Drenai, Sipstrassi, Rigante or Hawk Queen: which are the best?

[Elan Morin Tedronai]

Well, I've read only "Sipstrassi Tales", because of our "good" publishers.
I very mich liked "Ghost King" and "the Last Sword of Power" - I think this were the Medieval novels, but I was disgusted of Shannow novels.
I've been looking at the good anotations of "Drenai Tales", but what is your opinion about her? And what can ya tell me about his last written tales "Rigante tales" and "Hawk Queen tales"!
Generally which are the best tales of Gemmel: Sipstrassi, Drenai, Rigante or Hawk Queen tales?

[This message has been edited by Elan Morin Tedronai (edited April 09, 2002).]

 

[Rob B]

Elan: I've only read two of the Rigante Tales and liked them.

There are some other topics discussing Gemmell, including Should Gemmell try something new? only a couple of topics down on this page.

Here are is an older thread most recently active about two weeks ago:
David Gemmell

 

[Loque]

Ok, IMO the first three rigante are the best, then the waylander and druss parts of the drenai saga plus the king beyond the gate, then the siprassi (particularly the shannow books

) and then the hawk queen which is good but seems kind of like a practice run for the rigante.

 

[ChrisW]

My fav two are the Drenai and Shannow books.

 

[Elan Morin Tedronai]

Thank you FitzFlagg! And you 2 guys for your recommendations.

 

[Cannon Fodder]

Hard to pick the very best out of those series. The Drenai are generally pretty good inlcuding many of his best like Legend and Waylander but some others are not as great, such as Quest for Lost Heroes.

The Rigante books are consistantly good but by the time I read them some of the over familiarity had set in.

The Sipstrassi are okay. I liked the Jerusalem Man ones but I was quite disappointed with the Arthurian ones.

The Hawk Queen one weren't his best. The first one was good but not he second.

Some of Gemmell best stuff isn't in any of these series like Morningstar and the two Parmenion books, The Lion of Macedon and Dark Prince.

 

[Loque]

Actually, i think LOM and DP are generally included in siptrassi because they are set in 'our' world, and aristotle uses siptrassi and also aristotle is, i think, maedlyn from ghost king.

 

[Lani]

I've read the first three books of Regante and I liked them all. I am also getting through Drenai right now. I've read two first books and they are good too.
Same as you I didn't find Jon Shannow novel too good... I guess I just prefer swords to the guns big time

 

[Cannon Fodder]

I'd forgotten the Siptrassi were in the Macedonian books briefly. I read them before the Shannow or Arthur ones and didn't see the connections. I might be competely misremembering this but I think there was a bit in Quest for Lost Heroes were somebody briefly used, or mentioned the Siptrassi. They even show up in the Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis computer game.

 

[Loque]

m33p? arent siptrassi just a fabrication of gemmell's?

 

[Cannon Fodder]

In Fate of Atlantis there were some small bronze/gold stones which were used by ancient Atlantis for their magic/machinery which you had to use during the game. I forget the details but the whole thing reminded me somewhat of the Siptrassi, mostly because of the Atlantis connection. It could be a coincidence but at a guess Gemmell and Lucasarts might have taken from some common Atlantis mythology and each adapted it accordingly for their own works.

 

[Steven Savile]

I think with Gemmell you probably love those you encounter first - for that reason the Drenai books hold the strongest interest to me, with Druss and Rek and Waylander... but I equally enjoyed some of the stand alones, even Echos Of The Great Song was a solid read... the only books I don't hold great fondness for are the Hawk Queen ones as I found her difficult to empathise with.