


Books in series

#1
Knights of Dark Renown
1989
Once the legendary knights of the Gabala defended the nine duchies. Their hearts were beautiful; their armor was beyond compare. They were greater than princes, more than men.
But they were gone, disappeared through a demon-haunted gateway between worlds. Only one held back—Manannan, whose every instinct told him to stay. Now he was the coward knight, and in torment.
Murder and black magic beset the land. Rumors circulated that the king was enchanted, changed, that his soul was dead . . . and that a reign of terror was about to begin.
Now Manannan realized he would have to face his darkest he had no choice but to ride through that dreaded gate and seek out his vanished companions.
And the secret he would learn there would tear his soul apart ...
"A sharp, distinctive medieval fantasy. Dramatic, colorful, taut." — Locus

#2
Morningstar
1992
There was nothing Jarek Mace wouldn't do for the right price—including becoming a hero.
The Angostin hordes raged over the Southern Borders. Evil sorcery ruled, and the vampyre kings lived once more. The Highland people were in much need of a great hero.
Jarek Mace needed nothing and no one—not even that bard Owen Odell, with whom he now traveled. But when Mace harassed the Angostins for his own purposes, he inadvertently aided the Highland people. And now he was being hailed as a hero, a legend, the great Morningstar returned.
But Owen Odell knew the real man behind the people's tales. Mace was an outlaw, a bandit, a heartless thief. He was no savior of the people. He was no legend. Or was he?
“It seems that every time I read a new David Gemmell novel it is better than the last—and Morningstar is no exception... The main difference between the book and the myths it draws upon is that Gemmell includes some of the less savory characters who we suspect may have been at the basis of both Robin and Arthur.”— Starburst

#3
Waylander
1986
All of Waylander's instincts had screamed at him to spurn the contract from Kaem the cruel, the killer of nations. But he had ignored them. He had made his kill. And even as he went to collect his gold, he knew that he had been betrayed.
Now the Dark Brotherhood and the hounds of chaos were hunting him, even as Kaem's armies waged war on the Drenai lands, intent on killing every man, woman, and child. The Drenai soldiers were doomed to ultimate defeat, and chaos would soon reign.
Then a strange old man told Waylander that the only way to turn the tide of battle would be for Waylander himself to retrieve the legendary Armor of Bronze from its hiding place deep within a shadow-haunted land. He would be hunted. He was certain to fail. But he must try, the old man commanded—commanded in the name of his son, the king, who had been slain by an assassin...
Waylander was the most unlikely of heroes—for he was a traitor, the Slayer who had killed the king...

#4
In the Realm of the Wolf
1992
Enter the extraordinary, action-filled world that became Legend—as the exciting Drenai adventure continues to unfold . . .
A mighty warrior and a feared assassin among the Drenai, Waylander the Slayer is now a man hunted by his own people—with a fortune in gold offered as grim reward for his murder. But this is only one of many evils closing in on Waylander and his daughter, Miriel, the beautiful and deadly Battle Queen of Kar-Barzac.
For, once separated, father and daughter face certain death as the sorcerers and demons, soldiers and shamans of three empires summon their blackest, most destructive powers in an effort to annihilate these two most gifted Drenai warriors.

#5
Hero in the Shadows
2000
Thousands of years ago the city of Kuan Hador, a place steeped in evil, was defeated by a vast army of mystic warriors, the Enemy banished beyond the Gateway between Worlds. Spells of enormous power sealed the Gateway.
Now, in the Duchy of Kydor, two thousand miles from the lands of the Drenai, icy mists begin to form around the ruins of Kuan Hador. Awesome Beasts stalk the hills and forests. The spells are fading, the days of blood drawing nearer.
Beyond the Gateway the vengeful armies of Kuan Hador await.
And where years before a host stood against the Enemy, now only a handful of warriors prepare to face it once more. Kysumu the Swordsman, last of a dying breed, Yu Yu Liang, the ditch digger, Ustarte, the Beast-Priestess, and the mysterious Waylander. Together they must solve an ancient mystery, which will bring the dead to life for a final battle outside Time. But first Waylander must find a way to kill a man who cannot die.

#6
The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend
1993
He was known as Druss. The Deathwalker. Though the blood of merciless butchers coursed through his veins, he had found a fragile peace through his love for beautiful, mystical Rowena. Then came the day when Druss returned to their village and found everyone dead—massacred by slavers who had stolen the women to sell for gold. Rowena was among the missing.
Armed with only his powerful double-bladed ax, Snaga, Druss went after Rowena. His journey would carry him from the highest thrones of power to the deepest dungeons of depravity. Along the way, he would battle savage monsters and descend into terrifying lands of black magic and demons.
Yet one thing was certain. Druss would have victory . . . or death.

#7
The Legend of Deathwalker
1996
Enter a powerful realm of legend, dark sorcery, and conquest, where the mighty Drenai warrior Druss faces his most deadly opponent . . .
Druss the Legend, the dark axman known as the Deathwalker, must join the warrior Talisman on a mission of blood and glory. Only the stolen Eyes of Alchazzar—mystic jewels of power—will save Druss' dying friend, then unite the Nadir tribes against the evil of the Gothir. Druss agrees to help look for the twin gems—hidden for centuries in the shrine of Oshikai, the Demon-bane, the Nadir's greatest hero.
It has been prophesied that with the recovery of the stones, there will come the Uniter, a magnificent fighter who will free the Nadir from brutal oppression. But Garen-Tsen, the sadistic power behind the Gothir throne, also seeks the gems. To control them, he will send five thousand men against a handful of savages, Talisman, and the one Drenai warrior.

#8
White Wolf
2003
The start of a gripping new series in the tradition of The Drenai Tales
Skilgannon the Damned had vanished from the pages of history. Following the terrible triumph at Perapolis, the General had taken the legendary Swords of Night and Day and ridden from the lands of Naashan. No-one knew where he had gone, and the assassins sent by the Witch Queen could find no trace of his passing.
Three years later, as a mob intent on murder gathers outside a distant monastery, they are faced by a single unarmed priest. In a few terrifying seconds their world is changed for ever, and word spreads across the lands of the East.
Skilgannon is back.
Now he must travel across a perilous, demon-haunted realm seeking a mysterious temple, and the ageless goddess who rules it. With assassins on his trail, and an army of murderous foes ahead, the Damned sets off on a quest to bring the dead to life. But he does not travel alone.
The man beside him is Druss the Legend.
In a world torn by war, White Wolf is a page-turning tale of love, betrayal and treachery, which examines the nature of heroism and friendship and the narrow lines that divide good from evil, redemption from damnation.

#9
Legend
1984
He is DRUSS the Legend. His skill in battle has earned him a fearsome reputation throughout the world and the stories of his life are told everywhere. But the grizzled veteran has spurned a life of fame and fortune and has retreated to the solitude of his mountain lair to await his old enemy, Death.
Meanwhile, barbarian hordes of the Nadir are on the march, conquering all before them. All that stands before them and victory is the legendary six-walled fortress of the Drenai empire, Dros Delnoch. If the fortress falls, so do the Drenai. Druss reluctantly agrees to come out of retirement. But can even Druss live up to his own legends?
Held by many to be Gemmell's most iconic work, the book is considered a classic in the heroic fantasy genre.

#10
The King Beyond the Gate
1985
A century has passed since the heroic defence of Dros Delnoch. But the people of the Drenai face a new terror: a mad emperor kept in power by two forces of unsurpassed evil. The Joinings are werebeasts of awesome power. The Dark Templars are warrior-priests whose fighting skills are without equal. Against them, the Drenai face certain defeat.
One man, an outsider hated by the Drenai for his Nadir blood, and despised by the Nadir for his Drenai ancestry, sets out to bring down the emperor. He is one man against the armies of chaos.
He is Tenaka Khan - the Prince of Shadows.

#11
Quest for Lost Heroes
1990
The Drenai stronghold had fallen. Now blood-hungry Nadir hordes spread desolation and despair across all the lands...
...even tiny Gothir, where slavers seized a young girl while the villagers looked the other way—all but the peasant boy Kiall. His unlikely rescue attempt would lead across the savage steppes and on through the Halls of Hell. The youth would face ferocious beasts, deadly warriors, and demons of the dark; he would emerge a man—or not emerge at all.
But Kiall would not face these dangers alone. Heroes out of legend joined his Chareos the Blademaster, Beltzer the Axeman, and the bowmen Finn and Maggrig. And one among their company hid a secret that could free the world of Nadir domination. That one was the Nadir Bane, the hope of the Drenai. That one was the Earl of Bronze.
Thus did a search for a stolen slave girl become a quest that would shake the very world.

#12
Winter Warriors
1997
Winged demons gather, silent and unseen, above the city of Usa, their talons long and sharp. Their purpose is clear, as is the Upon the deaths of the three kings, the demon riders of the Krayakin will become flesh, free to slake their thirst with human blood - and the stench of evil will cover the land.
Two of the kings are already dead. For the prophesy to be fulfilled, spreading carnage across the world, the Demon Lord must sacrifice the third Queen Axiana's unborn child.
When Emperor Skanda disbands his army, the pregnant queen takes flight, pursued by the Lords of the Undead. All hope lies with three ancient heroes, though discarded by the emperor, they are still Drenai Bison the giant, Kebra the bowman, and the great swordsman Nogusta - the Demon Lord's greatest foe. But will these warriors - once the best in the land - be enough to stem the tide of gruesome horror that threatens to envelop the world?

#13
The Swords of Night and Day
2004
Even in death, Skilgannon the Damned's name lives on. Now, as an ancient evil threatens to flood the Drenai heartlands in a tide of blood, he returns...
A thousand years after they fell in battle, two heroes - Druss and Skilgannon - are revered throughout the war-torn lands of the Dernai, where men and women live in abject fear of the dark sorceress known as the Eternal...
But what if the soul of one such hero could be called back from the void, his bones housed again in flesh? An ancient prophecy foretold that Skilgannon would return in his people's darkest hour. To most, this was a foolish hope. But not so to Landis Kan. Having found Skilgannon's ancient tomb, he gathers up the bones and peforms the mystic ritual.
But the reborn hero is an enigma: a young man whose warrior skills are blunted and whose memories are fragmented. This Skilgannon is a man out of time, Marooned in a world as strange to him as a dream, remote from all he knew and loved. Or nearly all. Before bringing back Skilgannon, Landis Kan had experimented upon other bone fragments found in the hero's tomb. That ritual resulted in a surly giant who possessed astounding strength but no memories. To Kan, he is a dangerous failure. To Skilgannon, this giant represents their last hope.
As ageless evil threatens to drown the Drenai lands in blood, two legendary heroes will once again lead the way to freedom.
Author

David Gemmell
Author · 39 books
David Andrew Gemmell was a bestselling British author of heroic fantasy. A former journalist and newspaper editor, Gemmell had his first work of fiction published in 1984. He went on to write over thirty novels. Best known for his debut, Legend, Gemmell's works display violence, yet also explores themes in honour, loyalty and redemption. With over one million copies sold, his work continues to sell worldwide.