Whenever people ask me who my favourite author is, I always reply with the same answer. He’s a fairly well-known guy, particularly in the heroic fantasty and sci-fi circles. His name is David Gemmell, and this post is a mini dedication to him and his career.

I first discovered the joys of David’s writing when a dear friend of mine, Simon C, allowed me to borrow one of his books. It was called Legend, and it was a fascinating and enthralling story. If I remember correctly, it took me but a couple of days of after school reading to get throug it. It was easy reading. The kind of book that you just don’t want to put down.

After reading Legend, I wanted more. So I started borrowing more and more from Simon before buying my own copies. In the early days I just couldn’t get enough of the stories! I was particularly fond of the Drenai tales, and individual stores like Morningstar, Knights of Dark Renown and Echoes of the Great Song. I was constantly amazed that David managed to write so much stuff in such a way that was never a pain to read.

He also managed to spin a good yarn around Alexander the Great in Dark Prince and Lion of Macedon. Both of those stories were just great fun to read. The most recent series of books that David took on were based on the story of Troy. Needless to say, taking on a saga of this magnitude is pretty tough, and yet he seems to have made a bloody good go of it. I’m currently reading the last in the Troy trilogy, Fall of Kings, and loving every minute of it. It has all the hallmarks of a David Gemmell classic.

All in all David wrote 30 books. I have every single one sitting on my bookshelf at home. The only one of those 30 which I didn’t really enjoy was Winter Warriors. It was a bit flat, a bit boring, and didn’t seem to flow the rest of his stories. Thankfully, this book was the only dud! The rest have been simply awesome.

In my early days of university I started to learn how to write web sites. During this time I maintained a site which I dedicated to David’s work. It had a stack of information on his books, a guestbook signed by many of his fans, blurbs, news, and all the usual stuff. To be honest, the site was terrible But it was a neat little resource and a window into the world of Gemmell. To my surprise the traffic to the site ended up quite high, but as university progressed and work started, my ability to maintain it started to wane and I started to let it go.

One day someone asked me if I was somehow getting news directly from David himself, as there was wealth of information on the site that appeared to have more than a fan’s backing. In response, I put a note up on the site saying that I wasn’t in touch with David at all, but I would love for him to contact me if he’s out there.

About two months later, he emailed me out of the blue. Since this was back in the late 90s (I think 1997 to be exact) I don’t have the email handy, but it read something like this:

Hi there,

You said on your site that you’d love me to contact you. Well, here I am!

David Gemmell

This was by far the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me at this point in my life! My all time favourite author had written to me and I finally had the opportunity to speak and ask all those questions that I had been so keen to ask.

What followed was a fairly interesting but short thread of emails. He was very forthcoming with information and was always happy to discuss the content of his books. For a man so busy, I found him to be extremely responsive.

To cut a long story short, after the initial flurry of emails, contact slowly dropped off as he got busier. While it was disappointing for me I was glad to have had the chance to speak with him as often as I had done.

It was after this he released Echose of the Great Song, after which he went on tour around the world to appear at book signings for his fans! I got wind of the fact that he was going to be in Sydney at a certain time, and I made sure I had time to get to the book shop to meet him in person and have him sign my copy of the book.

When I got there I found that the queue was enormous. Not to worry, I had plenty of time…

.. it took about 90 mins to get to the front of the queue. But it was worth the wait! He smiled and said hi, asked me a few questions about what I liked about his books etc. When he came to the signing of the book, he asked me my name. After telling him my name was Oliver, he stopped. He looked up at me from his desk and said “Are you the guy who made the website?”

Oh. My. God. I was stunned! I tried not to come across as too excited when I answered, but it was very hard. I told him yes, I was indeed the guy, and that I had enjoyed the conversations we’d had via email. We had a bit of a laugh about a few things and he finished signing the book. I was ready to pack it in as the people behind me were obviously keen to have their turn, so as we finished up our conversation he hit me with something out of left field…

Oliver, I’ll be finishing up here in about two hours time. After that I’ll be having a drink at a pub just up the road. Would you like to come along and have a bit more of a chat?

If I’d been on the ball I’d have ran to the newsagent and bought a lottery ticket, as that day was my lucky day! I was jubilant! I immediately said yes, grabbed the details of where to meet him, and ran off to organise for a friend to take my shift at work that afternoon.

What followed were two solid hours of one-on-one discussion with David. We covered all of his books. Most of his characters. Inspiration behind the stories. Details of why certain characters did certain things. Bits and pieces that he had to leave out of the books because they were too long or didn’t quite work. I can’t tell you how good it was to get a first-hand perspective from the author on stuff that he’d written. All the time we were talking he was shouting the beer! What a champion. I didn’t want the afternoon to end.

So why, after all these years, am I talking about him now? The answer to that question might be obvious to some of you already. Despite being an avid fan of his for many years, I wasn’t aware until recently that he is now dead. David passed on last year after heart surgery. I only realised this when I read the inside cover of his latest book, where his wife Stella had stated that she had finished the book off for him after his passing (thank you Stella!).

So what I wanted to say was: Thank you David. Your books were a joy. You and your stories will be sorely missed. When I turn the last page on your final book I’ll be very sad knowing that I won’t be reading another one of your titles. I take my hat off to you, as I think you’re one of the all-time greats of the fantasy genre. Thank you Stella for finishing the book off. I wish you and the family all the best.

Finally, to any other fans of sci-fi/fantasy, you won’t be disappointed with a Gemmell book. Get out there and read one!