Few writers have captured my imagination as a youth in a way that David Gemmell did. The author of high, adventure fantasy stories passed away in the summer of 2007 after a long illness. He wrote prolifically over a relatively short space of time and his books have become integral parts to most fans of the fantasy genre.

Before David Gemmell the fantasy world was dominated by the works of Tolkien, Moorcock, Raymond E. Feist and Terry Brooks to name a few. Gemmell changed the balance of power and how fantasy books could be written. He introduced characters that were realistic in their struggles, characters of deep emotions who spoke to you on a personal level. His prose was simple, no one will say that he was a literary great. But simplicity at times is one of the best ways of telling a tale.

Another area that Gemmell challenged the accepted formula of the fantasy genre was in his depiction of the battle between good and evil. Evil characters do proliferate his stories but there are many characters who are ambiguous in their morals. We have characters like Waylander who is an assassin, but is essentially a man seeking redemption and a life of peace. There is the gunslinger Jon Shannow, one of Gemmell's greatest creations, seeking a paradise that is just out of reach. He is a man of deep emotions and convictions, but a cold hearted killer at the same time. It is Gemmell's skill as a writer that allows the reader to empathize with these, at times, amoral characters.

David Gemmell also took a genre that was floundering in massive epics, full of stilted language and false myth and made it more immediate and real. His books are short, action sequences explosive and yet he packs as much plot into his short stories as other authors attempt to do over a thousand pages.

His ultimate legacy to the genre is that he took a format that was stagnating under it's own self importance and imbued it with fresh impetuous. Twenty years after reading his first book Legend, I still go back and re-read his books constantly. His legacy is a gift of material to the public that is bound to be read for generations to come.

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