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Saturday 9 March 2013

BOOK REVIEW: The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend(David Gemmell)

Book: The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend

Author: David Gemmell

Rating: 8/10


Druss , the most famous and dreaded of Drenai's heroes.
In this book David Gemmell tells the story of how he became a Legend.


Druss is a woodcutter in a small frontier town, married to a girl called Rowena. He is the Grandson of the Murderer Bardan, and him and his father had spent years travelling from place to place trying to escape from the dark shadow he cast.

He is not liked by the other villagers and is in trouble for breaking a mans jaw, But he is the best axeman in the area.

He was working when raiders hit the village. His father and the others put up a fight but to no avail, they are slaughtered and the women taken.
Druss returns in time to ear his father's last words and to find Snaga-The Sender.

A armed rider rides in and Druss goes to meet him, he is Shadak the Hunter, a champion swordsman who is also hunting the bandits and they join forces.

Sneaking into the raiders camp seems like a suicide mission, it's 2 vs 40, but they reach the women and free thme without anyone raising the alarm, as the women escape Shadak enters the leaders tent, where the leader tricks him and ties him up.
Then Druss charges in stampeding horses before fighting his way through the bandits.

The Bandits run from him and their leader is killed, But Rowena is already gone, taken ahead to Mashrapur, for she has the Talent and will fetch a great price.

The book then details all of Druss's adventures on his quest to find Rowena. Following the trail to Ventria where he joins the Immortals of Gorben. Slaying the Chaos Beast and much more until we reach the Battle of Skeln pass.





This book details many of Druss's legendary battles and the story that made him a Legend. It is a fantastic book But I think you really should read Legend first as that will hint at things from this book and lead to even more enjoyment as Gemmell explains Druss's early life.
But it's a very good read for a Drenai series fan such as I.

Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer


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Monday 14 January 2013

Message from Devonian Book Reviewer: Happy New Year

Hello to all my Readers
And a (late) HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope you're all well.

So the world didn't end on December 21st, whilst that's probably a good thing to most people, I can't help but feel a little disappointed with the anti-climax....

So 2013 is here and I hope things start looking up for the world as the last few years haven't exactly been great have they?

And you'll all hopefully be pleased to hear I've made a resolution to try and review more this year
(Although I fear, as with many resolutions, this one may fail)

So here's to 2013!
And a big thank you to all of you who read this even when I haven't posted for a while :)

Once again Happy New Year,
The Devonian Book Reviewer

Wednesday 7 November 2012

BOOK REVIEW: Rangers Apprentice: The Siege of Macindaw (John Flanagan)

Book: The Siege of Macindaw

Author:  John Flanagan

Rating: 6.75/10

(Firstly apologies for the long gap of no posting, this was meant to post automatically around the middle of October but didn't and I've been very busy)


This book is the sixth of John Flanagan's "Rangers Apprentice" series, which has some of the most popular books according to the views on other reviews of books 1-5.


The story continues on from Book 5 "Sorcerer in the North" which you must read before this one, But to briefly sum up
After being sent North to investigate rumours of a Sorcerer in the border fief of Norgate Will and his friend Alyss become caught up in an attempt to overthrow the Lord of castle Macindaw .by the traitor Keren. Orman the castle lord is poisoned and he and Will flee Castle Macindaw and refuge in the woods of the sorcerer Malakalam, who is in fact just a Healer called Malcolm.


So this Book, for starters the title doesn't leave much hidden really providing you read book 5 :)
Will must Discover Keren's plans,rescue Alyss and retake the castle.

Oh and they only have a few weeks before an army from Picta invade.

This brings up a whole host of problems, which is only slightly solved by the discovery of Gundar and his crew who ran aground on Norgate's coast on their journey home after "visiting" Seacliff.

And of course where would Will be without help from "Kicker and his big friend"

But they still find themselves with the problem of needing to assault a castle with only 27 men.

With only Will's ingenuity, Horace's strength and some 'black magic' from Malcolm ,they and their crew must prevail or Araluen will be torn apart by war!





I do like this book but I found myself getting slightly bored in places where there were  periods with not much happening or that was very predictable, however it is a good book and still worth reading, as is the whole series. It does conclude this 2 book section of the series well though.



Hope you found this review helpful,and apologies for the wait an if this seems short.
The Devonian Book Reviewer


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