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I've read one or two, on the recommendation of a friend who has most, if not all, his work.
David Gemmell wrote heroic fantasy, with lots of violence and battle scenes, and the sort of heroes who shrug off wounds that would floor normal people for months.
Having said that, he was also a very good writer.
Those in the know seem to like his Druss the Legend books.
If you can believe what you read in the papers, apparently he went out the way all the writers should - found slumped over his keyboard in the middle of writing a novel.
No, that's not mad. I know exactly what you mean, and the way you described it reminded me exactly of how I felt a few years back when the tv presenter Jill Dando was on the front cover of the Radio Times magazine the same week that she was murdered. Every time I looked at the magazine that week I had a wierd/sad feeling.
Legend was a metaphor for cancer. He was sent for tests for cancer, and the book was written during the waiting period where he didn't know whether he had it or not. The idea was that if it was cancer the bad guys would win, if it weren't the heroes would win. Fortunately it weren't, the heroes won and Gemmell gave us some of the best heroic action fantasy ever.
The current Writers News has an article on page 2, giving details of the memorial service for David Gemmell - 30th October, 3pm, at St James' Church, 197 Piccadilly.
There's an online Memorial Book which will close 2 weeks before the service - as that's today, you'll have to be quick if you want to contribute. It's at: http://pub40.bravenet.com/guestbook/3359808728
There's more information at the David Gemmell website: http://members.lycos.co.uk/punchbag
I'm a bit disappointed that there's been no obituary in Writer's News. He was our best Fantasy Writer by far, but I guess he wasn't that well known outside the genre. Certainly not in the league of Grisham, Hornby, Brown etc...
Even so, a small column wouldn't have gone amiss. But maybe that's just bias, cos he was my favourite author for a while (before I moved away from Fantasy).
Comments
David Gemmell wrote heroic fantasy, with lots of violence and battle scenes, and the sort of heroes who shrug off wounds that would floor normal people for months.
Having said that, he was also a very good writer.
Those in the know seem to like his Druss the Legend books.
I remember reading somewhere that one of his first books, Legend, was a re-telling of the siege at the Alamo.
There's an online Memorial Book which will close 2 weeks before the service - as that's today, you'll have to be quick if you want to contribute. It's at: http://pub40.bravenet.com/guestbook/3359808728
There's more information at the David Gemmell website: http://members.lycos.co.uk/punchbag
Even so, a small column wouldn't have gone amiss. But maybe that's just bias, cos he was my favourite author for a while (before I moved away from Fantasy).