Indeed. His Troy trilogy was pretty badass. Probably my favorite depiction of the Trojan War.
A trigger warning for Impossible1 though. He passed away before he could finish the 3rd book, so his wife finished things up, relying heavily on his notes and some of the writing style he'd used in the previous two books. Just so unforgivable of her, right Imp? She even had the gall to do a good job!
I actually have no recollection of how Achilles was depicted in it. The first two books primarily cover events that eventually lead up to the fully open war, proper, and focuses on a lot of side characters that David Gemmell came up with, as well as some characters on the Trojan side. Plus Odysseus of course.
Gemmell definitely retained the fated "tragedy" part of what one would expect from a classic of Greek tragedy though. And does so with panache.
Another common element in his writing, in general, is how characters will get themselves in a rut and either allow themselves to continue spiraling into inevitable failure and doom, or they pick themselves up and clean themselves up, finding some way to get out of the rut and move forward.
Someone recommended him to me because I have the Conan stories by Howard, Elric books, and Ice and Fire. They said if I like grimdark fantasy I’d like Gemmell
Depends I guess on if you want to delve into his historical fantasy or standalone fantasy. I've mostly read his historical fantasy, personally. Starting with Lion of Macedon.
The Hawk Queen duology was kind of interesting, but was also a little strange. And I already mentioned his Troy Trilogy in another comment.
The wheel of time is something like ten times the length of lord of the rings and solid in every respect.
Ignore the netflix abortion and read the books, the series is finished and not wokeshit whatsoever- a constant major element of the plot is the differences between men and women.
Yeah we've had a discussion about WoT, the Tv adaptation and Sanderson finishing the books. I'm only up to Book 7 so had to recuse myself lest I get spoilers
Just checking that out so I could recommend and luckily I did as i just realised there's 2 books of his I don't own. So they'll be my next purchase - The Damned. But you can't go wrong with Drenai, Sisptrassi, Waylander, Jon Shannow and of course Troy
Indeed. His Troy trilogy was pretty badass. Probably my favorite depiction of the Trojan War.
A trigger warning for Impossible1 though. He passed away before he could finish the 3rd book, so his wife finished things up, relying heavily on his notes and some of the writing style he'd used in the previous two books. Just so unforgivable of her, right Imp? She even had the gall to do a good job!
I actually have no recollection of how Achilles was depicted in it. The first two books primarily cover events that eventually lead up to the fully open war, proper, and focuses on a lot of side characters that David Gemmell came up with, as well as some characters on the Trojan side. Plus Odysseus of course.
Gemmell definitely retained the fated "tragedy" part of what one would expect from a classic of Greek tragedy though. And does so with panache.
Another common element in his writing, in general, is how characters will get themselves in a rut and either allow themselves to continue spiraling into inevitable failure and doom, or they pick themselves up and clean themselves up, finding some way to get out of the rut and move forward.
Yeah I saw that post at the time, this was my 'bump'
Someone recommended him to me because I have the Conan stories by Howard, Elric books, and Ice and Fire. They said if I like grimdark fantasy I’d like Gemmell
Yeah he's great. A 100% not woke.
Sweet. What one book or series of his should I start with?
Depends I guess on if you want to delve into his historical fantasy or standalone fantasy. I've mostly read his historical fantasy, personally. Starting with Lion of Macedon.
The Hawk Queen duology was kind of interesting, but was also a little strange. And I already mentioned his Troy Trilogy in another comment.
Thanks. I may start with the trilogy first
Actually just do Drenai in chronological order - https://www.goodreads.com/series/77118-drenai-saga-chronological-order
Waylander for mine. There's a lot of overlap in some of the series. But the Entire Sipstrassi stones sequence is probably the best
Thanks!
People who like good fantasy should definitely try Appendix N stuff. https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Appendix_N
The wheel of time is something like ten times the length of lord of the rings and solid in every respect.
Ignore the netflix abortion and read the books, the series is finished and not wokeshit whatsoever- a constant major element of the plot is the differences between men and women.
Yeah we've had a discussion about WoT, the Tv adaptation and Sanderson finishing the books. I'm only up to Book 7 so had to recuse myself lest I get spoilers
The Brothers' War
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheBrothersWar
This was widely regarded as the best Magic: The Gathering novel prior to the game being subverted.
The Thran
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheThran
This was a prequel to The Brothers' War, also written before the game was subverted.
The Licanius Trilogy
Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth series is amazing, especially the first trilogy.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/list?id=11586.David_Gemmell
Just checking that out so I could recommend and luckily I did as i just realised there's 2 books of his I don't own. So they'll be my next purchase - The Damned. But you can't go wrong with Drenai, Sisptrassi, Waylander, Jon Shannow and of course Troy
I can also highly recommend Hugh Cook's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicles_of_an_Age_of_Darkness