History Creator / DavidGemmell

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Generally played fairly straight in his works, but far from universally. For instance, when we first meet Waylander he exclusively visits prostitutes for sex because he's terrified of emotional involvement after the death of his first family. He initially turns down his eventual second wife for this very reason (she can only persuade him to sleep with her by accepting a token payment beforehand) and returns to his old ways after her death.
** A more precise message, found throughout his books, is "People who care about their partners have good sex" -- many otherwise sexually accomplished characters, hero and villain alike, find that their manifold previous experiences pale before those with someone they genuinely trust and care for.
*** Druss phrases this quite bluntly in Legend, referring to his wife: "I had a real woman once, and since then I've never needed another."

* HeroicFantasy
* HistoricalFantasy
* HumansAreBastards

* RatedMForManly

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: In ''Echoes of the Great Song'', (dyed) blue hair is used to make the ruling Avatar class stand out.

Another epic series is the ''Literature/StonesOfPower'' series, consisting of seven books set in three widely-separated time periods: two in UsefulNotes/AncientGreece; two in Dark Age England, featuring the people who became mythologised as KingArthur and his knights; and three featuring TheGunslinger Jon Shannow in a WildWest-style post-apocalypse wasteland. There's also TimeTravel involved, mixing in a couple of other time periods, including ThePresentDay and the golden age of Atlantis (where all the trouble started); there's even a character for whom the events of the Jon Shannow novels occur ''before'' those of the Arthurian ones. And, somehow, it all works.

* SuperpoweredEvilSide: Dace to Tarantio in ''Dark Moon'', although he's more like a superpowered [[PowerTrio Id]] - the two are the extremes of the split personality of their traumatised childhood progenitor.

He also wrote two other heroic fantasy series (the ''Literature/{{Rigante}}'' series and the Hawk Queen duology), a half-dozen standalone fantasy novels, and a crime thriller (which was published under the pseudonym Ross Harding to avoid confusing readers). At the time of his death he was working on a {{Demythtification}} trilogy set during UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar; he had completed the first two parts, and working on the third, which following his death was finished by his wife, Creator/StellaGemmell from his detailed notes.

* {{Demythtification}}: In his reimagining of UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar, at least. Elsewhere, magic of various forms is a standard.

Another epic series is the ''Literature/StonesOfPower'' series, consisting of seven books set in three widely-separated time periods: two in AncientGreece; two in Dark Age England, featuring the people who became mythologised as KingArthur and his knights; and three featuring TheGunslinger Jon Shannow in a WildWest-style post-apocalypse wasteland. There's also TimeTravel involved, mixing in a couple of other time periods, including ThePresentDay and the golden age of Atlantis (where all the trouble started); there's even a character for whom the events of the Jon Shannow novels occur ''before'' those of the Arthurian ones. And, somehow, it all works.

Following its immense commercial success he went on to write a sequel, of sorts, ''The King Beyond the Gate'' in 1985. Although that was also successful he found himself wanting to explore the past of what was becoming his Drenai Saga. Thus was born ''Waylander'' in 1986. The Literature/{{Drenai}} Saga ended up being 11 novels.

Another epic series is the Literature/StonesOfPower series, consisting of seven books set in three widely-separated time periods: two in AncientGreece; two in Dark Age England, featuring the people who became mythologised as KingArthur and his knights; and three featuring TheGunslinger Jon Shannow in a WildWest-style post-apocalypse wasteland. There's also TimeTravel involved, mixing in a couple of other time periods, including ThePresentDay and the golden age of Atlantis (where all the trouble started); there's even a character for whom the events of the Jon Shannow novels occur ''before'' those of the Arthurian ones. And, somehow, it all works.

He also wrote two other heroic fantasy series (the Literature/{{Rigante}} series and the Hawk Queen duology), a half-dozen standalone fantasy novels, and a crime thriller (which was published under the pseudonym Ross Harding to avoid confusing readers). At the time of his death he was working on a {{Demythtification}} trilogy set during UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar; he had completed the first two parts, and working on the third, which following his death was finished by his wife, Creator/StellaGemmell from his detailed notes.

* Literature/{{Drenai}} saga
* Literature/{{Rigante}} series
* Literature/StonesOfPower series

Possibly the most prolific (he was known to write an entire 500 page novel in ''one weekend'') {{Heroic Fantasy}} writer of all time, David Gemmell was born in West London in 1948. He had a harsh and violent upbringing in a tough urban area, and was raised alone by his mother until the age of six. His stepfather, Bill, compelled him to take up boxing to learn how to stand up for himself, rather than run away or hide behind a wall. This philosophy would later colour a great deal of his writing. He was expelled from school at the age of 16 for organising a gambling syndicate and was arrested several times throughout his youth, [[CurbStompBattle mostly for ending fights.]] He was once described by a psychologist's report as a psychopath. [[note]]just so somebody doesn't get the wrong idea, Mr. Gemmell was by all accounts one of the nicest, most generous people anyone could ever hope to meet; the "psychopath" thing was mostly referring to his ability to focus completely on whatever he was doing at the time, such as writing.[[/note]]

* Tear Jerker: [[http://www.legendreaders.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86:david-gemmell-gives-insite-into-his-source-of-inspiration&catid=37:general-david-gemmell-content&Itemid=62 The story behind Druss' creation]]

Following its immense commercial success he went on to write a sequel, of sorts, ''The King Beyond the Gate'' in 1985. Although that was also successful he found himself wanting to explore the past of what was becoming his Drenai Saga. Thus was born ''Waylander'' in 1986. The Drenai Saga ended up being 11 novels.

Another epic series is the Stones of Power series, consisting of seven books set in three widely-separated time periods: two in AncientGreece; two in Dark Age England, featuring the people who became mythologised as KingArthur and his knights; and three featuring TheGunslinger Jon Shannow in a WildWest-style post-apocalypse wasteland. There's also TimeTravel involved, mixing in a couple of other time periods, including ThePresentDay and the golden age of Atlantis (where all the trouble started); there's even a character for whom the events of the Jon Shannow novels occur ''before'' those of the Arthurian ones. And, somehow, it all works.

* AfterTheEnd: The Jon Shannow novels.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Quite possibly averted in the case of Jon Shannow -- it is strongly implied that he remains a virgin into his thirties, before hooking up with the heroine in the early stages of his first book.
* AndIMustScream: The ending of ''Dark Prince'' leaves the Dark God Kadmilos [[spoiler: trapped inside of Alexander The Great's dead body, which is embalmed and encased in unbreakable crystal. Kadmilos can't move or speak and the only way to break his link to the body would be if it rotted away or was burned to ashes. Plus, he gets to experience the Egyptian embalming process firsthand.]]

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Jon Shannow certainly knows his scripture.
* BadassGrandpa: Jon Shannow grows into one.
* BadassPreacher: In the Jon Shannow novels.

* TheDrifter: Jon Shannow. Quite a few others, too.

* ExactWords: Sarento should've been a touch more specific when asking Shannow to transport him back to Earth in the 20th Century.
* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: This becomes a major plot point in the last Jon Shannow book, where in one alternate universe [[SacrificialLamb fallen friend]] Sam Archer becomes a [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome tough resistance leader]] and the first book's BigBad ... gets [[EldritchAbomination a lot]] [[PhysicalGod Bigger]].
* ExpositionOfImmortality: ''Dark Prince'', one of the Sipstrassi novels, has an epilogue in which the [[AncientGreece Greek]] philosopher Aristotle is strongly implied to also be Leonardo da Vinci; maintaining his long life with the use of Sipstrassi. The time is given as "unknown," but when [[spoiler: Parmenion]] asks about what happened to Alexander, we're told he died seventeen hundred years ago.

* GreenLanternRing: The Stones of Power. In the Jon Shannow series alone they are used for healing, immortality, mind control, invisibility, transmutation, travel between dimensions and through time, force fields, telekinesis, genetic modification, seeing down to microscopic scales, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking recreating]] [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment the final voyage of the Titanic]].

* TheGunslinger: Jon Shannow, again.

* HeroicSacrifice: Possibly played straight, possibly averted at the end of the Jon Shannow trilogy. [[spoiler: Shannow transports [[BigBad Sarento]] to the twentieth century, just like he wanted. It's just that Shannow took him to ground zero during the first atomic bomb test.]] It's not entirely clear whether or not Shannow actually ''dies.''
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Alexander the Great, among quite a few others.

* HollywoodAtheist: You would expect that, given that the author was fairly outspoken about his Christian beliefs. You would be wrong. In ''Wolf in Shadow'' Batik, a Hellborn refugee, describes himself as "not religious" and comes across as having his head screwed on tighter - and generally being much more sensible and overall happier with life - than Bible-following Shannow.

* IAmAHumanitarian: Jon Shannow is unlucky enough to come across two cases of this in quick succession in ''Wolf in Shadow''. First he fights off a tribe of cannibals who file their teeth to points. Then later on, when he's going through the saddlebags of a [[TheLegionsOfHell Hellborn]] he's just killed, he finds some tasty-looking cuts of preserved meat. He's seconds away from having a bite when someone else tells him that the meat comes from child sacrifices.
** The [[LizardFolk Daggers]] and [[PettingZooPeople Beast-men]] from ''The Last Guardian'' and the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Daroth]] from ''Dark Moon'' also find humans rather tasty.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Jon Shannow's silent raid on a Hellborn camp suddenly goes awfully noisy when one of his allies (who, to be fair, had never handled a gun before) tries to cock a stolen pistol while simultaneously squeezing the trigger.
* LowCultureHighTech: The Hellborn from the John Shannow series ride horses, practice human sacrifice, wear goats' horns on their helmets...and pack high-quality firearms.

* ManOfWealthAndTaste: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Abaddon]], the Satanist BigBad in ''Wolf In Shadow''.

* MookHorrorShow: There are passages written from the perspective of an increasingly terrified villain whose story ends with the protagonist killing them, featuring Jon Shannow among others.
* NoCureForEvil: If you feed a Sipstrassi stone with blood, it can no longer create food or heal injuries.
* OldMaster: The Lance-Lord (kind of), and quite a few others.
* PlayingTennisWithTheBoss: In ''The Last Guardian'', [[ItMakesSenseInContext with a nuclear missile and a time portal]].

* RealityEnsues: From a writer who's characters regularly battle through severe wounds through willpower this happen unepextacly to Jon Shannow - a strong hit to the side of the head with a club puts him out of commission for months and requires a lot of physical therapy to get over.
* RedBaron: Jon Shannow, the Jerusalem Man.
* ReligionOfEvil: The Hellborn.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Jon Shannow acquires a couple of magazine-loaded pistols, but prefers to rely on his cap-and-ball revolvers.
* SaharanShipwreck: The Titanic in ''Wolf in Shadow''.

* StableTimeLoop: In one of the Jon Shannow novels. Also in ''Morningstar'', in which the legends of Morningstar inspire a thief to become a hero, before he goes back in time to ''become'' the hero who inspired him.

* ThisIsMyBoomstick: Happens a few times in the Jon Shannow novels, sort of. In the [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] setting, people still know what guns are -- but current levels of technology can get no further than primitive revolvers. So in the first book, the few people who preserve or reverse-engineer guns from before the Fall (ranging from semi-automatic pistols and rifles to machine guns) are at a decided advantage in combat.
** Occurs in a more traditional fashion in the third book. Jon Shannow briefly travels in time to modern-day America, and returns armed with twin Desert Eagles, Uzis and a pump-action shotgun. The first forty or so enemies he runs into after that [[CurbStompBattle don't know what hit them]].
* TimeTravel: In the Stones of Power novels, this is one of the powers that the Stones can impart. Consequences include a StableTimeLoop or two, and a character for whom the Arthurian historical duology takes place ''after'' the AfterTheEnd trilogy.
* WackyWaysideTribe: Jon Shannow meets more than his fair share in his first book.
** Not really for Shannow, he only really meets two tribes in the first novel and both play large roles

* YouCanBarelyStand: Many of his most prominent heroes continue to kick ass literally until the moment of death, and certainly some time after the moment of mere fatal wounding. These include [[spoiler:Jon Shannow and Clem Steiner from ''Bloodstone'']].

He also wrote two other heroic fantasy series (the Rigante series and the Hawk Queen duology), a half-dozen standalone fantasy novels, and a crime thriller (which was published under the pseudonym Ross Harding to avoid confusing readers). At the time of his death he was working on a {{Demythtification}} trilogy set during UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar; he had completed the first two parts, and working on the third, which following his death was finished by his wife, Creator/StellaGemmell from his detailed notes.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Played straight in-universe with the first book of the Rigante series, where the protagonist is sent off to the local [[UnusualEuphemism 'earth maiden']] so he'll know what he's doing on his wedding night. He proves to be quite a fast learner.
** Quite possibly averted in the case of Jon Shannow -- it is strongly implied that he remains a virgin into his thirties, before hooking up with the heroine in the early stages of his first book.

* BadassFamily: Many of the most prominent (and hardest) characters in his longer-running series are distant ancestors. Most notably, his Rigante series is set in two different time periods, roughly corresponding to the Roman invasion of Britain and the English Civil War. The main character of the former is a common ancestor of much of the main cast of the latter.

* BigEater: Kaelin Ring [[RatedMForManly (who eats steaks, plural, for breakfast)]] and most Rigante when they get the chance. Elsewhere, wilderness travellers and soldiers under arms are shown getting by on realistically meagre rations.
* [[spoiler: BoomerangBigot]]: the Moidart, who spends most of ''Ravenheart'' oppressing the Rigante every which way you can think of [[spoiler: has Rigante blood himself. The reason for his actions? He despises the Rigante for the fact that, despite being ferocious warriors, they never bothered to create an empire of their own.]]
* ChekhovsGun: Not a staple ingredient in his work, but there's an excellent one in ''Ravenheart''. The first chapter features [[SupportingLeader Jaim Grymauch]] being lightly mocked for carrying around a huge two-handed claymore, when the armour it was designed to counter (plate) became obsolete centuries ago. It's not seen used again, and the reader has nearly forgotten that he owns it, until the final act -- where he urgently needs to kill four members of a [[KnightTemplar conservative knightly Order]] who are wearing full ceremonial plate armour...

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Moidart, despite being a major character in half the Rigante series we never learn his name. The same goes for another minor character, the Moidart's rival, The Pinance.
* ExactWords: "You will find fame, Valanus. You wil find fame." [[spoiler: General Custer-style fame, but still fame.]]
** Sarento should've been a touch more specific when asking Shannow to transport him back to Earth in the 20th Century.
* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: This is explicitly how the Rigante and Jon Shannow universes work. In the case of the Rigante this is only quietly touched upon but it becomes a major plot point in the last Jon Shannow book, where in one alternate universe [[SacrificialLamb fallen friend]] Sam Archer becomes a [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome tough resistance leader]] and the first book's BigBad ... gets [[EldritchAbomination a lot]] [[PhysicalGod Bigger]].

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Rigante, of the eponymous series, are essentially very Scottish Celts (and later, simply Scottish). The same series also features counterparts of Romans and Vikings as well as, in the chronologically later parts, Native Americans, Cavaliers and Roundheads.

* HeroicBastard: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Bane the Bastard]] from the Rigante series.

* TheMagicGoesAway: A pervasive theme throughout the Rigante series -- mystical beings weaken and die as human evils wash away magic from the Earth. Likewise the one-shots ''Dark Moon'' and ''Echoes of the Great Song''.

* MedievalStasis: Gloriously averted in the Rigante series.
* MookHorrorShow: There are passages written from the perspective of an increasingly terrified villain whose story ends with the protagonist killing them, featuring Jon Shannow and Kaelin Ring among others.

* PerspectiveFlip: after a fashion in the first two Rigante novels = ''Sword in the Storm'' focuses on Connavar and how he became a king, while ''Midnight Falcon'' follows the exploits of Connavar's estranged illegitimate son Bane. The differences in Connavar's portrayal are... rather stark.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Rigante.

* ReligionOfEvil: The Hellborn, and Winterbourne's cult in the last Rigante book.

* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Praxas in ''Sword in the Storm''; less so by the time ''Midnight Falcon'' rolls around.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Taybard Jaekel in the later Rigante novels. Good freaking gravy, Taybard Jaekel.

* SinisterScythe: Huntsekker in the Rigante series has one as his signature weapon. It's a European-style scytheblade, but with a shortened hilt so it's wielded like a kama and worn like a sword.

* UnstoppableRage: Connavar has blacked out and killed everything in sight when put under severe stress. In general, it is rarely a wise idea to make a David Gemmell protagonist really angry.

* YouCanBarelyStand: Many of his most prominent heroes continue to kick ass literally until the moment of death, and certainly some time after the moment of mere fatal wounding. These include [[spoiler:Jon Shannow, Clem Steiner from ''Bloodstone'', and Fiallach from the Rigante series]].

* BadassPreacher

* RedBaron

* SameFaceDifferentName

* TimeTravel

* ArrowCatch: A rather neat example in one book -- a rookie swordsman finishes his workout with a spin to block an imaginary arrow, accidentally parrying an actual arrow that had been fired at his back. The guys who tried to murder him are so impressed by this dazzling feat of arms that they pretty much surrender instantly.