My favourite book...
Updating my followers with all the crazy things I'm planning
The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend
From a young age I’ve always loved fantasy novels - both reading and writing them. I remember in Intermediate School (Middle School for the Americans among you), our teacher would give us a new creative writing prompt each week for our writing projects, and I would take that prompt and figure out how I would fit it into the ongoing story I was writing about a fighter pilot dropped into the Bermuda triangle. I swear at a certain point she was just trying to mess with me to see what I’d do with her prompts…
But at the same time as my writing was beginning to bloom, I was also delving into fantasy authors such as David Eddings, Tamora Pierce, Phillip Pullman and of course, the unrivalled heroic fantasy works of David Gemmell. While I could name a dozen authors from those days that I still read and enjoy today, there has always just been something about the characters Gemmell wove through his stories that drew me in. There is very little ‘grey’ in Gemmell’s stories - his books are about epic clashes between good and evil, whether they be kingdoms or the forces of the devil and the Source. Quite different from a lot of the fantasy works we see today. But amidst that black and white, Gemmell spins some amazing heroes, ‘men to walk the mountains with’ as he would put himself, along with some truly villainous antagonist.
And the greatest amongst his heroes is Druss the Legend. The main character of his very first novel, Legend, Druss is a mighty warrior inspired by Gemmel’s stepfather, Bill. His entire life, he has stood against the darkness—both evil forces that threaten his loved ones and his country, and the darkness within his own soul. Druss the Legend is very much his origin story, as Druss sets out to rescue his wife, who has been kidnapped by bandits. His journey is one that stretches across nations and years. Kingdoms will fall and Druss meets many great men, and evil ones, all of who help to shape the legend he will one day become.
It is also one of the few books that time and again will bring a tear to my eye.
So there you have it. Anyone who’s read a few of my blog posts or listened to my interviews will know David Gemmel is one of my greatest inspirations, and I still hope to one day be able to craft characters the way he does on his pages. I do have one story in particular that draws inspiration from Druss - the character of Devon, a former soldier who resigns from the army after witnessing the atrocities committed in the name of his kingdom. You can read more about Devon in the Legend of the Gods, the first 300 pages of which is available for free here on my Substack!
That's it for me, hope you all have a great September!
Write on!
Aaron Hodges
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Probably the best Drenai novel. Episodic but compelling throughout. I know Legend is reckoned "the classic", but it never grabbed me in the same way as The King Beyond the Gate, Waylander or First Chronicles did.