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Winter Warriors

Drenai Series

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Winter Warriors

By: David Gemmell
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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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. Three old men, ancient heroes, discarded by the king: Nogusta the Swordsman, Kebra the Bowman, and the hulking fighter, Bison. The fate of empires rests on their fading skills as they journey through a tormented world on a perilous quest to save the unborn king.

©2017 David Gemmell (P)2017 Orion Publishing Group Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Royalty Science Fiction Warrior Scary
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An excellent adventure, the narrator read beautifully with a gravelly voice and imbued the story with great atmosphere.

A ripping yarn.

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Fantastic book narrated perfectly, audio books don't come much better, if you love Gemmell you'll really enjoy this version.

One of his best works

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David Gemmel never wrote a bad story but this is one of his best

Excellent Story

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I loved every minute of this book just like all the other he wrote. I wish he was around to make more in the drenai series. The characters become so personal and have such depth! I share gemmels optimistic view of humanity.

The personal storytelling and the masterful performance of the narrator.

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Winter Warriors will feel instantly familiar to anyone who has ever read a David Gemmell book, particularly one in the Drenai series. Once again we have the aging warrior who is also a reluctant hero-archetype that Gemmell so readily relies upon.

Winter Warriors is different though.

This time there's three of them.

You might think this would make the story even more formulaic, but that's not the case as the writing and characterisation are strong. In fact, it's some of Gemmell's best work in that department.

While our grizzled warriors all share certain traits, we're not dealing with three Druss the Legends™ here. All of them are concerned about their failing physicality and about a future without soldiering, but that's where the similarities end. Even superficially they're quite different; Nogusta the swordsman, Kebra the archer, and Bison the wrestler. They have nicely contrasting personalities and you get the sense that they know each other well; there's a real sense of camaraderie with this geriatric band of brothers. Nogusta and Kebra are especially well fleshed out, and both are wrestling with the demons of their past whilst tackling the more literal ones in the present. Bison is a little more simple minded and his motivations are more straightforward, but he's no less likeable for it.

There's also a large cast of side characters, but they too are mostly well written and likeable. A lot of minor characters suffer in Gemmell's books as they receive little page-time and lack characterisation. Luckily the vast majority of the characters in Winter Warriors get sizeable povs to flesh them out and make us care. Even the primary villains of the story, literal Demons, get the pov treatment, which humanises* them to some degree. There are a couple of weak links but mostly I enjoyed my time with the characters and was bothered by their deaths**.

The plot itself is strong and features demonic sacrifice, prophecy, magic, undead warriors, a hulking monster, possession, brotherhood, battles and a princess. There's elements of the Western in Winter Warriors, as the three old men go on one last mission; escort a princess through various dangers to an abandoned city where we have our showdown. There's also a wonderful section early on that almost slips from fantasy to outright horror, as one of our characters navigates a city at night that is full of possessed and murderous citizens. The fantastical elements are also welcome here, a nice change to the fairly generic source priests that feature in some of the other Drenai books. There's even mention of Dryads, which is nice. Still no dragons, although Winter Warriors comes close.

There's a lot to like here, with a strong story, likeable characters and the familiar Gemmell themes of "Love, friendship, honour, courage and redemption". Winter Warriors has a depth and creativity that is lacking in some of the authors earlier work. The book even touches on racism at points, for you see, one of our heroes was a black man all along. With cool blue eyes no less.

8/10

*Demonises isn't quite right
**There are a few and some are rather shocking

One of his best

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