Having been writing this blog for a quite a while now, I think it’s about time I mentioned one of my favourite authors. Being that my favourite genre is fantasy (yes, I’m still a child at heart), many might assume J.R.R Tolkien features at the top of my list. However, much as I enjoy Tolkien’s work, no author can quite compare to the might of David Gemmell – not in my eyes.
Working as a labourer, a bouncer and freelance journalist, Gemmell wrote his first novel – Legend – in 1984, at the age of 36. Despite the massive success of this book, it wasn’t until he released his third – Waylander – in 1986 that he could afford to work as a full-time writer. Although I still wasn’t born by this point, the story of Gemmell’s rise to success has always been an inspiration to me – only slightly less so than his works themselves.
Although his first three books were of the Drenai Series, which grew to be nearly a dozen books long, Gemmell’s Fantasy Fictions works include the Jon Shannow Series, the Stones of Power Series, the Hawk Queen Series and the Rigante Series, as well as both the Troy and Greek series of Historical Fiction and a over half a dozen individual titles. My personal favourites are White Wolf and The Swords of Night and Day (from the end of the Drenai Series), as well as the Troy Series as a trilogy. It is worth pointing out, however, that David Gemmell died before the third of the Troy Series (Lord of the Silver Bow) was finished and his wife, Stella, completed the work for him.
If ever there was a way to fall in love the fantasy genre, reading David Gemmell’s masterpieces is the best and easiest.
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