The Swords of Night and Day: A Novel of Druss the Legend and Skilgannon the Damned (Drenai Saga: The Damned)

First of all, I really liked this book and I was excited to see it finally out.The two major drawbacks with this book are repetative phrases and a lack of really good battle sequences. Gemmell has a habit of finding one description and sticking to it. In White Wolf, it was 'spinning on heels'. In the Swords of Night and Day, the future must be a cold and frightening place. EVERYONE is shivering. This might become some sort of drinking game. As for battles...I think the big climax was two pages. Seemed like a lot of build-up for something not so entertaining. The journey was well worth reading but the ending? I expected a little more. I was, however, satisfied. And now I'm anticipating the next Skilgannon story!What I really liked: The characters are so in-depth. No one else has mentioned him but I really liked Decado. He's a madman, a psychopath, whatever, Instead of giving him just this one personality, Gemmell lets him fly off the pages alongside Skilgannon, who is by far one of my favorite Gemmell characters. With Gemmell, you know who these people are and you can relate to them. I'm amazed he doesn't have a bigger following. I read his books and think they would make fantastic movies.Read this book! You will not be disappointed, Gemmell fan or not.

I truly enjoyed this book, as I have every Gemmell novel since I read Legend when it was first printed.I did want to mention something from the other reviews. Someone said this was the 11th novel in the "Drenai series". I would just like to point out that each book stands alone, and while you get more out of them reading them all, you can start this novel and finish it without thinking you've missed anything.You can also read them "out of order" because of this, and I don't think you'd find any real "spoilers".Hope this helps

David Gemmell has done it again. All of Gemmell's books are formulaic; however, that does not take away from the power of his message. Gemmell is the master of the archetypal, heroes journey story, and his characterizations and deep insight into the human condition always make his books memorable and lead the reader to examine the nature of evil, heroism, and the dark and light sides within their own being.Skilgannon has been resurrected after 1,000 years. We learn that he has been fighting demons in the void (similar to the Catholic Purgatory). He has returned to fulfill a prophecy that he will destroy the Eternal...an old foe/lover from a thousand years ago.As always, Gemmell's characters are never one thing; never one dimensional. The truly evil are capable of the highest good, and those that appear without flaw are shown to be anything but.For Gemmell fans, there are no big surprises in "Swords of Night and Day", but both new readers and lifelong fans will come away entertained and as always somewhat enlightened concerning the nature of man and his place in the Universe.This book is worth every dime.

The Swords of Night and Day is the eleventh novel in the Drenai Tales series, following White Wolf. A thousand years before, Skilgannon the Damned had led three hundred of his Silver Hawk cavalry in a flank attack on the invading Zharn tribesmen and slew their king in battle. While the invaders were driven back, none of Skilgannon's force survived. After the battle, Ustarte the priestess and prophet acquired his body and hid it in a buried tomb.In this novel, Skilgannon has been resurrected, his body reborn and his soul retrieved from the Void and implanted in the new body. At first he was unable to recall anything of his previous life, but the memories soon started returning in a haphazard sequence. Familiar items would trigger whole strings of memories. First came memories of his death, then he identifies a locket as his and remembers the name of his wife. Next he recalls Druss the Legend.The resurrection has been accomplished by Landis Khan with the help of the empath Gamal. They have found Skilgannon's real tomb, with his bones inside. The tomb also contained the Swords of Night and Day, a locket containing bone and hair of Druss the Legend, and Druss's axe. Landis has also resurrected the body of Druss, but his soul is not available.Landis has brought Skilgannon back to life to end the tyranny of the Eternal, the reborn of Queen Jianna. Landis has emissaries from the Eternal, Unwallis and Decado, as guests and introduces Skilgannon to them as his nephew Callan. Later he sends Skilgannon to Harad, the reborn of Druss, and they take a trip through the hills. While they are gone, Decado kills Landis and his Jiamads (mass produced Joinings) kill many of the servants and drive the others to the hills.Askari is a reborn of Jianna, although she is not aware of it, and the Eternal has sent troops to recover her for use as a replacement body. Although she is not there when the troops arrive, she soon discovers the invasion and ambushes the Jiamads. Her friend Stavut the trader has brought her a new recurve bow and she uses it to shoot the invaders from far away and then heads for the hills. Stavut thinks Askari is crazy, but follows her into the hills; he is not about to stick around and try to explain himself to the angry Jiamads. Skilgannon and Harad counterattack the Jiamads in the village and kill the officers. They see Askari ambush the Jiamads and watch the Jiamads chase after her. They track down the Jiamads and attack them from the rear as they storm the hiding place of Askari and Stavut. Rather than fighting to the death, Skilgannon negotiates a cease fire with the Jiamads and they leave after promising to not attack any more humans.Later Stavut becomes the Pack leader of those Jiamads who survive the attack on Askari and himself. As more Jiamads show up, Stavut adds them to the Pack. When Stavut joins Skilgannon and others in defending the passes from the Eternal's forces, his Pack insists on following him into battl