Stormrider

The story

Assumes you have read Ravenheart; the set-up reveals where that book leaves Kaelin.

Some years have passed since Ravenheart. Kaelin Ring is a grown man among the free clans of the northern mountains, and to the Varlish he is the outlaw known as Ravenheart. The Varlish kingdom itself has broken apart. The king's loyalists and the rebel Covenanters are at war, and the fighting is done with musket, cannon and cavalry.

At the centre of the book is Gaise Macon, the Moidart's son, a cavalry officer fighting for the king. He carries a Rigante soul-name, Stormrider, and a father who, when Gaise was a boy, took away almost everything that made him happy. Gaise is a gifted soldier, torn between decency and the ruthlessness his trade rewards, and he badly wants to prove himself to his father. His most dangerous enemy is not across the lines. Winter Kay, Lord Winterbourne, leads the Knights of the Sacrifice, a military order of killers, and he holds an ancient relic and a prophecy: the man with the golden eye will be his death. Winterbourne has decided that man is Gaise. Gaise's friend Mulgrave is one of the few men he can trust.

In the north, the Moidart and the Rigante are old enemies, and Kaelin has more reason than most to hate the lord of Eldacre. The engine of the novel is the pressure that pushes these people towards an alliance none of them wants, Varlish lord and Rigante outlaw, estranged father and son. Feargol, a young orphan Kaelin has taken in, has visions that hint at something older and stranger behind Winterbourne's order than ambition or faith. Maev Ring, Kaelin's aunt, is back as well, as formidable as ever. As the war moves north towards Eldacre, the question is whether enemies who have hated each other for generations can stand together long enough to matter.

Reading notes

Stormrider closes the Rigante sequence, and it is the most ambitious of the four. It runs two conflicts together: a civil war among the Varlish that owes a good deal to the English Civil War, and a stranger contest over what Winterbourne's relic really is. It is also the longest book in the series.

The best thing in it is the Moidart. Introduced in Ravenheart as the villain, he becomes the most interesting figure in the series, a cold and cultured man who paints in private and is far more complicated than the Rigante believe. His scenes, especially with his son, have an edge the rest of the book sometimes lacks.

Reviewers have been less kind to Gaise. Publishers Weekly found the characters defined mainly by strength and courage rather than inner life, and one reviewer thought Gaise the least engaging lead of the series. The supernatural threat behind Winterbourne also sits awkwardly with the grounded, political war around it, and some readers find it overblown. Against that, the battle scenes are among the most vivid in the series, the Rigante scenes carry over the warmth of Ravenheart, and reviewers single out the ending as one of Gemmell's most moving.

Do not start here: Stormrider picks up the people, grudges and losses of Ravenheart and assumes you know them.