# 2011 David Gemmell Legend Award



## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Its the time again for the prestigious Legend award, and Black Library fans must again really to support their authors. Yet again the Time of Legends series has been nominated, only this time its _Shadow King_ by Gav Thorpe thats up for the award.


http://gemmellaward.com/page/shadow-king-gav-thorpe


Show your support for Black Library, lets see if we can win it twice in a row :grin:.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

And for those of you who want to see all the nominees:
http://gemmellaward.com/page/legend-1

I want to get my hands on _The Bear_ by R.A Salvatore, if it's as good as the rest of the books in his _The First King Saga_ then that's the book that'll be getting my vote.


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## Jezlad (Oct 14, 2006)

I think its a insult to the man when they give a frankly poor author like McNeil his award because hoards of screaming GW fan geeks vote. 

I won't be voting for a BL author this year and frankly never will.


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## Marcoos (Sep 26, 2010)

Before anyone votes for The Shadow King, please read it. God it's awful, definitely the worst BL book I've read.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

There's worse on offer, and Shadow was far better than the Malekith and Sigmar novels. Still needs a lot to catch up Nagash and Aenarion (Audio only, but a good story).

However, none of them are as good as City of Ruin by Daniel Davis, or Trudi Canavan's The Ambassadors Mission.

I've heard good things of Salvatore, and I'm seeing if I can drop enough hints for Christmas.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

I read _Empire_ and when I voted for it I honestly thought it ws the best novel of all the nominees- I think it's similar in quality to some of Gemmel's books (just not Druss or Waylander stuff though, McNeill isn't that good).

_Shadowking_ is an excellent book (though I think the Sigmar trilogy is better) but I really like the first 2 books in The First King Saga by R.A Salvatore- so if I can't get round to reading _The Bear_ (book no.4) then I just wont vote at all.


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## Shogun_Nate (Aug 2, 2008)

Jezlad said:


> I think its a insult to the man when they give a frankly poor author like McNeil his award because hoards of screaming GW fan geeks vote.
> 
> I won't be voting for a BL author this year and frankly never will.


A-bloody-men... 

When the first Sigmar book came out I was ready to throttle McNeil for what I saw as stealing from Gemmell's Druss novels. To be honest, the only thing I've seen even close to being worthy of an award like this from BL was _Warrior Priest_. The writing style, while not as top-notch as Gemmell's, was done in a strong fashion while giving the characters life. 

Good luck and good gaming,

Nate


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

to mimic the ninja who posted before me, I'd much rather have seen something of higher quality entered for BL, I was quite happy with Bloodborn by Nathan Long, probably because it's one of the few fantasy books i've read this year, but also because it was just written very smoothly. I'm frankly surprised that's not on there. 

As much as it's a nice thing to have BL win two years in a row, i'm reserving my judgment until i see/read some of the other nominees. I'm not just going to blindly throw my vote in for BL unless i think it's the best. That's just the nature of my beast.

CP


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

I generally think its a shame that BL trys to hoard votes by just appealing to dedicated BL/GW fans. I would only vote for a BL novel for such an award if I truly felt it deserved it, not simply because BL published it.

I can understand that it is a great boon for a BL author to win such an award, but it should be because of his work rather than because BL generally maintain a larger fanbase (or at least potentially) than other individual novels/authors.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Baron Spikey said:


> I read _Empire_ and when I voted for it I honestly thought it ws the best novel of all the nominees- I think it's similar in quality to some of Gemmel's books (just not Druss or Waylander stuff though, McNeill isn't that good).
> 
> _Shadowking_ is an excellent book (though I think the Sigmar trilogy is better) but I really like the first 2 books in The First King Saga by R.A Salvatore- so if I can't get round to reading _The Bear_ (book no.4) then I just wont vote at all.


Considering what ive heard about Druss and Waylander, I don't think anyone alive is that good anymore. Ive never read him but Gemmell was clearly something else, alas he is no longer among us. Wonder what he would think of this award.



Commissar Ploss said:


> To mimic the ninja who posted before me, I'd much rather have seen something of higher quality entered for BL, I was quite happy with Bloodborn by Nathan Long, probably because it's one of the few fantasy books i've read this year, but also because it was just written very smoothly. I'm frankly surprised that's not on there.
> 
> As much as it's a nice thing to have BL win two years in a row, i'm reserving my judgment until i see/read some of the other nominees. I'm not just going to blindly throw my vote in for BL unless i think it's the best. That's just the nature of my beast.
> 
> CP


I think because its a relatively newer entry, _Shadow King_ has been around longer and is part of a larger series.

My vote is already for Black Library however its not just because its Black Library. Its because ive never read, or heard of in most cases, of any of those other authors. I haven't read _Shadow King_ yet but ive read Gav Thorpe and I like his work, enough to trust that ill like _Shadow King_.

If Terry Goodkind were on that list i'd vote for him in a second, the _Sword of Truth_ series is award-deserving.



Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> I generally think its a shame that BL trys to hoard votes by just appealing to dedicated BL/GW fans. I would only vote for a BL novel for such an award if I truly felt it deserved it, not simply because BL published it.
> 
> I can understand that it is a great boon for a BL author to win such an award, but it should be because of his work rather than because BL generally maintain a larger fanbase (or at least potentially) than other individual novels/authors.


I don't think its just the dedicated fanbase voting for it, otherwise there's no way it would win. Empire was popular and likely read by far more than just the Heresyites here, or the Boltholians or the B&Cans.


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## Mob (Nov 14, 2010)

Jezlad said:


> I think its a insult to the man when they give a frankly poor author like McNeil his award because hoards of screaming GW fan geeks vote.
> 
> I won't be voting for a BL author this year and frankly never will.


QFT

I read their books because I'm addicted to the GW settings, not because they're amazing writers. I'm not looking forward to BL spamming vote requests again.
Saying that, that noms list is very poor in general. I didn't qute realise the Fantasy market had gotten so bad.

I have to admit, I liked that McNeil got the award, but only because I remember him saying some years ago that Gemmell was an inspiration to him as a writer.
(Although McNeil is actually the kind of anti-Gemmell. Gemmell only had about 3 plots and 5 characters, but he wrote the most compelling, beautifully simple prose that twisted inside your heart; his characters are so well-realised in their dialogue and motivation that they can make grown men cry. McNeil writes overly complex plots that increasingly incorporate an overly dry, cerebral hook and his characters, while they can be fairly cool and likable, are emotional vacuums both in their own relationships and how the readers feel about them.

Also, Thorpe is a total hack even compared to McNeil, as nice, smart and imaginative as he comes across. The man doesn't understand commas and it gives me grammar rage.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Lord of the Night said:


> I don't think its just the dedicated fanbase voting for it, otherwise there's no way it would win. Empire was popular and likely read by far more than just the Heresyites here, or the Boltholians or the B&Cans.


I didn't say that. But BL puts out several messages through blogs Et cetera attempting to get their fanbase to vote for their nominated books. It's obviously not just the dedicated fanbase voting for BL books, but the extra votes could easily be enough to snatch victory.


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