Fantasy Book Critic: **EXCLUSIVE** A David Gemmell Short Story: The Birth of a Legend

At Fantasy Book Critic, we love to commemorate our favorite authors. Today is the 4th anniversary of the death of one of Fantasy’s brightest stars. David Gemmell left this world in 2006 and left a huge gap in the world of heroic fantasy. Our team of reviewers are huge fans of Gemmell's books.

Fantasy Book Critic has recently been given the opportunity to post this extremely rare excerpt. Originally this excerpt was first mentioned in this interview here (reference to the excerpt is in the last 2 paragraphs).

The Games Master issue has finally been located and Fantasy Book Critic has received all the required permission to be able to post it here for the enjoyment of everyone.

We would like to pronounce our heartfelt gratitude to Mrs. Stella Gemmell, Mr. Howard Morhaim[David’s Literary Agent] and Gareth Wilson[DG fan] for their help in making this excerpt available to all Gemmell fans.

This excerpt can be read as a preface to chapter 1 in The first Chronicles of Druss the legend. As it the first three pages detail Druss’s wedding day[which has not been seen in any of Druss’s books] pages 4 and 5 deal with the first true fight Druss faces[parts of this are already found in the book. Think of this excerpt as a first draft of that scene].

So go ahead and enjoy this small tale which was almost lost and then hopefully you will go on to read the rest of David’s work as well.

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(To be able to read the excepts please click on the photos as they will appear larger when clicked).

12:01 AM |

Posted by Cindy |

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12 comments:

John D. said...: >>...we love to commemorate our favorite authors...

Why is it people honor the deceased by marking the day of their death? How about celebrating their day of birth?

(I'm not judging: I know your motives are good. This practice just always made me curious.); July 27, 2010 at 11:25 PM
The Reader said...: Good question John ... I'm in no way qualified to answer this however I feel that in DG's case his birthday will alwasy be a joyous occasion for all his fans and those who have had the pleasure to have known him.

For those of us unfortunate not to have done so, this day will always be a sad one as we will mourn his loss and speculate about his books. So to lessen the gloom, we chose to post this "almost-lost" excerpt today.

Also David's Birthday is just days away as it falls on August 1st.

Mihir; July 27, 2010 at 11:48 PM
Anonymous said...: There's lines chopped off the scans on the bottom of the first, maybe top of the second, and top of the fourth pages.; July 28, 2010 at 2:17 AM
Cindy said...: I'm sorry about the chopped lines and I will see if we can get a better copy. If not I believe that the majority of the story could be read without those handful of lines.

I don't know the answer to that John. I think it's the same reason that so many people jump on the bandwagon of stars, authors, movie actors and singers after they die. Why couldn't they listen to the music or read the book before the they passed? Though in this case I feel that the birthday and the day he passed are close enough that it could have gone either way. In the case of this post the 28th worked out better then the 1st of August.; July 28, 2010 at 2:41 AM
ediFanoB said...: Thank you so much for the story!

I'm sure you will find a solution for the chopped lines.; July 29, 2010 at 12:48 PM
Joe Crawford said...: At Cross Plains, TX they commemorate the death of RE Howard(Conan) every 2nd we in June with Barbarian Days. We had the same question so a bunch of us have started a drinking and carousing day in Austin on his birthday. We could do the same for David easily. Hmm, Dog and Duck on August 1- sounds doable, eh wat?
joe; August 9, 2010 at 2:06 PM
Alex said...: Awesome stuff!
Thanks heaps.; August 20, 2010 at 1:40 AM
The Shadow said...: I've got this issue i a box somewhere - it was a great thrill to read the story all those years ago when I bought the mag. I was at the height of my Gemmell mania. Top stuff!; August 20, 2010 at 5:57 PM
The Reader said...: @ Everyone

Thank you for your heartfelt comments. We finally got the rescanned pages to include the (previously chopped-off) lines as well.

Also the Magazine cover is included as well.

Mihir; August 30, 2010 at 4:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Fantastic! I had this issue of the magazine back in the day, but then lost it somehow, and I've been looking for the story again ever since.
Many thanks for posting this rare gem!; January 22, 2012 at 5:57 AM
Ginge said...: I do still have this issue of GM magazine (along with a couple of others). I forgot about it until I read this article. Thanks for the reminder!
:); September 23, 2013 at 2:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Brilliant thank you; August 20, 2022 at 10:14 AM