Economy Size Geek

You’ve probably never heard of David Gemmell. He isn’t any where near as famous as somebody like Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin. That being said he was probably my favorite author of all time. I’ve read everything I could find with his name on it - something like 30 books.

I was just on a plane flying back from San Francisco when a friend asked me about the book I was reading. It is the second book in what I assume will be a trilogy. I opened the back cover to show my friend the picture of the author. There in plane print it said - “David Gemmell died in July of 2006″.

This is a bummer on a couple of levels - just to confirm I looked it up when I got back -

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Fantasy writer Gemmell dies at 57

A nice quote from Gemmel at http://www.gemmellmania.co.uk/content.php?article=12

For the last few months I have been struggling with the writing. I tried to quit smoking and found that the years of polluting my brain with nicotine meant that I couldn’t string a reasonable sentence together without filling my lungs with smoke. I went three months without a drag, took a good look at the crap I was writing and lit up.

The first is that I’m half way through a book that the next part is going to be put together from notes he left behind.

The second is that I lose access to a voice I’ve really enjoyed listening to. He was a writer who did a great job at telling a tale about heroes in a way that reminded you that war is bad and that everyone has flaws, but it doesn’t mean that can’t over come both.