David Gemmell Readers discussion

Hey guys, I was just wondering who, in your opinion is the closest to the Master of heroic fantasy. I've read quite a few similar topics all over internet message boards but I found most recommended authors to be lacking in, hmm, Gemmell department? Conn is good, I'm about to read Joe Abercrombie, have read Steven Pressfield (and, while good, he's nothing alike) and many others, but still am searching for something more like the Legend, Lion of Macedon, Troy. Replies appreciated!

I agree. Abercrombie is great! Gemmell, somehow different, hard to put your finger on.

So far so good, I'm reading the Heroes by Abercrombie. Different style, but good action, realistic portrayal of fear, courage and everything in between. Not really like good ol' DG but more than readable!

While it's hard to live up to Gemmell I would recommend The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. It’s a good story I’d compare it to Waylander in that it uses the anti-hero concept.

Andy Remic (usually futuristic Military fiction) has a trilogy out 'The Clockwork Vampires Chronicles'. I have the books but haven't had the chance to read them yet. I've been told that they are Gemmell-esque.

hmm, i may give it a go, Dave!

EDIT: although it does not have good reviews...

I actually won a copy of the 2nd in a competition. So bought the 1st, but haven't had the chance to read them. A friend saw them on my shelf and said to me that I'd like them since I was a Gemmell fan.

I've read the reviews myself and have seen that most aren't very inspiring, but sometimes reviews can be missleading. (In my opinion anyway).

Is there ever going to be anyone that comes even close to gemmell, the man was in a league of his own,
Sword in the storm was my introduction to him and i didnt put it down until i had finished, i do agree with the other suggestions thou im a huge fan of the night angel trilogy i am just on my second run through them. i love conn the emporer series is one of my favourite series, i have, the blade itself and i did enjoy it but ive not got round to the second yet but i will,

Has anyone read the painted man by peter v. brett ? good book a little slow at times but it does have that anti hero blurred moral standing thing like say waylander and midnight falcon .

I just finished Joe Abercrombie First Law series, the last two books in the last week. He gave me some hope that he might fill small part of the hole left by Gemmell in S&S/heroic fantasy. Sure he is more epic fantasy,many characters POV but he is also very good with hardcore characters,gray characters, real good with military battles,vivid action. He can improve but he has alot of potential.

Otherwise somewhat different but strong heroic fantasy with similar military style fantasy is Paul kearney. Sea of Beggars,Macht series. He is better version of Abercrombie.

definitely agree on Abercrombie, i am extremely pleased i have discovered him and the guy seems to write at a good pace, which was another thing i loved about DG. there's another book coming out soon and can't wait for it already!
still, nothing i have read so far matches the feeling of good. ol' Dave. sure, few of his books (if not most) were based on a very similar premise and structured in a familiar way, but damn if i ever could put any of his books down!

give mark Lawrence a go if you enjoyed Abercrombie you'll love him.

he's on my to-read list, Colin! thanks for the advice bud

I haven't read conn's emperor series, but his conquerer series was great. As far as heroes go nobody touches DG, but I'll throw a couple of authors out there that I enjoy in the historical fiction realm. Ben kane, writes about gladiators and legions and is heavy on the fiction and light on the historical. Colleen Mccullough, writes about the upper class of ancient Rome in her masters of rome series. It is heavy on the history and light on the fiction, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

David Eddings is definitely worth a punt.
He's super light on action though.
But his character interactions are totally hilarious.

He reminds me of DG in the sense that he is very good, if not the best, at what he does. Rather than them being stylistically similar.

hey Jack

If he's light on action then he's nothing like DG ;)

seemingly no-one out there can get close to the original.

I don't think that anyone has mentioned Peter V Brett yet.
Worth a read. He is on the third of a five book series. I am enjoying part 3.
Cheers

I've yet to find a true close match to David Gemmell. What I loved so much about Gemmell was not just the action but the characters and the building of them and how they interacted and thought. Especially the grey characters like Antikas, Decado, and others who were always at that line between good and not so good. I liked less of the Swords and Sorcery stories and was more drawn to the low-fantasy settings of the novels in the Rigante series, but I've read all the books because they're all amazing.

I've found that I actually enjoy Michael Jecks Knight Templar Mystery books immensely and it really is the first author I've encountered since Gemmell that had me buying his books far in advance of being able to read them. His books have no magic or sorcery so to speak as they take place in medieval Europe, but I find the writing style, characters, and interactions somehow similar. It has filled a small part of the hole left by Gemmell so far.

Stella Gemmell? First book out this week. Got it, starting it soon. Looks promising

Peter Brett is really good, i just bought Daylight War for my kindle (3rd book of his series) and will read it next.

hmm, i have read good reviews of Stella's book, will definitely give it a try since i owe it to DG!

The closest out there is Andy Remic clockwork chronicles. Andy himself has said DG was a major influence ... Highly recommend the series, can't wait for for more

Raymond E Fiest is pretty good he has a similar style but still not a scratch on gemmel. the night angel trilogy is one of my favourite reads and is the closest you can get to the master

Ben wrote: "I read Abercombie's first law series a few months back and he was a bit like gemmell. Its hard to compare authors to david, I mean he wrote legend in two weeks !!"

Gemmell wrote Legend in two weeks!?

Ben wrote: "In 1976, after being diagnosed with a cancer he believed to be terminal, he wrote The Siege of Dros Delnoch in order to take his mind off his illness and to realise his ambition of having a novel p..."

Amazing!

The story of how it was written is amazing.

Does any have any video/audio interviews with Gemmell? I'd love to hear him speak. There doesn't seem to be anything online.

Never thought to look. But now you mention it. I will try. Met the chap twice. Great to talk to.

Found this website interview:
http://www.legendreaders.com/forums/v...

Neil wrote: "Found this website interview:
http://www.legendreaders.com/forums/v..."

thanks a lot. I'll check it out.

Neil wrote: "Never thought to look. But now you mention it. I will try. Met the chap twice. Great to talk to."

His death was a great loss to the world of fantasy fiction. He died far too soon.

Hey all, have always been a Gemmell fan and became very sad when I realised I had actually read pretty much every book of his!
- Some other similar-ish books are:
- Terry Goodkind, sword of truth series (wizards first rule is the first book)- the fights aren't quite up to Gemmell though.

Mrjason wrote: "Hey all, have always been a Gemmell fan and became very sad when I realised I had actually read pretty much every book of his!
- Some other similar-ish books are:
- Terry Goodkind, sword of truth ..."

Have just started the Night angel trilogy from a previous post on here, thumbs up so far!

I can highly recommend Christian Cameron. In writing style he is most definitely the closet I have come to Gemmell over the years. No swords and sorcery though.

hmm, I didn't get that vibe from Cameron...

If you like David Gemmell, more specifically the Troy series, than you will love Cliff Graham's work. He is a fairly new author. Written 3 books of a 5 book series so far called the Lion of War series. They are being developed into a Major Motion Picture Trilogy. However best of all, b/c he is very new to writing, he is offering a membership to receive every single book he ever puts out ahead of its publication date on ebook for free. ALL OF THEM. Also you will get everything he has already written. The membership is only 60 dollars. It is a lifetime membership to receive all of his works he ever writes on ebook for free before they come out. No author has ever done this before. His writing is very very similar to David Gemmell's Troy series. Great heroic warriors, epic and brutal battle scenes, good dialogue and also great humor. If you're a fan of historical fiction than you will not want to miss out on this. Check it out! If you don't want his membership than you can purchase his books from his online store for retail price with his autograph. The membership will be worth it, it will include all 5 planned Lion of War books and another 10 books that Cliff has planned to write and anything else he EVER writes. Repetitive I know but you really want to check this out!

http://store.fivestonesmedia.com/clif...

Looks like I've stumbled upon this discussion late. I obviously was looking for Gemmell like authors because I haven't been able to find many. Seems like I've stumbled across some good ones so I'll throw in my recommendations as well.
I'll second:
-Macht Trilogy by Paul Kearney
-Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.
I'll also recommend these series since no one has brought them up yet:
-A Raven's Shadow Series by Anthony Ryan (best heroic fantasy I've read in the last couple of years)
-Shadowdance Series by David Dalglish
-A Tale of the Kin Series by Douglas Hulick

I too am late to this party and have yet to find someone to pull me into a book like Gemmell did. I've looked into all these books recommended here and reviews by hundreds of people have kind of persuaded me that they'd all be a waste of money and can't show, like Gemmell did, that women in 'older model' societies could fit or break the mould, and that 'woman' (with all that goes societally with that- grr) was not the sum total of their characters.

The only author I have found comes close (and tbh only in one book, the rest are very good but not quite a gripping) was To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurtz. I did like many of the characters in Feist's books I will say, and the Assassin books by Robin Hobb (especially the early ones) almost hit the 'Gemmell' mark too.

I hope one day that I will find someone who did to characters what Gemmell did. Maybe I'll write one ;)

Just finished "Blood Song" by Anthony Ryan - this is as close as it gets to David Gemmells style. I am just reading the second book in the series and cannot tell right now if this great storytelling will continue.

-----update-----

To save you some time: I read the second book (Tower Lord) and it was very, very weak. Somehow all the great charactizations and fast plotting of the first one just vanished. It's a slow moving story, with weak characters.
So don't bother.

Sad but true.

(as always: my personal opinion - but there seem to be many others who agree with me)

Hey there. I've read some of Conn Iggulden's work, as it was mentioned his style is rather derivative of Gemmell. I enjoyed THE GATES OF ROME and am trying to find the time to go back to the series.

Like to add Raymond Feist to the list, especially the Riftwar books....Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon....fabulous.

Like many I love the Gemmell books. I have tried many others.

For most like Gemmell I would say Anthony Ryan and John Gwynne.
Anthony Ryan's first books was really promising, but the series fell apart after it sadly. His new series has started well.
John Gwynne is one who I am really waiting for the next book from, loving his stuff so far.

Peter V Brett's Demon Cycle (painted man etc.) stuff is good, but I found he has a bit of a superman complex going on where new more powerful things are constantly introduced, especially in the last book.
Brandon Sanderson does some amazing stuff - he revived wheel of time for me (which had dragged after a strong start) and the final book is amazing. Stormlight archieve series seems very good so far. More magic than Gemmell though.
James Barclay did the Raven series which is not bad.
Joe Abercrombie is great fun, not Gemmell but made me laugh.

Just looking into the Night Angel Trilogy, thanks for the recommendation!

Just finished "the Steel remains" by Richard Morgan. it almost feels Like David gemmell. the Story Developer much slower, but the Rest feels really good. will give the second one in the series a try, maybe the pace will quicken.

I read the Anthony Ryan blood song series and the John Gwynne faithful and fallen series within two months. I would say that Gemmell came to mind while reading both, more so with Gwynne's series that really seemed to be enjoyable throughout the 4 book series. Similar to the comments above, the Anthony Ryan series seemed to go flat after the first book.

I highly appreciate this group. I find that I'm always on a quest for another fantasy series and Gemmell seems to be the standard to which I compare all.

Books of jv jones not like DG but good.

Thanks for all the tips. As said above conn Iggulden is getting there . But so miss the legend .

Since the loss of David gemmel the only authors works I have read that for me have any similarity to the legends great style are Conn Iggulden the Conquer and Empire series, Ben kane the Forgotten Legion Trilogy and my favorite by far Sam Barone the Eskkar Saga.

The following authors I found very "David Gemmell like":

- John Gwynne (when reading I sometimes sort of forget the book was NOT written by Gemmell). Basically his books are
Gemmell + Multi-perspective like in Game of Thrones added,
with a setting that feels like Rigante.
- Anthony Ryan (at least the first book of Bloodsong)
- Kearney, Macht series. IMHO most DG like asides from DG himselves and from Gwynne.
- That book about the 300 of Pressfield (appearently Gemmell liked the book too, I read it after a comment on it by DG in an interview of him as to "what books do you read?"
- Andy Remic (I personally found the book not as good as the others, but it is somehow written "Gemmell-like", maybe I gave up too soon on the book? Don't know, the part I did not like was probably that he tried too hard to do a 1:1 copy of DG)
- Stella Gemmell ^^ (though also different, events happen much "slower" in her books it seems to me)

Other authors mentioned - at least those I read yet I found maybe good, but not Gemmell-like (didn't read Iggulden yet, heard Igguldens books would be Gemmell-like from various sources). Didn't read Barone and Kane yet either, the short descriptions do sound a bit Gemmell-like, though, goes to my to-read-list ^^

Hi everyone,
I have read extensively over the years and no one mentioned by people is even close to the style of David Gemmell. The closest I've come to would be Anthany Ryan. But, even he doesn't hit the mark.
The magic of gemmell was his development of the central character and the struggle between their nature and what they could've been. Other books look at a warrior in their prime or A warrior past their prime . He didn't really do the 'coming of age' stories. Generally gemmell books captivated you on the first page. It was a great loss to fantasy writing but still I hope someone will pick up the mantle.

There seems to be a short supply of authors that hit the same mark as Gemmell. He was just a great story teller. Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing authors out there who have written some amazing books but he just had a way of writing that I loved. That being said I would recommend battle mage by Peter flannery and the Ash series by Sean Hinn. If you like Gemmell then I think these are as good and have that same something.

Although very different to Gemmell in style the only author I have found over the years that engages me to the same extent, if not more, is Brandon Sanderson, The first Mistborn Trilogy is excellent and the four books so far from the Stormlight Archives are epic in every sense. My only complaint is the wait between the novels in the series. People like Eddings etc. just haven't engaged and any other epic fantasy books I have read seem lightweight and amateurish, Like some of the above comments I like the shadow series by Brent Weeks also the Lightbringer series has been very good, but similar to Brandon Sanderson the gap between the novels in the series can be annoying