Legend by David Gemmell book review

I read several books on my recent holiday and I thought I would start my reviews of them with this one:

My fellow Cleckheaton Writers Group member Neil recommended I read David Gemmell’s fantasy books and I began with the one that started it all.  Published in 1984 it established Gemmell as a major fantasy novelist and introduced us to Druss, who would appear in several other novels. 

Druss is the Legend of the title, who when faced with attack by the Nadir is the only man capable of helping hold Dros Denloch, the fortress guarding the Drenai empire.  For me, the main character is Rek the baresark, who falls for the Earl of Dros Drenloch’s daughter and it is his humanity against the backdrop of battle and the supernatural elements that make the book for me.  Gemmell excelled at creating a world inhabited by believable characters who try to live in extraordinary circumstances – even Ulric, who is the leader of the Nadir forces, is a charismatic leader who is forced into the positions he takes.

I particularly enjoyed the otherworldly element of The Thirty, the albino in particular and it raised interesting psychological interpretations of the human spirit battling against the vagaries of life (the six walls concept, e.g. wall one, exultation, wall two, despair etc.).  Gemmell wrote the novel with the spectre of cancer at his back (one of the biggest human battles there is) and as a fellow survivor and writer, I can see the connections between the battles in the novel and the battle he was fighting with his own mortality and this added the depth to balance the violence of the fighting.

Not only did I enjoy this novel, but my husband (who normally only reads Jeremy Clarkson or Karl Pilkington) loved it, so much so I think he may read the other two novels I purchased by Gemmell before I do.

A Tolkien-esque fantasy with a human core.                                                8/10