Legend

Legend isn’t the kind of book that I’d normally go for.  It’s that kind of fantasy tale that I tend to associate with forty year old men who still live in their mother’s basements and spend their time abusing women on computer games.  Anyway, as none of the kind of books I’d normally go for have helped, I thought I’d give the kind I can’t stand a go to reinvigorate my love of reading.  And it kind of worked.  David Gemmell’s book isn’t great.  In fact, it’s downright stupid in places, but I wanted to finish reading it.  And I wanted to write about it.

The book tells the story of Druss, the legend of the title.  He is an aged warrior preparing for his final battle, one that he knows cannot be won.  It’s a story told from varying perspectives and there’s nothing wrong with it, as such.  Once the battle gets going it actually ends up being quite good and given that the battle is roughly half of the book that’s saying something.  Inevitably, Druss dies.  There’s some nonsense about a prophecy and some kind of battle rage known as baresark which isn’t really developed.  Given that this is the first book in a series, I can forgive that, even if I didn’t particularly enjoy those bits of it. 

Druss is sort of an interesting character.  He is respected and beloved by everyone; even his enemies acknowledge his greatness.  He has a meeting with the leader of the opposing forces before his death.  People are fascinated by him.  He is so famous that he is able to kill on his reputation alone.  At one point he mentions that most of the fights in his dotage were won because his opponents believed that they could not beat him.  There are parts of the book that really remind me of Blonde.  It’s a tale about a legend that simultaneously perpetuates the legend.

There are bits of this book that I simply could not stand.  The biggest offender is the romantic subplot.  Early on, solider Rek meets Virae.  She hates him.  Really properly loathes him and it’s made worse by the fact that he saves her life.  Anyway; she hates him.  And then, about twenty pages later they are madly in love.  It’s unbelievable and stupid and it’s just badly written.  It reads like it’s written by a man who has never spoken to a woman, much less cared for one.  There are lines in their subplot that read like they come from the cheesiest, most heavy handed love story out there, “’I love you,’ he said.  A dolphin surfaced below them, calling out a musical welcome before again seeking the depths.”  Lines like that are best left uncommented upon.

So that’s it.  A sort of okay book that has some seriously low lows and some kind of alright highs and some nice philosophising on the nature of war.  Most importantly, the book did its trick and I am looking forward to reading again so I think that Legend has done its job.  Luckily, I don’t have to read any more of Gemmell’s work.  It’s not bad, it’s really not.  It just isn’t the best book ever and while I enjoyed it well enough, I’m not certain what it’s doing on The List.

I’m now on to Fools of Fortune by William Trevor.