{"id":2831,"date":"2010-08-27T17:49:26","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T21:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=2831"},"modified":"2010-08-28T01:55:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-28T05:55:30","slug":"waylander-by-david-gemmell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/waylander-by-david-gemmell\/","title":{"rendered":"Waylander by David Gemmell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Drenai lands have been overrun, and the Vagrian conquerors, led by Kaem and the Dark Brotherhood, are laying waste to all that lies before them. \u00a0Only the stronghold at Purdol withstands them, but unless the Drenai can rally a counterattack, all will be lost.<\/p>\n

In these trying times, a strange old man visits the assassin Waylander and urges him to go to the sacred Nadir mountain of Raboas and retrieve the legendary Armor of Bronze. \u00a0With this armor, the Drenai commander Egel can rally the army that will save the kingdom.<\/p>\n

But Waylander is a hunted man–a man of dark secrets and many enemies. \u00a0Kaem wants him dead for killing his son. \u00a0The Nadir want him dead for violating their lands. \u00a0And the Drenai want him dead for assassinating their king.<\/p>\n

I love David Gemmell. \u00a0When you pick up one of his novels, you know exactly what you’re going to get: gritty, complex characters, bloody battles, ruthless villains, and difficult moral decisions that transform even the most depraved individuals into true heroes, if only for a few moments before they die. \u00a0Waylander<\/em> is no exception.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the story behind the founding of the Thirty. \u00a0When the young Source priest named Dardalion forsakes\u00a0the pacifism in order to save the lives of his fellow countrymen, twenty nine fellow priests join him to form the band of legendary warrior monks. \u00a0This religious order goes on to play a pivotal role in some of Gemmell’s best works.<\/p>\n

Waylander himself is also an interesting, memorable character. \u00a0During the events of Waylander, <\/em>he’s basically hit rock bottom, but as he learns again what it means to love and fight for what he loves, he climbs out of that dark place.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed this book. \u00a0My only complaint is that the ending felt a little rushed. \u00a0All the plots and subplots get tied up, but some of them so abruptly that there’s little room to savor the emotional impact. \u00a0Still, the novel was quite satisfying overall. \u00a0I look forward to reading the next book in the Waylander saga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Drenai lands have been overrun, and the Vagrian conquerors, led by Kaem and the Dark Brotherhood, are laying waste to all that lies before them. \u00a0Only the stronghold at Purdol withstands them, but unless the Drenai can rally a counterattack, all will be lost. In these trying times, a strange old man visits the… Continue reading Waylander by David Gemmell<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[112,113,403,222,1005,87,361,74,86],"class_list":["post-2831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-character","tag-david-gemmell","tag-death","tag-endings","tag-heroic-fantasy","tag-heroism","tag-love","tag-plot","tag-war","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-JF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2831"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2848,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831\/revisions\/2848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}