The Hawk Queen novels

The Hawk Queen pair are Gemmell's clan novels. In Ironhand's Daughter the highlanders have been broken at the battle of Colden Moor and live under Outlander rule. Sigarni, a huntswoman who wants nothing to do with politics, learns in dreams that she descends from Ironhand, the greatest of the old highland kings, and is drawn into leading a rising she did not seek. Watching over her is Taliesen, a druid and the last keeper of the gates that link one age to another.

The Hawk Eternal is not a straightforward sequel. Sigarni passes through one of those gates into another time, generations earlier, but the book belongs mostly to new people: Caswallon, a loner, warrior and thief of the Farlain clan, and Gaelen, an orphaned lowland boy he takes in, as the Aenir move against the clans. Sigarni's part is small, which disappointed some readers who had come for her. The time-travel mechanics are sketched rather than explained.

Read them in order. The first sets up the gates and the stakes, and the second makes more sense for it. Neither is formally tied to any other Gemmell series, and bibliographies from the SF Encyclopedia to his current publisher list them separately.

What they share with the rest of his work is the defeated people who refuse to stay defeated, and a heroine who takes command because nobody else will. Gemmell came back to that material on a larger scale in the Rigante novels, whose later pair is also set among conquered highland clans. Some readers find Ironhand's Daughter slow to start by his standards, and The Hawk Eternal can feel like a different book wearing the same title.

Reading order

Read Ironhand's Daughter first. The Hawk Eternal continues through a gate into an earlier age with a largely new cast.

1. 1Ironhand's Daughter (1995)The last of the highland royal line is a wild, selfish young huntress. The Outlanders who rule her country are about to give her a reason to lead.
2. 2The Hawk Eternal (1995)In another version of the highlands, a clansman thief sees the Aenir invasion coming before anyone will listen. The Hawk Queen is a visitor here.