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Ghost King (1995)

Ghost King (1995)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.89 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0345379020 (ISBN13: 9780345379023)
Language
English
Publisher
del rey

About book Ghost King (1995)

http://panopticonitalia.blogspot.it/2...We make a brief introduction.Also today I am talking about a novel by David Gemmell. You'll probably be tired of reading articles on this one author, but unfortunately I can not do anything, I am fond of his narrative style, and you'll have to endure in spite of this and other post dedicated to it. I'm sorry, but the heart can not control.We come to the book.The author in this novel takes up the Breton Cycle, radically changing the events related to it and mixing it with other myths, like the Greek, Norse and Sumerians. The result, in my opinion is great. The trick that uses David Gemmell is time travel to allow players to move from one historical period to another, and so that is staged some heroes of antiquity, like Achilles and Gilgamesh. The tool that allows these trips is the Stone of Sipstrassi, an object from the arcane powers, however, already present in the saga of Parmenion.The setting is that of England in the period when the Romans have decided to abandon the island, around 410 AD about. David Gemmell part from these historical facts, imagining a story in which Maximus Aurelius, King of the Britons, is at war with the people of the Saxons and Brigante for dominance of England. In this novel, however, the protagonist is not the classic hero wiry, but the young cowardly Thuro, son of Maximus Aurelius, who, after a hard training period, will become Uther Pendragon.The plot is very intricate Also, as has been said before, the fact that the various myths and legends are inserted into the narrative. As usual, the good Gemmell featuring characters with ambiguous psychological profiles that do not allow you to understand until the end if it has to do with a good or an evil.In the King of Ghosts, as in other works gemmelliane (see The Black Prince), from a real world (that of Britain in 410 AD), the characters are catapulted into the parallel world-imagery, where magic is part of normality, as well as the extraordinary creatures (the Ator, a dragon and a man bear), although we are far from cliché Tolkeniani, typical of a High fantasy.Obviously there are the battles, described in detail, and even the fierce fighting, who can always enhance the reader.In conclusion, I think this is a great novel for those who wish to venture into an alternative reading of the Breton Cycle and however for all those who love the books of David Gemmell.

GHOST KING is the first in a long-running series of Gemmell books, the 'Stones of Power' books as opposed to the 'Drenai' saga. I knew it was a slim book and would be one I read very quickly. I also knew I would enjoy it a lot, superficially at least.The thing about being a Gemmell fan is the joy of knowing what to expect. Most of the author's books are written to a specific formula. There will be rampaging, unstoppable armies ravaging a rural landscape. On their side will be witches and wizards, able to summon evil were-creatures and monstrous beasts. In this book, for instance, are sinister vampire types, hulking feral cats, a half-human bear and a few werewolves thrown in for good measure.Pitted against them will be unlikely heroes. Most don't see themselves as heroes. Some are, in fact, villains, only to redeem themselves in surprising twists. There will be awkward love affairs and a big cast list, many of whom will bite the dust before the novel's climax.There will also be standing stones which are able to teleport characters to different dimensions, one of which is usually known as the 'Void', an eerie, Hellish landscape full of the stuff of twisted nightmares.GHOST KING plays to type. The influences on this are wide ranging. It's fantasy, but loosely based on a post-Roman Britain at the mercy of barbarian hordes. Some of the characters are from Arthurian legend. Others seem to be immortals, who have lived the lives of many heroes, a lot of them Greek. The pacing is super fast and despite the plethora of armies, characters and dimensions, I kept track of everything that was going on. The action and battle scenes are also typically fine and strongly written.So, once again, no surprises in this book, just solid, old-fashioned escapism. I'll be on the look out for the sequel.

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Ghost King opened with a character named Gwalchmai, and I muttered to myself, “What’s he doing here? He was in Ironhand’s Daughter!” I read on, expecting some clever twist that would explain the two Gwalchmais were really one person... but the twist never came. Reusing a name is a huge turn-off when there’s no pay-off. That aside, Ghost King was quite a good read, a few notches above Ironhand’s Daughter in terms of readabiltyI finished it and started the sequel, “Last Sword of Power”.By now I've read most Gemmell novels, and yet still some things puzzle me...[MILD SPOILER ALERT] The "Witch Queen" who is the main adversary in Ghost King is also mentioned in Ironhand's Daughter as someone who came through a portal from another dimension in the past. She is also (if memory serves) a character in White Wolf - the first Damned novel by Gemmell. Whether this is the same character or not, I have no idea, but I'm inclined to go with the "Gwalchmai Paradox" in that there is no relation but merely a reused name.) [END OF SPOILER]I wouldn't say the two Stones of Power novels are as good as the other three Sipstrassi books about the Jerusalem Man, but Ghost King + Last Sword are definitely worth reading. Don't expect to love them like you might a Drenai novel, but equally they won't leave you feeling empty like Ironhand's Daughter, Echoes of the Great Song, or Dark Moon.The bottom line is that Ghost KIng is a page-turner. Once you've started, it won't be long before you finish it and move on to the sequel.
—Scott Kaelen

I was a huge fan of David Gemmell a few years ago, but then stopped reading his books so often because I was running out of them and I didn't want to stop having new books of his to read. However, over New Year I decided I was in the mood for some nostalgia so collected this book from my shelf and finished it within a couple of days. It was exactly as fantastic as I remember.David Gemmell's writing is not going to shatter your world, it is functional and definitely engrossing, but nothing more than that. However, everything else in his books manages to be astoundingly good. The plot is compelling, here excellently weaving classical history with Gemmell's own world(s), and with enough twists and turns that I never quite knew what to expect. The world is fascinating and I really want to read the sequel to find more about it. Best of all are the characters, who are the real reason I love Gemmell's books so much. They have all the depth and moral complexity of George R. R. Martin's whilst at the same time there are still clear heroes and villains who you root for. Quite how Gemmell pulls this off I'm not sure, but it works astonishingly well for me. Read it!
—Alex Jones

Okay, generally I find Gemmell’s books to be fairly fun; standard fantasy, with enough interesting characters, twists or references to keep me interested. And you’d think this one would be especially so, since it’s basically about King Arthur (albeit as a young boy). Maybe it’s the fact that this was one of the earliest of Gemmell’s books (as far as I can tell from publication dates), but it really, really didn’t work for me. There was that same moreishness about it in some ways, but I kept getting distracted by the tone, which bounced all over the place. Serious teenage crushes to slightly ridiculed slave/master relationships in a single bound… It’s great that there’s a disabled protagonist. It’s great that in that sex scene between him and the slave, she feels that she has control over the situation.It’s less great that one encounter with the maimed comic relief hero is enough to cure her of her fears and trauma about rape, but that’s a personal bugbear of mine. One good experience doesn’t cancel out one bad experience, people! It’s something like a one-to-five ratio, more like!Anyway, maybe it was that irreverent tone that got to me. The liberal mixing of mythologies (a guy was a proto-Arthur figure, he was also Ares, there might be a link intended with Cú Chulainn, throw in some Babylonian mythology too, and a dollop of Gemmell’s own mythology as well…) really didn’t work: it’s not that I’m fundamentally opposed to it (hell, if you dig into it, that’s exactly what J.R.R. Tolkien did), but it didn’t work. It felt thrown together.I’m not gonna read the sequel; it’s due back at the library anyway, and may the next borrower have more joy of it.
—Nikki

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