White Wolf (spoilers)

[Johnny71181]

Just finished White Wolf. 2nd time I've read it. Awesome book, but then, all of Gemmell's are. Here are some random thoughts for discussion.

Why would Skillgannon marry Dayan when he was in love with Jianna? I don't then the book even goes into how he met Dayan.

I loved the lead-in to Legend, and the references to other books like Waylander and Waylander 3. This is one of the things I love about Gemmell's books, especially the Drenai series, is the references/tie-ins to other books, even if they are separated by hundreds of years.

Is Garianne a descendant of Waylander, or just given his crossbow?

It is so cool that we know Skillgannon's adventures continue and are many. Like how/when did he save Ulric, which is mentioned in the epilogue. That was one epic epilogue!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just finished this book and generally enjoyed it - the interplay between Skilgannon and Druss was excellent.

My only niggle was that nothing really seemed to get resolved at the end, and the plot became "rescue the girl", something that was never suggested for perhaps the first half of the book. I kept expecting some change in character to happen to Skilgannon, but it never came. Also, the point of Rabalyn seemed to be little more than to make a philosophic point about living bravely, which seemed to me undermined by his resurrection - does he appear referenced in any other book??

Overall, an enjoyable adventure, though.

 

[Narkalui]

I saw it that the 'rescue the princess' narrative was just a subplot. I felt that the principle plot was Skilgannon' s journey to redemption through earning Garrienne' s forgiveness. In other words, when she spared him at the end, to my interpretation, he was finally able to forgive himself. Or at least not hate himself.

Rabalyn was indeed a curious aside. His own journey was an interesting one, but I still can't fathom his significance in relation to Skillgannon's character arc.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I saw it that the 'rescue the princess' narrative was just a subplot. I felt that the principle plot was Skilgannon' s journey to redemption through earning Garrienne' s forgiveness. In other words, when she spared him at the end, to my interpretation, he was finally able to forgive himself. Or at least not hate himself.

Rabalyn was indeed a curious aside. His own journey was an interesting one, but I still can't fathom his significance in relation to Skillgannon's character arc.

I'm not the best at nuances - but thinking about it, Rabalyn was prepared to sacrifice his life to save his friends, and protect the innocence - because it was the right thing to do. And this could well be paralleled in Skilgannon facing Garianne at the end - he would not attack her, but instead would rather sacrifice himself, because it was the right thing to do...

Hm...

 

[Brian G Turner]

Something I forgot to mention was the uniqueness of some of the supporting characters - Garianne's potential madness; and Jared and Nian originally being conjoined twins, were both very well done (especially the twins' dependent relationship). Not something I normally encounter in fiction.

 

[Narkalui]

Yes, agreed. I especially like the twins and their relationship, that was truly fascinating!