Kevin's Watch

Fantasy writer Gemmell dies at 57

Fantasy novelist David Gemmell, best known for stories such as Legend and Waylander, has died at the age of 57.

I've never read his work, but I recognized the name.

Wow, that's too young...

*sighs* WAY too young!

Same generation as Donaldson, too. SRD is 59. This is a little unnerving.

(SRD, whatever you do, DON'T DIE.)

I've never read Gemmell's work either, but I've heard good things.

Thanks for the news Syl. Whoa. 57. Damn.

I own many, and have read more, of his work. It's good clean heroic fantasy adventure type of stuff, a few threads of humour, often dark.

For easy reading, I recommend them without hesitation. I can usually get through two of the shorter ones, (and none are very long) in a day or so, but they're compelling. I must admit I haven't kept up with his later work, but it's sad nonetheless (as always) to know that there will be no more.

One of the things I always liked was that with the majority of his books, even those that formed part of the same universe, they were easily read as stand-alone books. Indeed, even the ones that were meant to be a series could function as single novels with very few exceptions.

If anybody wants to try them, I suggest his first novel, Legend. If you like that, you'll probably like most of the others. Not demanding reading at all really, but well done.

A sad day for fantasy.

--A

RIP, DG. Thanks for Waylander!

Waylander, the Jerusalem man series, Lion of Macedon and Knights of Dark Renown are all very good. As Avatar said, they're not immense, involved epics, but they're enjoyable nontheless.

A sad day.