Recommendation: Why would you bother
Where to read: On a comfortable leather couch with a plaid blanket
Read with: Talisker
In brief: It’s fine, it’s not great, the cynical attitude towards politics is rather delightful but the lacklustre characterisation is a bit of a downer
Stormrider – David Gemmell
I saw this in a bookshop a decade and a half ago and, being concussed, finally read it. Honestly, it’s pretty meh. If you’re in the mood for fantasy,Eddings is funnier, Feist is more interesting, Pratchett is wittier, Jordan is more epic, Martin is grittier and Tolkien is just generally better in every way. I will give Gemmell points for political cynicism but he’s not exactly alone in this quality; it’s pretty much par for the course in modern fantasy.
The fun part is the pseudo-Scottish Rigante highlanders but even that loses its novelty after a while. I should acknowledge that this is the third novel in the series but I certainly didn’t feel like I was missing much. The lack of character development across the one novel gives me a level of comfort in asserting that it probably wasn’t great in the other two.
Bookshelves & Bourbon 