A review by ianbanks
Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell

4.0

This has long been a sentimental favouite of mine because it features villains who are redeemed, heroes who overcome their pasts, cowardice conquered, people taking a stand though it may cost them more than they are willing to pay and it has some cracking dialogue and scenes.

But it is a bit of a mess: not undisciplined or unfocused or lacking in structure, just a little half-arsed in the mix. I know that in this day and age we have come to expect a fully-formed history and setting in our secondary-world fantasy and that these things are sometimes more of a joy for the author than they are for the reader, but the background here feels - to me, at least - to be more of a setup for the showdown at the end rather than an organically nurtured situation. The "what happened next" epilogue - of which Mr Gemmell was a master - suggests that there are other stories going on and situations unfolding that we will not be privy too as well as indicating that problems don't end just because the author has stopped reporting on them, but the basic premise of this tale feels constructed.

Very well-constructed, though: we get the idea of a society that has taken little steps towards accommodating evil as part of their culture; there are hints at wider conflicts and history on the periphery of the story but it all feels contrived to give us this story of a "last stand" and an "ultimate evil" to be overcome. Although this ultimate evil - the expulsion of "ethnically unpure" members of a society in order to bring a society back to its former greatness sits a little more uneasily this year than it did on earlier readings. I get that the Vampires are very obviously supposed to be Nazi surrogates but at this moment in time it feels a little too close to the bone...

There's also the issue of the characters names: many of them are nicked from Celtic mythology which gives them a weight and relevance that they just don't have for this tale and they feel like the "Magical Celt (tm)" characters that he has used before and will again.

However, there's a lot to love in this: the build-up of story is just about perfect before unleashing an epic finish over the last 80 or 90 pages that culminates in a duel to decide the fate of the nation. There's the aforementioned "little steps" that we take towards becoming evil - good intentions paving our way to becoming damned, as well as the sophistry we all indulge in to justify a "greater good," even when we think and behave like good people still. There's the small details that show how characters change in pursuit of a goal or a cause and the sacrifices they will make to achieve that. I think this novel also has more major female characters than any of Gemmell's previous novels, which is cool. There's also his trademark "purity of motive" conversations which are just brilliant here and really demonstrate that Gemmell knows exactly what he was doing when he makes us barrack for thoroughly unlikable characters.

The conclusion feels rushed, however, after this perfect setup, although I can see how this story was just about the deposing of an evil monarch and his replacement with something more palatable which would render any political struggle by the characters anti-climactic.

So really, my problems with this story are entirely my own but it didn't stop me from enjoying it as a slightly more meaty piece of brain candy that makes a great mental movie.