Ravenheart By David Gemmell

The third book in David Gemmell's four part Rigante series of books. Before there was George RR Martin, Joe Abercrombie, John Gwynne and Conn Iggulkden there was David Gemmell. Others had played with heroic fantasy, alternative histories and timelines, alternate realities since the fifties but David Gemmell was the one to bring the genre into the mainstream with each book selling millions of copies. Mr Gemmell found a worthy vein and mined it religiously. Rarely did he vary a winning formula and why should he. Each and every book he produced worked well. A spare but capable writer Mr Gemmell created the genre and inspired many great writers to follow him.

Ravenheart is a good example of his work and well worth a read.