Legends 2: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell

This second collection in honour of the great David Gemmell offers short stories from another group of fantasy authors, some of which have been winners or nominees in the David Gemmell Awards which this collection helps to fund. Amongst them is also a brief but well-constructed story from David Gemmell’s widow, Stella Gemmell.The stories gathered here are, perhaps, more varied than the previous Legends collection. There are several heroic fantasy tales with a Norse or Celtic influence, but some of the latter stories include fairy tale, Arthurian, post-apocalyptic and western elements. There is even a quite typical zombie romp and one story set on the steamboats of the Mississippi but intriguingly with elf, dwarf and orc characters.There is plenty of heroic action and some decent fight sequences. The grittiness of Gemmell’s worlds and the shades of grey that permeated his characters is present to some degree across the selection. However, there isn’t a great deal of the magic side of things that similar to his approach and nothing of the concept of people discovering some sort of immortality that allows them to assume the role of semi-deities to later peoples; an idea that Stella Gemmell successfully adopts in her novels.However, perhaps the most interesting part of the book might be the introduction from Stan Nicholls (who also provided the introduction for the first Legends collection). It is an essay comparing and contrasting the approaches of Science Fiction and Fantasy in reflecting the modern world.

Just one unbelievable collection! I love every single story in this book. Each of them different, each great piece of read. Thank you!

I read a lot of anthologies, mostly because I can get lost in a really good short story and still fit it into a busy day. Usually there is at least one story which just doesn't do it for me, but not here. Top quality stories by writers familiar and new, with a wide range of settings and genres. It took me a couple of attempts to get into Anthony Ryan's contribution, 'Sandrunners', but actually I found the world he created fascinating when I finally got round to it and would be interested to see where the story could go. Amongst the highlights, Mark Lawrence offers the introduction of the faithful Makin to the royal household (for fans of the Broken Empire), Gavin G Smith lends a humorous steampunk heist story which kept me guessing, there are haunting tales from Stella Gemell and Edward Cox and John Horner Jacobs writes a Western with an unexpected twist. Highly recommended if, like me, you like to escape into a fantasy world at short notice

Fantasy Fiction at its best.David may be gone, but his Legend will line on.....Legend being his first book I ever read..... Get it?A Ten Star read, in a five star world.....

Absolutely love this, especially the stories by Mark Lawrence and John Gwynne. It’s a tribute to David Gemmell so it was always going to be good

Gemmell was always the best

The stories were vibrant and colourful, gripping and dark ,yet funny all I want in a good story ,some I didn't want to end I found I wanted to follow some of the characters on their journey as with some stories you never want them to end great read can't wait for the next legends collaboration

Not as good as Gemmell naturally