Legend

Drawing heavily on the culture of the ancient Norsemen, Gemmell takes familiar archetypes and crafts them into a well-told tale of sacrifice and dying well. Druss and his once-possessed axe Snaga come out of retirement to shape the men of Drenai into an army that can do the impossible, affirming he really is a legend. While pretty straightforward, Gemmell's prose manages to inspire despite making no effort to downplay the grim tragedies of war. Legend has become a classic standard of the heroic fantasy genre.Gemmell has written an extensive body of work in his lifetime and all of it pretty much classified as 'heroic' fantasy in the truest sense. Legend is perhaps his most well-known book and his breakout read and many would argue some of his other works are superior (my top pick would be his Troy trilogy). However, as Legend is his first and most well-known, we've chosen this book to represent his body of work.But don't think of this as the first and only book, but merely the place you should start when reading his fantasy.