David Gemmell
David Gemmell (1 August 1948 – 28 July 2006) was a British fantasy writer who travelled halfway around the world to bring back his wife, who was stolen by Science Fiction writers. He became a legend among writers even after his death in 2006.
Birth of a legend[edit | edit source]
In 1982, Gemmell was just a journalist in his home village, where he was married to a woman. When people tried to fight him, he would use his skills as a journalist to make everybody hate them. This led to Gemmell being slightly outcast and ignored by the rest of the community. One day, a band of science fiction writers bored all the men in his village to death and captured all the women to sell off as space hookers at conventions. Gemmell went in search of them, taking his fathers special pen and publishing contacts to use against the raiders.
On Gemmell's quest, he was aided by the veteran writer David Eddings and upcoming novelist William King, who would try to bed any woman he saw on their quest. After a failed attempt to save his wife from the sci-fi writers, Gemmell published his book Legend to fund his journey across the sea, where he met another ally in the form of Bernard Cornwell, a skilled historic novelist who enjoyed beating people to the bestseller spot. He also befriended the great general of the Boy Emperor's book club—Chris Bunch—who persuaded him to join so that he could have help save Gemmell's wife.
When Gemmell eventually found his wife, she did not remember him, and had married Con Iggledon. When Iggledon's career was then conveniently killed by Chris Bunch and the immortal book club, she tried to kill herself, but was saved by Gemmell. Gemmell then left writing behind him and went back to being a journalist to spend more time with his wife.
After several years of peace, the immortal book club that Gemmell had once been part of changed their writing to science fiction. Bunch began to publish a series of space novels about a warrior named Sten that gained a lot of public approval. The Emperor had gone mad over the years, and began to take over all the other writing factions in order for his science fiction to rule all. Gemmell and King once again began to write in order to fight against science fiction and claimed victory. Unfortunately, the battle had its costs; both William King and Chris Bunch died in the battle for biggest bestseller and the Emperor was killed by his fans.
The Dark Years[edit | edit source]
After the battle against the book club, Gemmell came back to find his wife and children dead. Questioning people nearby, Gemmell found that the people who killed his family were amateur science fiction writers. In revenge, Gemmell published his only novel which was not fantasy—White Knight Black Swan. It insulted the writers and their way of life and destroyed their careers.
For nineteen years, Gemmell became a dark legend to scare small children. He was hired by many to ruin reputations of rivals. His novel Waylander told of the Emperor's weakness and worthlessness. From then on Gemmell was the man who had killed the Emperor's reputation.
Shortly after the ruin of the Emperor, Gemmell came across a student of Tolkien's fantasy named Christopher Paolini. He showed Gemmell how to love fantasy again and not just use it against people. Feeling guilty his for his deeds, Gemmell promised to bring back a great story for writers who were now against the oncoming storm of the film industry. Unfortunately, film producers were also after the greatest plot of all time and did not want Gemmell to get there first.
On the quest, Gemmell decided to get help from his old friend, Stan Nickolls, the untrustworthy writer, to retrieve the story from the dark lands of Israel. He also met his second wife on the way. However, the film producers sent a man to destroy his career. Peter Jackson tried to outdo Gemmell with his Lord of the Rings trilogy adaptation. However, the films only made fantasy more popular and Gemmell gained even more popularity in his redemption stages.
Gemmell found the story that would bring awe to the people and gave it to the lead writer of the writers guild, Dan Brown, who created the worldwide phenomenon The DaVici Code with it. Gemmell went back to living a normal life and published his own bestselling series, The Jerusalem Man.
Death and legacy[edit | edit source]
After more years of peaceful peace, Gemmell's publishers were losing money after the new army of Warhammer geeks decided to write their own fantasy books. Gemmell then came out of retirement for one last battle to save proper fantasy literature. Gemmell died during the attack on the fourth lawsuit against his publishers and stopped the Warhammer Army and its leader—Dan Abnet—from entering the great halls of fantasy.
For many years, the publishers of Gemmell's books held against the hoard of Warhammer, but in the end, they were defeated by Graham McNeil. Warhammer then became the only fantasy allowed to be published. Graham McNeil, however, was a big fan of Gemmell and, in respect for the great legend, Gemmell's books were never banned and people still respect him today as one of the greatest fantasy writer of all time.