Ironhand's Daughter

I consider this book special within the library of David Gemmell novels. One thing (rather obviously) that makes it special is the fact that the main character is a woman. This is not to say that David Gemmell does not have strong, female characters in his other novels. He does. And plenty of them. However, Sigarni IS Ironhand's Daughter, she is not just a character that other heroes meet as part of their travels. Sigarni, like most great Gemmell characters, is a flawed character. Initially, she can appear arrogant and rather uncaring. It is hard to develop any sympathy for her (that comes later). Strangley, some of the male characters about her are more easy to sympathise with, particularly her brave, loyal dwarf friend. It is not until something life-changing and horrific happens that one is completely swept into Sigarni's world. These early pages of the novel remind me a lot of the first third of the movie Braveheart, not only because the people are highlanders, but also the arrogance of the overlords and the apparently insurmountable odds stacked agaisnt our champion. But it does not end there, that is only the beginning. Sigarni also has to battle the prejudices of her own people, and the darkness in her own heart in order to achieve the destiny she finds herself thrust towards. There are some usual Gemmell plot tools in the book, including gates to other worlds, dimensional time travel, near-immortal wise-men, demon conjuring evil sorcerors, etc., but none of these are the main focus of the book and they only add to the complexity and enjoyability of the main storyline. I don't want to ruin the book for anyone else, so I will leave my descriptions there. Read this especially if the female characters in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novels really, really irritate you. This will refresh you and give you an appreciation of truly strong, well-rounded female fantasy characters.

While this is written well in the typical Gemmell style, this is not up to Legend or any of his other classic novels. The first book in a duology with the sequel being The Hawk Eternal. This is actually an older work by Mr. Gemmell, having been published in the U.K. back in 1995. It covers a lot of familiar ground, so if you are a fan of Gemmell, there will be nothing extremely new for you aside from having a female as the lead character. The story involves the conquered highlands people, who resemble the ancient Scottish peoples and the conquerers who are vaguely Roman. The story has the usual fighting, a smattering of magic, prophecies and alternate worlds all thrown into 347 pages. The only real disappointment with the book is the final battle. I always love the great big battles of Gemmell's stories. This one however was wrapped up really quickly and it was not as enjoyable as others. On the plus side, Gemmell does turn Sigarni from an unlikebale character at the start of the book to one you can feel genuine compassion for by the end. I will pick up the second book to see how all the pieces fall into place. If you are new to Gemmell, don't start with this one.