The Swords of Night and Day

Starred review from March 8, 2004
In this engrossing science fantasy, the latest in British author Gemmell's long-running Drenai series (White Wolf
, etc.), 1,000 years have passed since the age of the heroic sword fighter, Skilgannon. A priestly class has reawakened ancient technology that allows them to prolong life indefinitely, create lycanthropic man-beast combinations called Jiamads and fashion magical weapons such as the two legendary blades Skilgannon once carried, the Swords of Night and Day. The greatest of the priests, Landis Khan, brings Skilgannon back to life in order to fight against the arrayed armies of another of Landis's resurrections, the empress Eternal—aka Queen Jianna, Skilgannon's former lover and nemesis. Druss the Legend, the ax-fighter friend of Skilgannon from the past, has also been brought back in body. Skilgannon and Harad, the clone of Druss, join forces with Askari, a clone of Jianna, and various temporal locals, in a fight against the Eternal's Mongol-like hordes of were-creatures and ravaging soldiers. Though the story brims with standard swordplay and unremarkable battle sequences, the puzzling out of what a possessed sword might actually be (a nanotech-based artificial intelligence?), or how resurrection works (bio-engineered cloning?) provides delightful diversion and should make this one popular with idea-starved fantasy readers.

March 15, 2004
In the latest of the prolific Gemmell's tales of the Drenai--a direct sequel to " White Wolf" (2002)--the half-animal, half-human creations known as the Joinings stalk the land, guided by their conquest-mad sorceress mistress, the Eternal, and they and their leader are again well developed and more than adequately terrifying. Various ancient champions also return for this volume, including Druss, who has a new comrade in arms, Skilgannon the Damned, who has been dead for a thousand years. What with the magical swords these two Barbarossa-like figures wield, the already fast and furious action get ratcheted up to virtually nonstop for more than two-thirds of the book. With that much action, Gemmell is guaranteed to hold readers, despite his not-always-top-flight world building and sometimes less-than-lucid prose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)