The story of Legend revolves around a war between the tribal Nadir people and the Drenai Empire. Fortunately for us, cancer was a misdiagnosis and upon several revisions Legend was born. The battle scenes in Legend involving fortress and the fending off of barbarian hordes was written as a metaphor for David battling cancer and the hardship, sacrifice, and love it takes to overcome such an obstacle. To take his mind off of the dreadful news, he decided to try and write a story, which at the time was originally called “Against the Hordes”. David Gemmell first got the idea for Legend in 1976 when he was diagnosed with cancer. The origins for how Legend came to be unfortunately starts on a somber note. Legend is David Gemmell’s first novel published in 1984 and it will forever be defined as the monolith of heroic fantasy for generations to come. These awards have been given to several well established fantasy authors over the years, such as: Brandon Sanderson, John Gwynne, and Brian McClellan to forever remember the contributions of David Gemmell and how he shaped the modern heroes of the fantasy genre.

In 2009, the David Gemmell awards for fantasy was established with the goal to “restore fantasy to its proper place in the literary pantheon”. David Gemmell unfortunately passed away in 2006 at the early age of 57, depriving us of any more heroic novels he most certainly would have written.

There is always a strong heroic theme in his novels but nearly always the heroes are flawed in some way. Gemmell’s works display violence, yet also explore themes of honor, loyalty and redemption. A former journalist and newspaper editor, Gemmell had his first work of fiction published in 1984. David Gemmell born in 1948 was a British author who will forever be associated with heroic fantasy.

Legend by David Gemmell