Legend - David Gemmell

Rating: 6.5/10

Interesting; from Wikipedia:
"Legend, published in 1984, is the first and most famous novel of British fantasy writer David Gemmell. It established him as a major fantasy novelist and created the character of Druss, who would appear in several subsequent books. It was also the first novel to be published in what later became known as The Drenai saga.

Gemmell first got the idea for the book in 1976. He was being tested for cancer, and to take his mind off it he tried writing a book, which he called "The Siege of Dros Delnoch". The fortress and its attackers, the Nadir, were metaphors for him and the cancer. In the end, he was found not to have cancer after all and he forgot about the book, which he claims wasn't very good anyway. However, in 1980, a friend of Gemmell's read the manuscript and told him that the story had potential. Encouraged, Gemmell set to work rewriting the book that would become known as "Legend". It was accepted by Century Hutchinson late in 1982"



I read this book on a work trip recently. You can google for the full plot, but let me save you some time. Good guys = Drenai, Bad Guys = Nadir. Powerful Nadir want the lands of the Drenai, whose military strength has waned. Drenai have one hope to stop Nadir: a 6 wall fortress. Two heroes, Druss The Legend, and Rek the Earl Of Bronze, lead the Drenai is a hopeless last-stand battle... and kick some serious ass.

This book was interesting to read, just to see what all the fuss about Gemmell was about. He writes like a story teller, simplistically, but concealing metaphors and symbols of life and struggle. Having read a lot of book by contemporary female authors recently, Gemmell's style in this book seems somewhat misogynistic at times, but I'm a guy so I can't hold that against him.

It is essentially a self contained epic, recounting the events leading up to and including a single battle. And though I don't believe it makes him the master of the 'hero epic' genre of fantasy that Borders would have me believe, it was still a fun way to pass the time.