The King Beyond the Gate cover art

The King Beyond the Gate

Drenai Series

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The King Beyond the Gate

By: David Gemmell
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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About this listen

A century has passed since the heroic defence of Dros Delnoch. But the people of the Drenai face a new terror: a mad emperor kept in power by two forces of unsurpassed evil. The Joinings are werebeasts of awesome power. The Dark Templars are warrior-priests whose fighting skills are without equal. Against them the Drenai face certain defeat. One man, an outsider hated by the Drenai for his Nadir blood and despised by the Nadir for his Drenai ancestry, sets out to bring down the emperor. He is one man against the armies of chaos.

He is Tenaka Khan - the Prince of Shadows.

©2011 David Gemmell (P)2017 Hachette Audio Classics Fantasy Fiction

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loved it well worth a listen to, would highly recommend this to any one out there

loved it

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Great as always extra words needed to complete review one two three four five six

Great as always

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nearly as good as robert jordan or raymond e feist it's going to be the third or forth author of whom I read every publication!

open the gate!

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I loved listening to this book, the narrator Sean Barrett has the perfect voice for this novel, and really brings the characters to life if you are a fan of David Gemmell you should thoroughly enjoy this one!! Five stars *****

Highly recommend brilliant heroic fantasy

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All those who choose to dance with Tanaka Khan pay the ultimate price, and there are many.

I actually think that both Tanaka and Waylander are not that far apart in character. Both are men of honour in their own way. Both are loyal. Both are determined and both will ensure they do whatever it takes to achieve the goals they set themselves. Family is everything for them and woe betide any who try to threaten their safety.

They Chose to Dance

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Gemmell's second tale of the Drenai, a people modelled loosely on Roman society. This is set a few generations on from "Legend" so while there are some excellent references and indeed cameos for those characters they are by the time of this one very much legendary. These books are like sagas, glorified episodes in history rather than any kind of contiguous series. There is once again a siege and again there is a cast of larger than life characters who excel at various marshal and magical disciplines to take Gemmell's grandiose stage. They are great fun and heroic deeds abound, heroes are made and broken and great evils are encountered. Characters go from first meeting to deeply in love faster than your average boy racer goes from nought to sixty. Magic comes in the form of a brand new version of The Thirty - white cloaked warrior priests dedicated to the cause. Of course they are matched by their own nemesis, The Templars, and as I don't do spoilers I won't tell you what colour their cloaks are but you can might just guess . . .

It's all a great cacophony of saga and legend. Gemmell allows his characters to strut their stuff across the lands of the Drenai and even infuses a bit more humour into proceedings in the process. It's all delivered by Sean Barrett with his usual aplomb and marches along with plenty of fighting and action in an almost Cornwellian style applied to the fantasy genre. You can guess of course that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It would be wrong in 2017 though to not sound at least a small note of caution for anyone who comes to these books afresh. This is 1980s fantasy, actually correction it's GREAT 1980s fantasy, among the very best. However, in the following decades numerous writers, many of them inspired by Gemmell have honed the craft and taken it to new levels of sophistication. This is John Wayne's True Grit rather than Tarantino's Django Unchained, it's The Great Escape more than it's Hacksaw Ridge. Everyone will have an opinion on which are better and personally I love them all but you won't find anything like the sophistication of a Sanderson or Rothfuss here. You will find a bloody good yarn though and for this reviewer that's what's most important.

Of Might and Magic!

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Outstanding story as always. Great voice actor too. Loved it. Listened to all of the audio books multiple times. And read the hard copies too

Can there be anything better than David Gemmell? Love all of his books.

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Absolutely what the fantasy reader requires, depth mature - fully fleshed out complex characters, a well used but decent plot.

The reading performance is excellent also. The deep voice giving sophistication and gravitas to the personality of the leaders, helping everything become more believable.

A must read.

The King Beyond the Gate: Mature and Full Bodied

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Gemmell is unmatched. My all time favourite author. The way in which he creates a scene, a character, the smells, the thoughts. Full sensory encapsulation. It's like truly being there and experiencing first hand each scene, conversation, subtle look, and all emotions.

Gemmell is unmatched. My all time favourite author

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great characters and story, almost as good as Legend for me, really expanded the world.

great story

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