A reader's guide
The novels of David Gemmell
Legend, Waylander, the Rigante and Troy: heroic fantasy about flawed people who hold the line, by a former newspaper editor whose first novel is still in print.
This guide covers all 33 of his novels. Each has a spoiler-light synopsis, honest reading notes and its place in the series. There are also reading orders, a character guide, a glossary of his worlds and a short life of the man.
What should I read next? Find the next book from the ones you have read.
Three ways in
- The classic
Legend
An old axeman, a fortress with six walls and an army at the gates. His first book and still the best place to meet him.
- The antihero
Waylander
A hired killer who murdered a king tries to put right the damage he caused. Darker, leaner and a favourite with many readers.
- The history
Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow
Gemmell's retelling of the world before the Trojan War. No magic to speak of, and a natural first book for readers of historical fiction.
The series
Drenai
Eleven novels across more than a thousand years of one invented nation, held together by Druss, Waylander and Skilgannon. Start with Legend and read in publication order.
Eleven novelsStones of Power
The Sipstrassi, stones of Atlantis that grant almost anything at a price. Two novels rework Arthurian Britain; three follow Jon Shannow, the Jerusalem Man, across a ruined future.
Five novelsHawk Queen
Two highland novels. Sigarni, a huntswoman descended from an old king, is drawn into leading a conquered people; the second book goes through a gate to an alternate version of her world and a new cast.
Two novelsRigante
Four novels in two pairs about a highland people. Connavar and his son Bane face the empire of Stone; centuries later, Kaelin Ring and Jaim Grymauch live under Varlish occupation.
Four novelsTroy
Gemmell's Trojan War as Bronze Age history, told through Helikaon (Aeneas), Andromache and Odysseus. The third book was completed by Stella Gemmell after his death.
Three novelsMacedon
Parmenion, a half-Spartan outcast, becomes the general behind Philip of Macedon and is drawn into the fate of the young Alexander. History with a supernatural current; the Sipstrassi appear.
Two novelsStandalone novels
Four fantasy novels outside any series. A fan timeline sets Knights of Dark Renown and Morningstar in the Drenai world's distant past, but all four can be read alone and in any order.
Four novelsOutside the fantasy
Two crime novels: White Knight, Black Swan, published in 1993 as Ross Harding, and Rhyming Rings, found among his papers and published in 2017.
Two novels
The people who keep coming back
- DrussDruss the Legend, Deathwalker, Captain of the AxeFour books · Drenai
- WaylanderDakeyras, Waylander the Slayer, the Grey ManThree books · Drenai
- SkilgannonOlek Skilgannon, Skilgannon the DamnedTwo books · Drenai
- Jon Shannowthe Jerusalem ManThree books · Stones of Power
- ConnavarConn, DemonbladeTwo books · Rigante
- HelikaonAeneas, the Golden One, Lord of the Silver BowThree books · Troy
All 57 characters · Places, peoples and terms
About the author
David Gemmell was born in west London in 1948. Expelled from school at sixteen, he worked as a labourer, a lorry driver's mate and a nightclub bouncer before a local paper took him on, and he spent the next twenty years in newspapers, rising to edit titles on the south coast.
He drafted his first novel in 1976 while waiting for the results of tests for cancer. The illness turned out to be something else, and the book, Legend, was published in 1984. By his death in 2006 he had written some thirty novels, and a public-voted fantasy prize, the David Gemmell Legend Award, was later named after him.
The Drenai books in order
- 1Legend (1984)
- 2The King Beyond the Gate (1985)
- 3Waylander (1986)
- 4Quest for Lost Heroes (1990)
- 5Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf (1992)
- 6The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend (1993)
- 7The Legend of Deathwalker (1996)
- 8Winter Warriors (1997)
- 9Hero in the Shadows (2000)
- 10White Wolf (2003)
- 11The Swords of Night and Day (2004)
The Drenai series: what each book is about and which need another first