Ravenheart by David Gemmell
Hardback £16.99
Published by Bantam Press, 5 April 2001
Buy Ravenheart from Amazon

Set aside a few days around the 5th of April this year, folks. Let's face it, you'll get nothing done until you finish the latest hardback from the writer of heroic fantasy, Mr David Gemmell. Sir Mr David Gemmell, sorry.

Ravenheart will be the third of the very wonderful Rigante novels; the first being Sword in the Storm, followed by Midnight Falcon, which burst in at number four on the Sunday Times bestseller list back in June 1999.

Set 800 years after the legendary King Connovar defeated the army of stone (it says here in the press release), the Rigante are a conquered people, ruled with an iron hand (then a wooden foot, and finally a piece of string - sorry, Goonshow moment) by the Varlish.

The Rigante are despised by their rulers, their culture all but destroyed. The land that once knew magic is choked with black smoke, as mighty furnaces forge engines of destruction. Worse still, dark secrets of ancient gods are soon to be rediscovered, and the consequences will be terrible.

Only one person, a mystic who yet follows the ancient paths, knows what is to come. The Wyrd of Wishing Wood, knowing that the fate of mankind hangs in the balance, pins her hopes on three men.

Jiam Grymauch: the giant Rigante fighter, haunted by his failure to save a beloved friend from betrayal.

Kaelin Ring: a deadly youth whose talents will earn him the enmity of the varlish.

One will become Ravenheart, and will inspire the Rigante, while the other will become a legend, lighting the fires of rebellion.

The third man, a man of King Connovar's bloodline upon whom all hopes will ultimately rest, will have to overcome hundreds of years of fear and hatred. He is a Varlish nobleman, and is the son of the Rigante's greatest enemy…

Put aside your £16.99 now, and start counting the days until Bantam Press make your day!

Preview by Iain Lowson.