Ravenheart: v.3 (The Rigante) - Softcover

Gemmell, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593044541 ISBN 13: 9780593044544

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2001

Synopsis

It is eight hundred years since the legendary King Connavar defeated the army of Stone.The Rigante are now a conquered people, living under the iron rule of the Varlish, their customs despised, their culture all but destroyed. A world that once knew magic is now choked with the black smoke of furnaces creating engines of destruction, and the secrets of the ancient gods are about to be learned, with terrible consequences. One woman knows that the fate of mankind hangs in the balance; one mystic who follows the ancient paths. She is the Wyrd of Wishing Tree Wood. To save all that lives she must find a way to bring two enemies together; two young men from different cultures. One is a Varlish nobleman, cultured and skilled, the other a Rigante outlaw, as savage and tough as the land that birthed him. They have nothing in common, save a secret that neither shares. In both runs the blood of Connavar the King.

About this title

Review:

In Ravenheart, the time-scale of David Gemmell's novels of the Rigante, a Celt-like people living on the fringes of other, more aggressive cultures, reaches a historical period that is the fantasy equivalent of the early 18th century. The Rigante clans are oppressed by their Varlish neighbours, forbidden their traditional dress and culture; only in the hills do the old ways hold and there are plots to destroy even those strongholds by treachery. Young Kaelin is the son of a chief treacherously murdered by the Moidart, the local Varlish overlord; everyone waits to see what will become of him, especially his rowdy mentor Jaim and his cautious foster-mother Maev. What makes this such a likable book is that Gemmell is aware of the sheer complexity of the situation he has created--Kaelin's unsympathetic austere Varlish schoolteacher Alterith becomes practically a hero in his own right through an ethic of scholarship and legalism entirely alien to the Rigante among who he lives. The Moidart's son, Gaise, is a man of more honour than his father and clearly booked to be important in a sequel.--if Gemmell has been reading Walter Scott novels such as Rob Roy, it is considerably to the book's advantage.--Roz Kaveney

Review:

" Gemmell has everthing a fan of heroic fantasy could desire... passionate, cleanly written prose, imaginative plots and, above all, terrific storytelling." -- " Time Out "" Probably the finest living writer of heroic fantasy." - "Time Out"

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0593044541
• ISBN 13: 9780593044544
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 359