Waylander II: In The Realm of the Wolf

Substance: Waylander has "retired" for some 10 years, but after the death of his second wife devotes himself to caring for her twin daughters. Unexpectedly, someone puts a price on his head and forces him back into action. Can he and his rag-tag band of compatriots, including his now-grown foster-daughter, Miriel,, defeat the evil wizard seeking to rule the world of the Drenai?
(Stupid question...)
Waylander's uncanny instinct for assassination and survival makes im a one-man Mission Impossible team.
Style: Gemmell writes fast-paced action that stops occasionally to contemplate serious moral questions. His characters are well-drawn, not too terribly stereotyped even in the fantasy genre, and include a wide range of ages and social show more conditions. A couple of pages of relatively sedate sexual encounters puts this in the x-file (not recommended for teens), unfortunately.
NOTES: An exchange between Dardalion and his disciple Ekodas highlights the dilemma of the pacifist-protector, and the side-story with the Nadir woman Shia moves the discussion from fighting to loving. Interesting clash of ideas, ultimately left to personal choices. show less

Set ten years after the original Waylander, this tale is best read in sequence of the Drenai novels to best understand the history of the warring nations. That said, Waylander II is a self-contained novel, and delivers in all aspects. What starts off looking like a straightforward assassination of our (anti)hero soon spirals in to an epic tale, packed full of love, deceit, magic, sieges and sharp, well written characters, with outstanding dialogue. Gemmell has created another masterpiece with Waylander II, and should definitely be amongst the collection of all fantasy readers. It's inspiring, clever, bold and an unrelenting page turner.

As Gemmell has done several times, he once again returns to the life of a hero when he is older - this time Wayland the Slayer. Wayland never really was much of a hero, more of an assassin, but now that his daughter is older and threatened by evil forces, keeping himself and her alive makes him something of a hero.
Typical Gemmell, lots of fighting, some philosophy on the nature of good and evil, once in a while a bit of romance. Just a little. Mostly fighting and surviving.

Story continues from where the original novel ended. Waylander is again living under his true name together with his (adopted) daughter Miriel. Living a simple life he has almost forgotten about his past (although his new life is not without pain, as it is often case with all Gemmell’s heroes). Suddenly he finds himself targeted by Assassins Guild for no apparent reason. Whoever paid the assassins made a very bad move and great mistake because he brought back the Waylander.

This one is truly a sequel worthy of its predecessor.

Highly recommended.

Not quite as good as the first Waylander novel: somewhat less psychology and philosophy, more fighting and sorcery in this one. (But again there are several characters given as much, or almost as much, prominence as the eponymous one.) Yet overall it's still much more than a mere thriller like the third book in the series.

Once again, very enjoyable read.

Really like the character Waylander. I picture him as Clint Eastwood.
In the end, nothing particular about this book to make it stand out amongst the other Drenai books.
I am enjoying reading them in publication order with references to both the future and the past in many of the books.

Oct09:

Just not quite up there with the other Gemmell Waylanders, but it's close.

Plot: Yea, it's not that great. For one thing, it's not that different than the first Waylander. There is a siege and there is Waylander running off on his own. Yadda yadda.

Characters: Of course there is Waylander, who is the bomb. And there is his daughter, who isn't toooo bimbo-y. Then there are like 3-4 "super swordsmen". But really they almost bleed together at times. He didn't do enough to set them apart. (C'mon, at least make one an Axe dude or something") The source priest comes back, but he's not nearly as compelling this time. And the enemy is perfectly "meh".

Style: Epic adventure abounds. You've got kings queens assassins and sieges. You know what show more there is and if you want it you got it. Waylander is about the only thing keeping it from being too ass boring though. show less