Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf

The story

Assumes you have read Waylander, and mentions what became of some of its characters.

Ten years after the Vagrian war, the man once known as Waylander lives in the mountains of Skeln under his own name, Dakeyras. Danyal has died, and his life now centres on her grave and on his adopted daughter Miriel, eighteen, whom he has trained in bow and blade and who, to his fatherly dismay, shows no interest in marrying. The Drenai are ruled by Karnak, hero of the last war, and face fresh danger from the Gothir to the north and from Ventria across the sea.

The quiet ends when the guild of assassins accepts a contract on Dakeyras worth ten thousand in gold. He survives the first attempt and resolves to find out who paid for it, which means leaving Miriel behind. He hires Angel, a retired arena fighter he knows, to guard her and carry on her training, and rides to the Temple of the Thirty to ask Dardalion for help. The priest refuses, and the two men part badly; the only companion Dakeyras gains on the way home is an injured fighting dog he names Scar. Meanwhile a band of hired killers is working its way towards the cabin, and a swordsman called Senta turns up hoping to collect the bounty himself.

Further north, the Gothir emperor has been persuaded by his sorcerer, Zhu Chao, to wipe out the Wolfshead, a Nadir tribe from which a prophesied uniter of the Nadir is expected to come. The two stories draw together and pull Waylander, Miriel and a mismatched group of allies, including the Nadir warrior Belash, out onto the steppes. Miriel is effectively the book's second lead: a capable fighter trained by one of the deadliest men alive, and a young woman whose father would still rather keep her out of the kind of fight she is so good at.

Reading notes

The second Waylander book widens the frame. The first stayed close to one man on one road; this one runs several strands at once, among them Dakeyras's hunt, Miriel's party, the Thirty debating whether killing can ever be justified, and the Gothir court. Reviewers have praised the pace and the steady arrival of new characters, and the core cast is strong. Angel, the ageing gladiator, is one of Gemmell's best supporting figures, and Senta's persistent courtship of Miriel, with Angel glowering at it, supplies most of the book's lighter moments.

Its weak spot is the sorcery. When the plot moves into full fantasy territory, around the strange old fortress of Kar-Barzac, the writing is less sure than in the fights and arguments, a point at least one reviewer has made too. The book also matters to the wider series, because it sets up bloodlines that run on into the later Drenai novels. Underneath the action it is about what you owe a child you raised among weapons, and whether a man like Dakeyras is ever allowed to stop. Read Waylander first; this picks up ten years later and assumes you know what passed between Waylander, Dardalion and Danyal.