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Summary: Not Just Another Book About Fighting
Review: When I picked up this book I thought that it would be yet another book of battle after battle, good against evil, with no real plot whatsoever. I was genuinely surprised when I got caught up in the plot of the book. David Gemmell has a way of bringing the characters to life and letting you feel the joys and pains of the characters, even if only for a little while. Druss the Legend is just that, a legend. He was and is one of the mightiest warriors ever told about in stories. Druss is an old man now, a hermit living in the mountains waiting to die. The Nadir barbarians are advancing on the Drenai people, and the only thing between the two is one six-walled fortress destined to fall. Druss was asked to come down from his mountain and join the Drenai in their hopeless fight.
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Summary: Fast, Furious, Addictive!
Review: At last! A book that captured my attention and held it through every single page. This review is like the book - short & sweet.Not a deep book, but deep enough with a few subplots to keep ya guessin'. Who will survive? Who is the next Legend? Just how doomed are they? Who is the traitor? What is his/her motivation? Is the bad guy really all that bad? What fun! It's the desperation and determination of the doomed characters that immediately earned my respect, and that' exactly what happens to the characters IN the book! It is a fast paced paced read with excellent battle descriptions. I've been looking for a book like this for the last several years amidst all the epic 26 volume sagas! I lost several hours sleep; I could not put it down! Read and enjoy!
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Summary: Hearkens back to the days of yore...
Review: ...Legend is one of the most refreshing books I have read in a good long time (probably since the last time I read it). It is not great literature, and it doesn't try to be. What it is is a grand heroic adventure full of awesome, bloody, inspiring battle scenes, motivational speeches and pep talks to shame BraveHeart, brave warriors, beautiful women (most of whom also happen to be brave warriors), magic, sieges, true love, valor, and all that other good stuff. It is the story of a vast empire, soft due to complacency, that is being threatened by the barbarian hordes basically. All that stands in the way of the main barbarian armies is one fortress, vastly undermanned, and the soldiers there aren't really soldiers at all but farmers volunteering as soldiers. And at fifty to one odds against, their chances of holding the fort until their empire can raise a REAL army aren't looking good. Enter Druss, fat old man and legendary warrior, who has never lost a battle, who has never given up, who has never sacrificed his principles. The main point of this book is, can the defenders hold out long enough, can this living legend fighting with them give them enough hope to survive. The question isn't whether they will win, but rather how long until they lose. Don't look for deep characters or character development here, look for grand heroes and grander villains, who make their point with actions much more than words. But what action! This has quickly become one of my favorite books just to pick up an read. Try it, you'll love it!
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Summary: Incredible in all aspects
Review: Gemmel creates a world like no other. For it is a mirror of ours. It is hard to read LEGEND and not consider all the hidden meanings among the pages. Druss, one of the side characters is a symbol of what we all fear, FACING DEATH. In LEGEND we get to see a man's last days in full veiw. And few people in history have witnessed the deaths of so many great men as readers get to in legend. LEGEND is the perfect book in other aspects as well. Witnessing a seige like no other, through his writing you become one of the desperate defenders and can hear every blow fall.
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Summary: One of the best epic novel's ever!
Review: Legend, by David Gemmel, is one of the best epic boks ever written! It is filled with great action, adventure, suspense, romance, and comedy. The book focuses on Druss, a retired warrior who is called to the aid of the giant six-walled fortress Dros Denloch. Denloch is the only thing that stands between the peaceful Dreani lands and the evil Nadir barbarian hordes. The book also focuses on Rek, a person who is almost the exact opposite of Druss. Toward the beginning of the book he is somewhat of a coward. Rek is a loner who flees from town to town trying to escape the inevitable war with the Nadir. Through his journies he encounters and rescues Varai, a beautiful and strong girl who happens to be the earl of Dros Denloch's daughter. The two eventually fall in love and make their way to the doomed Denloch to fight of the hordes. As I have said before Legend is a great book. And author Gemmel is great at spinning his tale, filling it with very dimensional characters, bloody and descriptive battle scenes and a very smart story line. I was incrdibly impressed when i first read Legend. It has very few flaws except one. The main enemy Ulric needed to be better developed. Their were not enough scenes with him in them and he was not up to calibur as far as being an extremely evil villian. But this minor detail hardly detracts from the book at all. Partially because this is Druss's and Rek's book. Legend is highly recomended and should be in every adventure loving person's home. On spectacular read!
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Summary: 'Legendary'
Review: I loved this book from the first time I picked it up at 16 - to now (some years later). For pure enjoyment you could do no better than Gemmell.
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Summary: Simply brilliant, fantastic stuff.
Review: A few, a small few warriors, must face a hoarde who threaten to swarm over them. They stand in a great keep of seven walls. Each wall has a name and each name is one state of emotion that we feel when we face death. So the defence of the walls, and each wall lost, brings death closer. Central to the story is Druss the Legend, the axe wielding warrior who moulds the defence into a coherent fighting unit and gives them the backbone to stand in the face of certain defeat. This is powerful stuff, and it is a crafted novel that has been well thought out. Very thin on magic and strong on character, a book about human spirit. This book is a classic.
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Summary: As epic as Ender's Game
Review: Wow, this book brought forth a new level of fantasy reading that I never thought possible. Once you get to about halfway through the book, it is impossible to put down. Gemmell writes descriptive, bloody battles that make you feel like you are there developing even the smallest characters before they die. Yes, the overall plot is simple (most of it is a single battle where 20,000 men defend a keep against half a million invaders), but the emotion tied up in each character, and the descriptions in every scene are breathtaking. This book is one of those "read it over and over until the cover falls off" books like Ender's Game and Wheels of Time (well, maybe thats going a bit over the top, but trust me its worth the read!)
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining
Review: I read this book with guilty pleasure. With regard to writing, characters, storyline, it is unsophisticated, simple. In short, woefully outnumbered protagonists battle hoards of conquering barbarians that resemble mongolians. A few fairly colorful characters are featured, and a sprinkle of magic is added to liven things up. The Druss character is a Conan clone. "Wave after wave" of mongolians charge high fortress walls to die. Still, this is not a bad read if you want a war story in a fantasy setting. However, I skimmed though the limp love sequences and the weak speeches by the Legend Druss. They sound a bit ridiculous, like this: "we fight for glory! Do you want to live FOREVER?!" . In spite of these criticisms, I recommend this book for those who like to read about war in fantasy settings. There are better books for that, however. Try the Black Company books by Glen Cook, the first few have nailbiting siege scenes. Or of course Stephen Donaldson's books. Parke Godwin and Bernard Cornwell's arthurian series. Even the Bazil Broketail books have credible and very engaging battle scenes, if you can get past the goofy cover art.
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Summary: Hey, this guy is GOOD!
Review: Legend was the first David Gemmell book I ever experienced. It is a truly brilliant example interesting, believable storytelling and the best fantasy novel I had read since I had read Tolkein ( many moons ago!) The idea of the hero Druss, coming out of retirement to fight a grand last battle is a moving one , and Gemmell deals with it like a real master. Since reading Legend, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that Gemmell's books just keep getting better! He is probably the only fantasy writer worth reading today. You won't be disappointed.
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