Legend by David Gemmell is an intriguing tale of a hero from the past coming out of retirement to help fight a battle. This is the first book I have read by Gemmell and can honestly say I will be reading more. Gemmell has a straight forward style that is not over the top, but he has a knack for weaving a great believable story. I never post spoilers in my reviews, but there are two things in this book that I didn’t see coming. One positive and one negative, I’ll let you decide which is which.

The characters are what truly drive this book. While the story is good, the characters are that much better. From Rek and Druss to Bowman and Hogun, they are all believable and all have their flaws that add to the story. Another thing that I found particularly enjoyable was the dialog of the characters. Gemmell has a way of making sure the reader hears different voices in their head as the characters talk. I have been told that character dialect is one of the most difficult things for a writer to do and Gemmell pulls it off with no problems at all. I have read books that are character driven that I have not liked at all, yet with these characters you don’t want the book to end.

On top of great characters is a pretty straightforward plot, but done in such a way that the reader doesn’t know what to expect. I mentioned before the hero of old returns from retirement to fight in this epic battle. I am not one that enjoys reading about these large scale battles, I think they are over done and can be found in to many books, yet the way Gemmell does it he gives the impression of the large scale battle – without all the fluff. There is a little bit of political intrigue but the meat of the story is the battle, holding the keep from the invading army. I wasn’t sure if the book could sustain this battle for as long as it did, but when I finished I could easily see how more could have been written about it and still been fine.

I have a few ‘complaints’ about this book, one I won’t mention because it’s a spoiler. But the other is simply that the ending felt rushed to me. The entire book is building up to the end of this massive large scale battle, only once you get there – it seems rushed and a little disjointed. It’s not to say it’s a bad ending, just that I think it could have been done better and still gotten where the author wanted to go. I think part of this may be due to this being the first book Gemmell had published at the time (1984), but it bugged me a little bit.

With all that said, I think if you are a fantasy fan, even a casual fantasy fan at best, you will enjoy this story. I would highly recommend it.