Novels of the Rigante: Sword in the Storm, Midnight Falcon, Stormrider, and Ravenheart.

I don’t know how I managed to not have read any David Gemmell before this, considering how much time I have spent lurking in the sci fi/fantasy aisles of every bookstore I’ve ever been to, but I picked the first of these after reading about them on Beth Schaefermann’s site. She doesn’t keep archives posted but I can tell you that the post was titled “Total Bad-Ass Warrior Who Wields Really Big Swords” and does that not tell you everything you need to know? You read these books and you feel the potential in you, the warrior you would be did you live in a medieval-esque fantasy world where you were handed a sword and maybe a legend or two about your ancestors and a story about your soul name and then sent off into the world to make your way.

I didn’t like book 2 as much as the rest (the main character takes a while to value himself), and–just as a completely random FYI–books 3 and 4 are more cohesive in time than the others. I just could not stop reading these and guess what? There’s tons of other Gemmell books/series out there!! The Drenai Saga alone has 12 books in it.

There’s just so much glorious reading ahead.