Ironhand's Daughter

Admittedly, I haven’t read as much of David Gemmell as I have some other authors, my knowledge of his work consisting of perhaps a half dozen, or perhaps eight of his novels, I would have to say Ironhand’s Daughter represents the best written novel I have read by Mr.Gemmell, including the last novel I reviewed of Mr. Gemmell, the ever popular Legend. Where Legend delivers obvious entertainment elements, such as the presence of a legendary warrior and his last stand, an abundance of examples of battles, it left some room for desirability in regards to certain plot holes, some rather lackluster characterization, and a almost sophomoric prose in presentation. Ironhand’s Daughter shows vast improvement in all of these elements, and I never suffered an occurrence during my reading of having to put the book down due to the presence of some, as I referred to in my review of Legend “leaps of faith” in the plot, that I had to take a moment to digest before continuing.

The main character of the novel is a female character, Sigarni (Weaver?) a character that once you get past certain clichés, yes she’s beautiful and apparently every man that sees here seems completely captivated by her, her body is of exceptional quality, and is the subject of perhaps too many sentences in the body of the work, and yes she’s more than capable as both a warrior and hunter as well, and yes she is the descendant of, and shares the blood of legendary warrior kings of the past, still proves to be quite engaging. Sigarni is a highlander, whose people have been subjects of the outlanders, an occupying force of a greater Empire, who a generation ago conquered the highlanders at the Battle of Colden Moore. The book details Signari’s transformation into a Warlord Queen who will not only attempt to free her people of the subjugation, but must defend them from a impending unlawful invasion. When first being introduced to Sigarni, who is an orphaned child, her parents brutally murdered by a form of dark magic, she is a woman who seemingly takes what pleasure she an from life, hunting, and taking her pleasure of whatever man fancies her. She is carefree, and on the surface does as she wills, seemingly disregarding the feelings of her numerous suitors, whether they are objects of physical affection oo plutonic in nature. She has some close friends (in that they are utterly loyal to her), which make up of some of a much improved rendering by Mr. Gemmell’s secondary characters. I want to discuss some of them as I think this element is one of the stronger elements in the novel, as the supporting cast is rather large in quantity, and diverse. Perhaps her truest friend and one of the 2 characters in the novel she remains always at least cordial and appreciative of is Ballistar, a dwarf, not a Tolkien dwarf mind you, but a human dwarf. Ballistar is perhaps everything Sigarni would want in a man, with the exception of the fact that he is a dwarf, a fact that he himself is quite aware of, his internal struggles and his devotion to Sigarni makes him a rather interesting character whose plight in the story makes for good reading, and his own conclusion in the storyline is very well done and thoughtful. The other character Sigarni’s has sincere feelings for is Gwalchmai, also a highlander who besides being the community drunkard is the village “gifted one”, whom have some powers of foretelling future events, and is also the man that took care of Sigarni in her childhood after being orphaned. It is Gwalchmai who knows of Sigarni’s heritage, and her importance, a secret he has kept her from her until the time period depicted in this novel. His character is both insightful, and offers for some of the more amusing moments in the novel. Again his own conclusion in the story smartly done, invoking a “Nostradamus” type feel. Other characters are Fell, a one time lover of Sigarni, who left her to get married due to his desire to one time father children, which a barren Signari, could not offer, whose wife died during childbirth, leaving him still hopelessly in love with Sigarni. He is a leader of the highlanders scouts, and becomes the first to follow and champion Sigarni’s future cause. Also there is Talsien, the mysterious, plane/time traveling sorcerer, Kollarin, who has magically aided gifts in terms of tracking, who truly although not a major character at times I felt was the most interesting, and came away wanting to read more about. There are many others that just a brief gist, of them. The antagonist's in the novel, the “outlanders” are governed by a Baron Gottasson, who basically plans to commit acts of genocide on the highlanders, for the sole purpose of regaining lost political favor in the Empire.

The battle scenes are well done, which is a strength in Legend, and really a characteristic of any Gemmell book, and the plight of Sigarni, from highlander citizen, to the extremes of being a War Queen, and than re-humanising her actually is quite well depicted, and believable, in terms of causes these transformations. Just to get into one scene, the cause of her becoming the prophesized war leader is actually a group raping, by some Outlander town guards, which is pretty well written on many levels. One aspect, where I saw Gemmell’s added care in details with Ironhand’s Daughter was after she gains retribution on the guards, the Outlanders call on the aforementioned, Kollarin to track her, which offers a moment of him refusing due to after examining the victims bodies, one of the rapers dead spirits (which he has the ability to communicate with on some level) said he was sorry, such an occurrence never happened to him before thus making him weight the righteousness of his pursuit.

Ironhand’s Daughter is a story of a woman fulfilling her destiny, and in doing so finding her heritage, about people uniting, and of love on may different levels all directed at Signari. It offers admirable resolutions, not only to the focal character Signari, but really takes care in establishing conclusions for all the characters. True, I wouldn’t say Ironhand’s Daughter will introduce any reader to any elements they haven’t read before, nor offer these elements in a manner more aptly then they have read before, but outside of the aforementioned clichés, and a somewhat seemingly forced due to necessity in plot in the form of a extra protagonist (a power hungry sorcerer), Ironhand’s Daughter did entertain, aided by a well thought out group of characters for a novel of this size (347 pages), and a mix both action and thoughtful dialogue, that was a vastly noticeable improvement from Legend, and I walked away with a much more positive view of Gemmell’s writing than previously. A solid novel, which really took me by surprise, my grade for Ironhand’s Daughter is a 5.

Jay
The Bodisattva

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Other Reviews of works by David Gemmell

Quest For Lost Heroes - Mar 14, 2008

The Legend of Deathwalker - Mar 10, 2005

White Wolf - Feb 14, 2005

Ravenheart - Feb 8, 2005

Legend - Jan 2, 2005