The Waylander Novels by David Gemmell
by Sue Marchant
The man is a legend: ruthlessly efficient and feared by friends and foes alike. Nobody knows him and nobody comes close to him. He moves through the world “like a mobile fortress”, hiding his soul and his anguish from prying eyes. But Waylander’s fortunes change when he – reluctantly – rescues a priest. The man is a mystic and soon Waylander is confronted by memories that refuse to stay in the past. One of those – the shade of a man he killed – shames him into a quest: to seek out a mystical armour and bring it back to help the country’s greatest general defeat the massing enemies. And even though there’s little chance of successfully completing the quest or of even making it back alive, Waylander accepts. What happens next is the stuff of legends … David Gemmell has a huge following all around the world and has written numerous fantasy series, their settings richly figured and drawn in great detail. He took his inspiration from Greek and Roman, Mongol and Samurai and if you know your history you may catch sudden glimpses, woven intriguingly into the narrative and questioning things you thought you knew as facts. (Aristotle as a time-travelling, meddling wizard – anyone?) I never thought I’d warm to a central figure like Waylander, but due to David Gemmell’s skill I did. Like with all Gemmell’s heros, Waylander’s character is flawed and his outlook bleak, but he’s thoroughly believable. You cannot help but rout for a man who may be a merciless killer, but who goes out of his way to rescue a stray dog, is kind to a friendless monster or takes a stand when there’s no chance of winning – just because it feels like the right thing to do. Rather than just fade away, Gemmell’s heroes prefer to go down fighting. So Waylander’s end might have been inevitable. But Gemmell had yet another ace up his sleeve. And when I read the third Waylander novel - Hero in the Shadows - I realised that Waylander's story is ultimately about redemption; that the bleakness had a sliver lining after all. The books mentioned are: Waylander Waylander II – In the Realm of the Wolf Hero in the Shadows Click here to read or post comments.
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