SOLVED. Adult Fantasy/ Action series: Man in coma wakes in another world as sword fighting warrior with tattooed eyelids. [s]

[Kamara]

Read in the 80s, similar to David Gemmell with lots of sword fighting. Man "wakes" as a warrior with no memory of who he is in that world, but has a female warrior colleague who knows him. The eyelid tattoos indicate their parentage. Initially, he has no markings, but at the end of the first book, the tattoo of his mother appears. At one point he wades across a river, and the people are amazed because it is full of piranhas, but he is unharmed.

[Mir]

This is one where I remember very few details, but the MC was someone from our world (I think) who finds himself in a fantasy world in a warrior's body, and there is woman who was friends or comrades with the guy whose body he is possessing, I think she was also a warrior. And there is a giant feline, maybe one of them has a psychic bond with it.
The Gandalara Cycle I

[Kamara]

That sounds VERY similar, although I don’t remember the war cat - I’ll check it out and see. Thanks!

[Suzette]

Kamara wrote: "Read in the 80s, similar to David Gemmell with lots of sword fighting. Man "wakes" as a warrior with no memory of who he is in that world, but has a female warrior colleague who knows him. The eyel..."
Ricardo Carillo didn't have tattoos on his eyes at any point of the series. And later on in the series, we find that the majority of it was in the basin of the Mediterranean Sea. He had traveled back in time. At the time of the beginning, he and this one new friend of his were on a cruise ship on the Mediterranean. When a fireball headed their way.
I read the books over and over when I had them in my possession.

[Kamara]

I found a copy of this series secondhand but sadly, it is not the right book. Anyone else got ideas? The man is in a coma, and hearing the doctors working on him, but then in this other world. From memory, he wakes up in a tavern, and has to fight his way out.

[Suzette]

Would The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.

[Ky]

No, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant doesn't match this at all.

[Anna]

The Reluctant Swordsman

[Kamara]

Ahhh, yes, I think I remember that title too, now that you’ve mentioned it. Thank you!!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book series, Kamara.

The Reluctant Swordsman (book 1) of The Seventh Sword series by Dave Duncan - Anna's find.