Showing results by author "David Gemmell" in All Categories

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.

The final story of Waylander, available in audio for the first time. Thousands of years ago, the city of Kuan Hador - a place steeped in evil - was defeated by a vast army of mystic warriors, the enemy banished beyond the gateway between worlds. Now, in the Duchy of Kydor, 2,000 miles from the lands of the Drenai, icy mists begin to form around the ruins of Kuan Hador. Awesome beasts stalk the hills and forests. The spells are fading, the days of blood drawing nearer.

Eight hundred years have passed since King Connavar of the Rigante and his bastard son, Bane, defeated the invading army of Stone. In that time, Connavar has become a legend, and the Rigante have lost the freedom so many gave their lives to preserve. A conquered people, they live and die under the iron rule of the Varlish, their culture all but destroyed.

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.

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.

The prophecy was clear. Upon the death of three kings, the world will be plunged into chaos, and all the cast-out demons of history will return to bring blood and horror to the world. Two of the kings are dead. The third, about to be born, is hunted by the Demon Riders of the Krayakin, Lords of the Undead. All the terrifying forces of evil range against a pregnant queen at bay in a haunted forest. But she is not alone. Three warriors stand with her, the last remnants of the once proud Drenai army.

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.

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.

It is 300 years since the world toppled on its axis and civilisation was destroyed. In this savagely reshaped world ruled by brigands and war makers, a rider seeks a lost city. Pursuing a dream to calm the violence in his soul, Jon Shannow, the brigand slayer, desires only peace. But from the Plague Lands emerges a fresh terror. The Lord of the Pit and his hell-born army seek to plunge mankind into a new demonic era. Seemingly invincible, they make a fatal mistake: they take Shannow's woman for blood sacrifice.

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?

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.

The Drenai King is dead - murdered by a ruthless assassin. Enemy troops swarm into Drenai lands. Their orders are simple - kill every man, woman and child. But there is hope. Stalked by men who act like beasts and beasts that walk like men, the warrior Waylander must journey into the shadow-haunted lands of the Nadir to find the legendary Armour of Bronze. With this he can turn the tide. But can he be trusted? For he is Waylander the Slayer. The traitor who killed the King...

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....

Centuries after Connavar's triumphant battles against the invading army of Stone gained the Rigante their freedom, the clan finds itself oppressed once again. Magic that once flourished has been all but snuffed out. The Varlish king and his barons have stolen Rigante lands and robbed the people of their culture and liberty. From the Rigante's former seat of power the black-hearted Moidart rules; only in the north are the clansmen free.

A country in desperate need of heroes. Angostin invaders surge through the Highlands, laying waste to everything in their path. Darkness follows in their wake as a mad necromancer resurrects the eons-dead Vampyre Kings. Only the bandit Jarek Mace, and the magicker and bard Owen Odell, have the courage to fight the Angostins and the undead. Whispers soon spread that Mace is the legendary Morningstar, a saviour who will protect his country in its hour of need. Yet Mace seems nothing more than a thief and a liar.

A century has passed since the heroic defence of Dros Delnoch. But the people of the Drenai face a new terror: a mad emperor kept in power by two forces of unsurpassed evil. The Joinings are werebeasts of awesome power. The Dark Templars are warrior-priests whose fighting skills are without equal. Against them the Drenai face certain defeat. One man, an outsider hated by the Drenai for his Nadir blood and despised by the Nadir for his Drenai ancestry, sets out to bring down the emperor.

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.

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.

Born in the storm that doomed his father, Connavar grows to manhood among the mist-covered mountains of Caer Druagh, where the Rigante tribe dwell in harmony with the land and its gods. But beyond the border, across the water, an evil force is gathering strength, an unstoppable force that will change the world beyond all recognition. Haunted by malevolent spirits and hunted by evil men, Connavar sets out on a spectacular mission to save his people.

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.