The third anthology celebrating David Gemmell. I thought it a bit more uneven than the Parrish, but I still enjoyed reading the book. I must admit I haven’t read any Gemmell for many years now, although the ones I owned (2 or 3 of his first works) remained in my collection for quite some time. I think I may appreciate them more now I’m older should I reread them.

Either way, these short stories tend to the grittier style of fantasy, not the heroic style popular when Gemmell started writing. I’ll admit in the 1980s I preferred heroic fantasy to gritty fantasy, but now it’s the other way round. Generally, these stories were enjoyable, but one or two I didn’t think quite met the standards of the others.

Recommended

Legends 3: Stories in Honour of David Gemmel is ultimately a collaborative project between various fantasy actors, but I’d like to thank first of all, Library Thing for the opportunity of requesting this book and of course to the Editor Ian Whates, to whom I’m grateful for sending me a PDF copy to enjoy. You made July’s reading pretty fantastic.

The title says it all. Legends 3 is a small collection of stories in memory of David Gemmel, known for its excellent characterization and gritty world settings (not edgy!).
Book starts with a felt introduction by Stan Nicholls, remembering the beloved author by telling the reader the important things distinguishing him as both a person and a writer, going through his passing and eventual origin of the David Gemmel Awards.

He was a man I never heard of. Blame either my age or my culture.

He was a journalist and his skills as one showed in his own works, where both heroes and villains were relatable because they were based on real people. People he knew or interviewed. They would have their baggage and complex personalities but in a totally different world and setting. In Fantasy.
All the stories you’ll find here have such traits.
Some more fantastic than others, but all have swordplay and magic, just at different levels.

Digging a little deeper, despite all the darkness, David was a Christian (I’ll let those who know him better than I to confirm that), so virtue is something common in his works and the ones present in this tribute. Although its not mentioned in here, I believe it to be an influence to be mentioned in this review because I know some people I can recommend such style, and I’m sure many out there looking for some fantasy not evolving around pure savagery would appreciate.

About fifteen authors are featured, giving us more than 200 pages of pure enjoyment. It was an interesting voyage. Their length is, irregular to say the least. Some are long others incredibly short. My favorites are probably the first one and last one. Apologies to the other authors, but these two were the ones that pretty much inspired me. I was always a fan of Glen Cook style in Chronicles of the Black Company, even read it twice, and I feel it follows similar scenarios and approaches to the characters, maybe with Glen cook mixing more the line between good and evil, but when I read Legends 3 I was transported to the same genre. We do have heroes, but they are very flawed. In some way, I’d say the line between the persons they are and the enemy they fight is very thin. All it would take is small misstep to be on the other side. However, where Gemmel (Legends) is concerned, I notice the characters have much stronger motivations and are much more resilient to opposing views or what they believe to be sin. Therefore, virtue is enforced. You’ll see honour, redemption, loyalty, growth, sacrifice and facing opposition head on.

It may seem unfair favoring two stories, but I took things from each of the fifteen of them. Not only as an amateur with his own projects, but also as man facing life.
I’ve got somewhat of a problem with high magic, so where gods are too concerned, I probably didn’t like those as much, but the build up to them is amazingly done.

The book also ends with a message from the Editor Ian Whates, remembering Deborah J. Miller and giving some last words to the long standing fans of the series.
Amazing project.

Conclusion

Legends series is critically and commercially acclaimed, so you can be sure about its quality and the authors in it. If you are a fantasy fan, love dark worlds, magical worlds even, with real characters possessed of relatable motivations, this will be a delight. If you’re less about genre but more about characters (and war), you won’t be disappointed. Regardless of what I liked more or less, all the stories are exciting, and opened more space in my library to fit in the present authors and works. ( )

This anthology collects short fantasy stories inspired by and paying honor to the late David Gemmell, as well as the late Gemmell Award.

The stories are generally of a swords & sorcery bent, tending towards the dark and gritty (though not "grimdark"). Despite the fact that I'd never heard of most of this group of authors (Neal Asher the largest exception), all the stories are of very high quality and all but one I found quite enjoyable.

It's been many years since I read any of Gemmell's work, but I found this collection a fitting tribute and recommend it to anyone who enjoys action-packed fantasy. ( )

I had though this was a continuation of R SIlvaberg's excellent Legends series, first published in the 90s, there were two excellent collections of fantasy short stories, subsequently divided into shorter books. They featured short stories from some of the true Legends of the genre. Sadly this collection is somewhat different, it's a a few stories from less well known authors in tribute to the Legend David Gemmell, so they're all Epic Fantasy short stories (a bit of a contradiction in terms!) and now by the third anthology, the stories are no longer the best and few were memorable. The book series was created to help finance another set awards in his name, so the principle is sound, but I'd only heard of one of the authors before, who normally writes SF rather than fantasy, and this wasn't the best of offerings.

All the usual themes of epic fantasy are covered, with strong religions, overcoming impending death and the like, but there just wasn't a spark or sense of novelty in any of the writing. Not bad as such, just not new or exciting either. ( )