998) 1,100 exemplar
Midnattsfalken (1999) 872 exemplar
Troy: Shield of Thunder (2006) 849 exemplar
Winter Warriors (1997) 835 exemplar
The Swords of Night and Day (2004) 795 exemplar
Ravenheart (2001) 777 exemplar
Wolf in Shadow (1987) 749 exemplar
Fall of Kings (2007) 740 exemplar
Stormryttaren (2002) 729 exemplar
Dark Moon (1996) 682 exemplar
Ghost King (1988) — Författare — 674 exemplar
Lion of Macedon (1990) 666 exemplar
Knights of Dark Renown (1989) 661 exemplar
Echoes of the Great Song (1997) 622 exemplar
Last Sword of Power (1988) 613 exemplar
Morningstar (1992) 598 exemplar
The Last Guardian (1989) 557 exemplar
Ironhand's Daughter (1995) 544 exemplar
Dark Prince (1991) 514 exemplar
Bloodstone (1994) 482 exemplar
The Hawk Eternal (1995) 459 exemplar
The Lion of Macedon (1/4) (1991) 40 exemplar
The Lion of Macedon (2/4) (1991) 33 exemplar
The Lion of Macedon (3/4) (1991) 32 exemplar
The Lion of Macedon (4/4) (2000) 31 exemplar
Rhyming Rings (2017) 29 exemplar
White Knight/Black Swan (1993) 24 exemplar
Wolf in Shadow [Graphic novel] (1994) 22 exemplar
Legends of the Drenai (1991) 18 exemplar
Joost: The Man in the Mirror (2009) 7 exemplar
The Lion of Macedon (2/3) (2000) 6 exemplar
The Lion of Macedon (1/3) (2000) 5 exemplar
The Lion of Macedon (3/3) (2000) 5 exemplar
Troie - Édition collector (2018) 4 exemplar
Ravenheart [and] Stormrider (2013) 4 exemplar
Jon Shannow - L'Intégrale (2022) 2 exemplar
Le lion de Macédoine t.2 (2010) 2 exemplar
Hajnalcsillag 1 exemplar
Ironhangs daughter 1 exemplar
Le Masque de la Mort (2019) 1 exemplar
The Lost Crown 1 exemplar

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Medlemmar

Recensioner

I obtained this book as it had good reviews, and I am reading quite a few retellings of the Trojan War and Greek mythology in general. Unfortunately I found it a bit disappointing. The characters are for the most part not well delineated. The male heroes are rugged men of action, dark and brooding etc, apart from Hektor who appears at the end of the story and is a giant of a man, unbeatable in battle, and coming across more as a 'hale fellow well-met' type but just as cliched. The only surprise is Priam: much more physically vigorous than usually portrayed and a sexual predator, who not only forces himself on slaves but insists on a kind of droit du seigneur with the wives of his sons. He also enjoys humiliating people in other ways, especially family members, and has various members of his family executed.

The character I liked best was Odysseus who is interestingly portrayed as a larger than life raconteur - the various iconic stories of the Odyssey are tall tales he invented - although with a lethal edge underneath the bonhomie. I also liked Andromache, who is a crack shot with the more powerful Phyrgian bow, having spent a few years as a priestess of Thera before her sister died, and who is sent to Troy to marry Hektor in her place. She is the only one with the guts to stand up to Priam. But both characters play a relatively minor part.

The story veers around a lot, taking up some characters which the reader might be justified in thinking would be a main part of the story and then dropping them. For example, it starts with Gershom, shipwrecked at sea, but although his real identity is later revealed, he remains a bit part in the story so it's an odd choice to spend so much time in his viewpoint early on. Another character is deftly sketched but is soon horribly killed off, and it seems was only there to act as a catalyst for Helikaon, the main male character, to go off the rails and commit an atrocity to avenge him. Similarly, a bedfellow of Helikaon (for some reason the alternative name for Aeneas) appears early on in the book but is then dropped because she lives in Kypros which is not the setting for the rest of the novel.

The author developed the Mediterranean culture quite well, though with the focus always on the warlike aspects. I wasn't convinced by the side references to Ancient Egypt though: if the version of Troy is the one that fell in 1300 BC (I consulted the Wikipedia article after finishing the novel), since the later ones showed gradual decline and no indication of a prestigious ruling class etc, the Prince Rameses mentioned must be Rameses II otherwise known as Rameses the Great. Despite the references to killing slaves to bury them with Egyptian Kings, that practice had ceased centuries before, and the workmen who built the royal tombs were respected craftspeople who had their own village which has been excavated. Similarly, Ancient Egypt granted more legal and social freedoms to women than most other Middle Eastern countries of the period so I found the references in Gershom's backstory to be anachronistic.

The title is a bit odd: I think it stems from a child mistaking Helikaon for Apollo early on. At some point, he is called that but I can't remember if he ever fires a bow and the title almost fits Andromache, who does something heroic using her bow, much better.

For me this was a slow read: I would read a chapter then set it aside to read something else. It took me a lot longer to get through than any other book during the period and left me with no desire to read the rest of the trilogy. So for all these reasons, for me this was only an OK 2 stars.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
kitsune_reader | 26 andra recensioner | Nov 23, 2023 |
DNF at like 72%

Fun world, interesting magic, but a super plain plot.

Also the book is just overtly sexiest. I can’t comprehend someone thinking that every females character arc ending in boosting up the main character at their own detriment was good writing…
 
Flaggad
CasualShino | 10 andra recensioner | Jun 2, 2023 |
I kept hearing how good and seminal this book was, but also kept putting it aside in my Tbr list because i feared it would feel dated. And it's true. It is a great book and it does feel really dated.
 
Flaggad
milosdumbraci | 45 andra recensioner | May 5, 2023 |
Tells of the political maneuvering and warfare tactics of ancient Greek, though the eyes of one of its finest generals. The first half of the book builds the protagonist, then jumps ahead to introduce a second protagonist in the latter half. Both halves together really just set the stage for the second book in the series "Dark Prince". The adventures and relationships individually are fine, and the material is well researched, but the whole tome reads more as positioning for things to come.
½
 
Flaggad
CapusCorvax | 8 andra recensioner | Apr 17, 2023 |

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Associerade författare

Fangorn Cover artist, Illustrator
Luis Royo Cover artist
Bob Warner Cover artist
John Bolton Cover artist
John Picacio Cover artist
Mike Posen Cover artist
Sean Barrett Narrator
Mark Harrison Cover artist
Larry Rostant Cover artist
Jerry Tiritilli Cover artist
John Howe Cover artist
Craig Howell Cover artist
John Ennis Cover artist
Júlia Máyer Translator
Geoff Taylor Cover artist
Peter Kenny Narrator
Gerry Grace Cover artist
Christian McGrath Cover artist
Les Edwards Cover artist
Jon Sullivan Cover artist
Irmhild Seeland Translator
Tom Stimpson Cover artist
Ciruelo Cabral Cover artist
Dominic Lavery Cover artist

Statistik

Verk
90
Medlemmar
27,224
Popularitet
#757
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
294
ISBN
706
Språk
15
Favoritmärkt
108

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