the gaps between major novels and the fact that
many of his titles are available only from small
press imprints.
Gemmell, David A. (1948– )
Only a handful of authors make a lasting impres-
sion with their first book, but David Gemmell is
one of that elite group. Legend(1984, also pub-
lished as Against the Horde) introduced the world
of the Drenai, which has been the setting for an in-
termittent string of related novels ever since,
wrapped around other series and stand-alone nov-
els. Drenai is a fairly standard quasi-medieval
world, but Gemmell has managed to give it a
unique feel of its own and people it with a variety
of interesting characters. His heroes are somewhat
superior to the ordinary and are reminiscent at
times of Robert E. HOWARD’s tales of the more ma-
ture Conan, a bit weary of the world, more realis-
tic, and resigned to their fates rather than
enthusiastic about them.
The early Drenai stories deal primarily with ef-
forts to protect that realm from the constant
threats of surrounding barbarian neighbors. The
Drenai’s difficulties are compounded when their
own king goes insane in The King beyond the Gate
(1985), and his replacement faces a fresh external
assault in Waylander (1986). Gemmell explores
subsidiary stories and alternate viewpoints in the
next three books in the series, Quest for Lost Heroes
(1990), In the Realm of the Wolf(1992), and the
stories collected in The First Chronicles of Druss the
Legend(1993). Druss the Legend(1994) and Winter
Warriors(1997) were his last additions to the series
for a time, but he returned to the world of the
Drenai for Hero in the Shadows(2000), which poses
a more daunting threat. Passage to another world
filled with bestial humans and evil sorcerers has
been barred for generations by a magical spell that
is now failing. Two recent Drenai novels are both
among his best work, White Wolf(2003) and The
Swords of Light and Day(2004). In the first, two
ancient heroes are restored to life to save the
Drenai, but their mutual animosity makes it diffi-
cult for them to work cooperatively. They resolve
their differences for a rousing series of adventures
in the second.
Ghost King(1988) is set in a troubled kingdom
whose ruler has recently died. The queen survives
and is using dark sorcery to impose her own rule in
her husband’s stead. The conflict is resolved in
Last Sword of Power(1988), although only after a
heroic figure escapes from hell itself. Knights of
Dark Renown(1989) is a singleton and one of the
best of Gemmell’s early novels. Nine knights are
given the magical power to protect the world from
evil, but eight have disappeared and the ninth has
been unjustly branded a coward. Morningstar
(1992), also a stand-alone novel, poses the threat
of a barbarian army led by rulers who are a kind of
vampire race.
Gemmell’s second major series began with
Wolf in Shadow (1987, also published as The
Jerusalem Man), and continues with The Last
Guardian(1989) and Bloodstone(1994). Ancient
horrors threaten the contemporary world in these,
and a typical world-weary hero is called upon to
defeat them. Lion of Macedon(1990) and its se-
quel, The Dark Prince(1990), are set in ancient
Greece and involve threats from another magical
alternate world. Ironhand’s Daughter(1995) and
The Hawk Eternal(1996) similarly describe efforts
to unite the feuding Highlander clans into a single
force to counter an invasion fueled by sorcery.
Although his more recent novels are in a very
similar vein to his early work, Gemmell has be-
come a much more confident and experienced au-
thor and one of the most skilled storytellers in
modern fantasy. The Rigante novels, Midnight Fal-
con (1999), Ravenheart (2001), and Stormrider
(2002), deal with the conflicts among cultures in a
world threatened with barbarism, but superim-
posed on this greater conflict are more subtle sto-
ries of the individual characters, many of whom go
through some variation of a rite of passage during
their adventures. Echoes of the Great Song(1997),
set in a postapocalyptic world in which the very
laws of nature appear to have changed, is particu-
larly effective in the presentation of its characters
and the depiction of an imagined and distinctly
original setting. Gemmell is rightly viewed as pri-
marily a writer of adventure stories, but he has
used that form to quietly examine issues such as
one’s individual duty to society at large, the virtues
and shortcomings of personal courage, and the130 Gemmell, David A.