We Could Be Heroes. (The King Beyond The Gate - David Gemmell)

Member Name: English Lady

Product:	The King Beyond The Gate - David Gemmell
Date:	05/11/05 (147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: complex characters, well paced plot.

Disadvantages: One dimensional villian, a bit too gory for some.

Tenaka Khan is a hated half-breed. Related to the Drenai Great Earl of Bronze and descended from Ulrich, War leader of the Nadir, he is bandied between the two countries and finds himself at home in neither one. Tenaka is a great warrior and was part of the Elite fighting force known as The Dragon, where he made some friends and killed many enemies.

The Dragon are dead, tricked to their deaths by Ceska, the evil new Emperor of the Drenai people.They were ripped apart by his horrific creation; the Joinings. A melding of man and animal, these massive beasts rip apart anything that arrives in their paths. Only one man has killed a joining and that man is Ananais, but he had is handsome face ripped off in the process.

Now Tanaka Khan is on a quest to kill Ceska and avenge The Dragon. On the way he joins forces with Ananais and Decado, the worlds most deadly warrior turned priest. Throw in a Mountain woman who leads a force of rebels and a joining who is more human than beast as well as Black man, out for revenge for the senseless slaughter of his people, and you have the beginnings of an army. Heroes in the making.

If David Gemmell excels at anything, it is at writing people who happen to be heroes. In this book he does not produce just one but several convincing heroes. More often than not, the success of a story hinges on the Author's capability of writing realistic characters. When an author does it well then their work is a delight to read, Roald Dahl, Terry Pratchett, William Shakespeare and Helen Fielding (With Bridget Jones) all achieve this and David Gemmell is up there with the best character writers of all time.

I wish I knew the secret of his success, but I imagine it is in how he makes each person real. Every Hero has his demons, his failings and regrets. They all fall in love or in lust. They laugh, they cry and joke. Not one is whiter than white, every one has his or her doubts and flaws and they are all a hairs breadth from failure and just as often, death. But they are still capable of great deeds of valour and leadership. They are men and women you feel confident in, people you'd love to spend time with, people who could inspire you to fight for their cause, even though you read their every flaw. I think the essence of what makes his champions so real is illustrated in the following quote:

"Why?" Ceorl Said. "Why did you do this for us?"
But Pagan was dead.
Ananais took the lad by the arm. "He did it because he was a man -a very great man."
"He didn't even like children."
"I think you are wrong there, boy."
"He said so himself. We irritated him, he told me. Why did he let himself get killed for us?"
Ananais had no answer but Katan stepped forward.
"Because he was a hero. And that is what heroes do. You understand?"
Ceorl nodded. "I didn't know he was a hero-he didn't say."
"Maybe he didn't know." said Katan."

In contrast, his downfall, especially in this book, is the creation of his villain. Ceska is Evil. There is nothing good in him. Maybe this is supposed to show that evil powers corrupt, but it seems so one dimensional in comparison to his heroes. There are countless passages about each of the main characters on the side of good, but very little about the force of evil. It is as if he's not really fussed about evil, evil just has to exist for the battles to be won for the forces of good. To be honest though this is not something that Gemmell suffers from on his own, bad guys are often one dimensional like they are in children's story books and it seems to be the way it is with heroic fantasy authors; JV Jones, Adam Nichols, Piers Anthony all portray 100% evil villains. There is only Terry Pratchett who leaps to mind when I think of a man who writes villains with any hint of goodness in them.

The complete evilness of Ceska does not really detract from the book, simply because it's main concentration is on the building of team spirit between the Skoda rebels and the champions who gallop in to rescue them. The action keeps on coming at you and if you're squeamish you might want to give this book a miss. Blood and horror abound, there is a battle round every corner and many people die, graphically in most cases.
If you can cope with this however, then you will find beautiful yet realistic love stories, complex characters with tales of courage, determination, cowardice and valour. You'll read about religion and the futility of it. You'll read about God and how he works in mysterious ways, connecting together random events to come to the victorious conclusion.

Gemmell does not shy away from the big issues of life. Love, Death, Religion and politics are all analysed and waxed lyrical about. Faith and belief are core issues in this particular book. I find the thirty, the band of warrior priests, fascinating. You read about their doubts as well as their faith, you read tragedies as members of their band die. Yet these men carry on because of their collected belief. It carries them on, it carries the other rebels and adventurers along too. Belief that against all odds they can still win.

A relaxed writing style, filled with dialogue and description is the key to me so happily reading so much blood and guts and gore. It is like a good film, death and dying is all around but you see snippets of it, just enough to catch the horror of it but not too much. The death is balanced out by the living. You live along with the characters, you find out about their pasts as if you were talking with them. It is as if you're part of the band of friends and you always feel included in the action. It is the amount of dialogue that engenders this feeling and David Gemmell effortlessly writes convincing conversation.

If you enjoy the heroic fantasy genre you will love this book. It compares well to David Gemmell's other works, though may not have the same compelling nature as "Legend" and "Dark Moon" but it is up there with his best tales. It eclipses Robert Jordan and towers over Eddings, who's long winded styles, to be brutally honest, bore me to tears.

If you're not into heroic fantasy, but fancy something a bit different and you have a strong (ish) stomach I heartily recommend you have a read of this book. I can almost guarantee you'll become addicted to Gemmell's style if you do.

Available from 1p plus P&P on the Amazon market place and 85p on Ebay, you should be able to bag yourself a bargain copy. I'd even pay the £5.89 for a new copy on Amazon or the £6.99 cover price at WH Smiths or Waterstones as this is a book you will read time and time again and will be well worth shelling out full price for.

The King Beyond the gate is a benchmark of Gemmell quality that show's heroic fantasy at it's best. I can do nothing else but heartily recommend it.

Summary: Tenaka Khan and his band of heros set out to kill and evil dictator and exact revenge.