You are here: Home / Author / David Gemmell / Legend

Legend by David Gemmell

9.5-stars

Rate and review Legend! | What does everyone else think?

Summary Superb heroic fantasy from the fire-side storyteller.

Legend was David Gemmell's first novel. Published in 1984, it has become a world-wide best-seller and is the beginning of Gemmell's Drenai saga.

Druss is a legend who's life stories are told everywhere. He has shunned a life of comfort and wealth in favour a solitary life spent on a mountain bordering the clouds. He is sixty years old and death awaits him when he receives a request of help from the defenders of the fortress of Dros Delnoch.

The Nadir are conquering all before them, as did the Drenai in years past. All that stands before them and victory is the fortress, protected by six outer walls and the stronghold of the Drenai empire. If the fortress falls, so do the Drenai...

The is the kind of book that the term fire-side reading was invented for. This book is far from perfect, this was Gemmell's first foray into the realm of writing fantasy and his skills are from as honed as they would later become. But this is where it all began, the book in which Gemmell stamped his trademark on the fantasy genre. This showed just how enjoyable heroic fantasy could be and in Druss, invented an unforgettable figure able to overcome insurmountable odds.

A shadow fell across Druss's eyes, the sun died in the heavens and the mountains receded into mist. Pain clamped Druss's mighty chest, soul deep, and he almost fell.
'Proud mortal!' hissed a sibilant voice through the veils of agony. 'I never sought you. You have hunted me through these long, lonely years. Stay on this mountain and I guarantee you two score more years. Your muscles will atrophy, your brain will sink into dotage. You will bloat, old man, and I will only come when you beg it.
Chapter 5: Legend

This is a wonderful heroic fantasy with great characters and way of describing landscapes and setting moods that fully immerses the reader in the world of the Drenai. The characters are given just the right amount of back history, not too little and not too much. There is a pleasant mixture of action, suspense and plot and these all merge together to create a story that is rich and satisfying.

As the dawn sky lightened on the morning of the third day, the first realities of apocalypse hammered home on the walls of Dros Delnoch. Hundreds of ballistae arms were pulled back by thousands of sweating warriors. Muscles bunching and knotting, the Nadir drew back the giant arms until the wicker baskets at their heads were almost horizontal. Each basket was loaded with a block of granite.
Chapter 20: Legend

This is not Gemmell's best but surely his most important, a great place to start if you have not read any of his work before and a great blend of sword, sorcery and heroism. A MUST read for any heroic fantasy fans.

Legend (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: David Gemmell
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 432
Publication date: 1986-08-21
Publisher: Orbit

RRP: ~~£7.99~~
Lowest new price: £2.59
Lowest used price: £0.01

Legend (Amazon.com)

Author: David Gemmell
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 432
Publication date: 1986-08-21
Publisher: Orbit

RRP: ~~$14.45~~
Lowest new price: $8.62
Lowest used price: $3.83

The Legend Druss, Captain of the Axe: the stories of his life were told everywhere. Instead of the wealth and fame he could have claimed, he had chosen a mountain lair, high in the lonely country bordering on the clouds. There the grizzled old warrior kept company with snow leopards and awaited his old enemy death. The Fortress Mighty Dros Delnoch, protected by six outer walls, the only route by which an army could pass through the mountains. It was the stronghold of the Drenai empire. And now it was the last battleground, for all else had fallen before the Nadir hordes. And hope rested on the skills of that one old man...
Product Description

Submit your own mini-review

Let people know what you think about Legend. You can write your own mini-review and give the book the rating that you think it deserves. Your reviews will go towards giving Legend its overall rating that will decide where Legend finishes in the top 100 fantasy books of all time.

Books you may also enjoy...

A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow by George RR Martin

The events in Storm of Swords overlap the ending of the second book, A Clash of Kings. I have to admit to not enjoying Clash of Kings overly, something I discovered placed me in a minority. Looking back I feel that I was a bit lazy when reading it, characters are thrown at you at a not inconsiderable rate of knots and you can either use the handy cast of characters at the beginning of the book to refresh your memory when you get lost or you can do what I did… carry on regardless hoping that everything will become clear in time. ... read the full review

Summary: A Song of Ice and Fire is the history lesson you wished you had in school.

Reader reviews | Write review

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

After decades of internecine warfare, the tribes of the Tiste Edur have at last united under the Warlock King. There is peace – but it has been exacted at a terrible price: a pact made with a hidden power whose motives are at best suspect, at worst deadly. ... read the full review

Summary: Never have I been left in such awe by an author's imagination.

Reader reviews | Write review

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

The Bonehunters sees us rejoining the Malazan Fourteenth Army, under the command of Adjunct Tavore Paran. Sha’ik is supposedly dead, the army of the Whirlwind in tatters, and the last survivors making for the refuge fortress city of Y’Ghatan under the leadership of Leoman of the Flails. ... read the full review

Summary: Brilliant, captivating, astounding and mind blowing.

Reader reviews | Write review

Also in this sub-genre...

Book of the Month

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.

Previous winners of Book of the Month

Latest interviews

Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.

Must-reads

The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.

Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe

Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe

Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.

Lewis Carroll on Fantasy Book Review