Legend by David Gemmell

Before there was J.R.R Tolkien, there was Robert E. Howard, who created what would later be called Heroic Fantasy or Sword-and-Sorcery. With the justly-earned popularity of Lord of the Rings, it seems to me that many writers and publishers of fantasy fiction have forsaken the heroic ballads for overly-complex, over-sized, and, endless series.

But David Gemmell has not forgotten the heart of a good fantasy tale which is simply heroes (or anti-heroes).

This is the story of Druss, the Captain of the Axe, the Deathwalker, the Legend and his defiant stand with the heroes of Dros Delnoch against the massive overwhelming barbarian hordes who vow to conquer the kingdom. It's the classic "few stood against many" theme that when done right makes one's he... Read More

Waylander by David Gemmell

On the surface David Gemmell's stories are simple and straight forward. His heroes through skill, courage, and a personal code of honor, save the day. But, just barely scratch that surface, and you see where Gemmell's magic lies. In the struggle of good vs. evil, Gemmell shines in the in-between shades-of-grey. He reads like a Western. Dark heroes with pasts who are skilled at violence, but its that skill that is necessary for survival of the good-guys. In Waylander, the fate of a Drenai rests on the shoulders of an assassin. It's Gemmell at his best. Read More

The First Chronicle of Druss the Legend by David Gemmell

The First Chronicle of Druss the Legend is the sixth book in David Gemmell’s non-sequential series, the Drenai Saga. It’s a prequel to the first Drenai book, Legend, and I think it’s the perfect prequel because it actually enhances his Druss stories by not being in chronological order.

Renegade soldiers turned slavers massacre a mountain village and take Druss’s wife, the seeress, Rowena. Desperate and enraged, the young country bumpkin takes up a battle-ax (inherited from his infamous grandfather) to begin a quest that will take him across half the world and last over seven years. Druss fights slavers, pirates, wars, outlaws, demons, and Death itself to rescue the love of his life. Thus is how legends are born.

There’s n... Read More

White Wolf by David Gemmell

Skilgannon the Damned, an infamous warrior/general, has a death-bounty on his head commanded by the Witch Queen, who he not only once served loyally, but loved passionately. As his title suggests, Skilgannon is guilty of unforgivable atrocities committed in war and he hopes to find redemption by restoring the one good and pure thing in his life. While on his quest, he joins forces with the greatest hero of the Drenai, Druss the Legend, who is on his own self-imposed mission to rescue a child.

White Wolf is a typical Drenai tale, but a typical David Gemmell book is the top-of-the-heap for this type of fantasy fiction. It’s a classic high adventure story that, unfortunately, is too rare in fantasy nowadays. Courageous warriors live and die by their own code of honor and defend against evil for the simple reason that it’s just ... Read More

White Wolf by David Gemmell

At its best, Heroic Fantasy can inspire and enliven. By nature, the subgenre is less concerned with realism than it is with depicting nobility, honor, and genuine integrity. In so doing, it shows us a world that reflects the better portions of our own, the world as it should be rather than as it is. At its worst, however, Heroic Fantasy is notorious for shallow characterization, mindless violence, and sententious, often hypocritical, pontificating to justify all that mindless violence so our valiant warriors can get back to massacring villages with rumps firmly planted on high horses. White Wolf is a bit better than the latter, but it’s a good way from the former. It evens out more or less for David Gemmell, but it’s far from the proudest moment of his career.

The novel opens on a guilt-ridden warrior called Skilgannon the Damned, tragically burdened with a... Read More

Lion of Macedon by David Gemmell

The dearly-departed David Gemmell was, in his lifetime, acknowledged as a master of the heroic fantasy, and if you want any proof of that, read Lion of Macedon.

The tale begins in Sparta in the period after the end of the interminable Peloponnesian wars, when Sparta had begun to weaken, and several decades before the rise of Philip and Alexander the Greats. The eponymous hero, Parmenion, is a Spartan — a true Lakedaimonios — with a Macedonian mother. Because of his half-barbarian heritage, he is something of an outcast when we meet him as a fifteen year old boy in the harsh, near brutal training Spartan boys were put through. Despite this, he is most certainly not the angsty adolescent I had expected. Instead, he is a well-thought out, detailed and layered personality who grows and changes as we follow his life and career. It is difficult t... Read More

Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell

It's been six years since the legendary Knights of the Gabala rode through a gate to hell in order to fight the evil that threatened the realm. They haven't been heard from since. But they are desperately needed now because the King, once a noble man, has begun rounding up the nomad population in Holocaust style. People who oppose his actions are named traitors and the King's new henchmen are very strong and very... undead. The king's new policies have alienated a lot of people — mostly peasants. Can they band together and defeat this evil? Are there men and women who will rise up and lead this motley group?

Knights of Dark Renown is a deep and engaging multi-layered heroic fantasy. Not one of those that's got a cover sporting a big muscle-man with a sword in one hand and a buxom bikini-clad babe in the o... Read More

Dark Moon

In writing reviews of fantasy, everybody makes mention of those derivative books of sword and sorcery which lack imagination and either borrow exclusively from previous works (think Terry Goodkind) or possess so many archetypes that the whole book becomes cliché (think the DRAGONLANCE series). Everybody knows these cardboard Conans and Gandalfs wielding battleaxes, wands, and uttering the worst one-liners published today. But these comments about garbage fantasy are always directed to the “others” — someone else — never the work under review. Nobody wants to step on any toes.

David Gemmell’s Dark Moon is pure genre fantasy. This is one of the books everyone is indirectly referring to when they mention derivative fantasy. Reptilian uni-mind creatures attack in... Read More