Dark Moon

By: David Gemmell

Narrated by: Homer Todiwala

The peaceful Eldarin were the last of three ancient races. The mystical Oltor, healers and poets, had fallen before the dread power of the cruel and sadistic Daroth. Yet in one awesome night, the invincible Daroth had vanished from the face of the earth. Gone were their cities, their armies, their terror. The Great Northern Desert was their only legacy. Not a trace remained for a thousand years....

The War of the Pearl had raged for seven years, and the armies of the four Duchies were exhausted and weary of bloodshed. But the foremost of the Dukes, Sirano of Romark, possessed the Eldarin Pearl and was determined to unravel its secrets.

Then, on one unforgettable day, a dark moon rose above the Great Northern Desert, and a black tidal wave swept across the land. In moments the desert had vanished beneath lush fields and forests, and a great city could be seen glittering in the morning sunlight. From this city reemerged the blood-hungry Daroth, powerful and immortal, immune to spear and sword. They had only one desire: to rid the world of humankind forever. Now the fate of the human race rests on the talents of three heroes: Karis, warrior woman and strategist; Tarantio, the deadliest swordsman of the age; and Duvodas the Healer, who will learn a terrible truth.

Read by Homer Todiwala.

©2017 David Gemmell (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group

Some good some awful voices/reading

The Daces voice is awful, old people, other main characters have the same annoying character voice. Other minor characters sounded great. Quite a lot of miss reading too. See legend for a good audio book.

Gemmell's Weakest Story

This is the weakest of Gemmell's work, both structurally and in terms of story. There's many of the themes he commonly touches upon, like the struggle between Good and Evil, the tension of a good person trying to stand against evil without becoming evil themselves, the ethical and spiritual dimensions of self defense, violence and self-sacrifice, but they play out much more shallowly than usual.

I think Gemmell made a good faith effort here to write a novel justifying extreme pacifism, but it only served to highlight how simplistic, irresponsible and ultimately empty the argument is. The conclusions of this story are mostly nonsensical, narratively and philosophically, and the story wraps up so abruptly that I get the impression even Gemmell was like, "oh this is ridiculous, let's just end it."

If you're a big Gemmell fan then I suppose you need to read it to experience his full body of work, but otherwise I see little point to this story and it's weirdly unsatisfying. A far better Gemmell meditation on the corruption of violence and dangers of hatred can be found in the Last Sword of Power/Ghost King series.

AMAZING story....worst narration ever

Another Gemmell gem….but holy hell did the narrator do his best to try and ruin it. Pretty much every paragraph of the book has an error in it. Scarred and Scared and different words believe it or not, with different meanings. Prescience is not pronounce pre-science. Sentences were read all jerks with emphasis in weird places and…my favorite….he let out a huge burp in the middle of a character voice that was not indicated in the script ….and just left it there. I’m amazed that this version of the narration even went to publication. They must have been in a rush. If you can get through it though…..Gemmell is amazing.

Terrible narrator

Was excited to hear this book cause I read it awhile ago but the narrator makes every character sound like a simpleton. Wish they would redo it with a different narrator cause I can’t listen to this guy.

Good story, not so good narration

The story is a fine one by the late great David Gemmell. The narration, sadly, is subpar and makes it a real chore to listen to. I'm on the fence about returning the book because of it, but might struggle on. Almost all other Gemmell books, which have finally become available in the last year or so have mostly excellent narration (except for the Sigarni Hawk Queen and Rigante series). I don't know, if the money ran out for professional readers or what made them change their selection, but it's really sad. Gemmell's stories deserved better than this.