Now that, my friends, is a book cover. I love great art on the cover of a novel and, in my mind, Winter Warriors certainly falls into that category. If being picky I would have the bird removed but as it has a significance in the story it's fine where it is.Winter Warriors is the tale of three ageing warriors who are thrust to the forefront of a fight against demonic forces. Those forces, to be unleashed upon the world in all their evil fury, need the sacrificial blood of three kings. The first two come easily but the third is who the story revolves around.The third king is actually heir to the throne as he is yet to be born when the novel begins. The three warriors Nogusta who is a great swordsman, Kebra the Bowman and Bison the giant vow to protect the unborn child and his mother, the queen, with their lives. Do they succeed?As any regular visitors to my blog know I love David Gemmell's work. This novel was no exception and it is of course filled with all of Gemmell's hallmarks such as main characters who are easy to relate to, great dialogue, heroic deeds, joy and despair. Yes, despair. He always gets me with the despair and it's very rare I read a Gemmell novel without tears welling up in my eyes at one point or another. It takes a great talent to get me emotionally invested in a novel and great talent is something the author certainly had. I say "had" in the past tense as David Gemmell passed away back in 2006.If you like a supernatural element in your novels then you will find magic, sorcery, demons and spiritual possession within these pages. The story itself would not have worked anywhere near as well without those supernatural elements and so it forms the backbone of the story itself.As much as I loved Winter Warriors I wasn't reading it with blinkers on and there were a few things I didn't like. Firstly, it took a while for the story to drag me in as it focused too much on building up the characters at the beginning - around the first quarter of the book was used to lay the foundation of the story. That paid off in the end when the story reached a climax and I didn't know who was going to die or who was going to survive but the beginning didn't need to be as fleshed out as much as it was. Also, the main city is called Usa, as in oo-sar, but due to conditioning I read it as the name of the country. Perhaps that can be seen as the fault of the reader but I think most people seeing Usa would read it as the abbreviation for United States of America and, for me at least, that kept pulling me out of the story whenever I read it.Overall though this was a magical tale of great quality and wonderful story telling. It was the type of book that left me sad once it had ended and made it difficult to start reading something new.
Glad to hear such a good review-- I've seen his books around, but never got around to trying them. I've been working on Steven Erickson's work now, which is nice, but drags a bit-- enormously long, and after 150+ pages the threads of the plot are still just being pulled together.
What do You think about Winter Warriors (2000)?
The book has a theme of ageing heroes who despite all odds still rise to the challenge. Nogusta put me in mind of Wesley Snipes in the Blade films. Yet another Gemmell page turner.
—Iceman9t9
Like the majority of David Gemmell's books, I originally read this one when I was a kid. It instantly became one of my favorite Gemmell books behind Legend, Waylander, and a few others. After re-reading this book, however, I have to wonder whether this book may have actually been his masterpiece.Set a couple centuries past the time of Druss, 3 elderly soldiers are being dismissed from the army due to their age. Meanwhile, a demon is trying to open a gateway between the two worlds. The final step is the sacrifice of the unborn king. The heavily pregnant queen falls into the protection of the aging heroes. They must protect her from enemies both natural and unnatural.It's a great book with many of the Gemmell trademarks. The characters are deep and engaging, and the story moves at a crisp pace. If you have enjoyed his other books in the past, this one will be no exception.
—Max
I don't think there is another writer that can bring this amount of vivid adventure into one small book and make it just as epic as if it were a three-book series. Winter Warriors was a delight to read (for the second time). Each character only had so many pages for an introduction, but damn me straight to hell if it wasn't enough to make me believe in them. For some reason I haven't quite figured out yet Gemmell had the talent of telling stories that would require three or more books from most writers, and compress this to the bare essentials… I am amazed every time I read one of these stand-alone novels by Gemmell…
—Dave van der Kuyp
