You can read my full post about re-reading David Gemmell’s Legend over at BookThing. I just wanted to write a short piece here to say that it’s as good as it ever was. I decided to re-read it (and all of his books) while we were going through our books, adding them to Good Reads.
I have half a mind to re-write some of my reviews on BookThing because they tend to be very short in the early days, but we’ll see how that pans out.
Eight years ago I registered the gemmellmania.co.uk domain. Sometime in 1999, I registered the gemmell-mania.org.uk domain (don’t go there now, it’s just full of links). I ran various forums and web sites on those domains, hosted a Usenet FAQ (here, long out of date), ran mailing lists and wrote reviews.
The reviews eventually led to me meeting David, and to being a test reader on some of his later books, something I’m still astoundingly grateful for and proud of.
For a few years now, the site has had only a single page, my tribute to David. However, the time has come for me to let the domain go. The tribute is included on this blog as well (here).
The spirit of David’s writing lives on in The David Gemmell Legend Awards.
Just received this press release.
New Award Categories
When we established The David Gemmell Legend Award For Fantasy it was with the intention of subsequently introducing further award categories to cover other aspects of the fantasy genre. We are now pleased to announce two new, additional awards, to be presented at next year’s ceremony. They are –
The David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Newcomer
and
The David Gemmell Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art
The Morningstar Award will give recognition to emerging talent in the field of fantasy fiction. As David Gemmell always took a keen interest in new writers, and helped many onto the path to publication, we regard this as an appropriate category to add, and one we feel sure David would have approved.
The Ravenheart Award will honour the best fantasy book cover art. The importance of fantasy cover art deserves admiration, as do the artists who produce it, yet there is no major UK award acknowledging this. The Ravenheart Award will fulfil that role.
Like the Legend Award, the winners of these new awards, for best debut author and best cover/artist, will be decided by popular vote. The first Legend Award, for best fantasy novel of the year, presented at a ceremony in London in June of this year, garnered an incredible 11,000 votes from around the world. We are confident that the Morningstar and Ravenheart awards, which are being created with the full approval of the Gemmell family, will be greeted with no less enthusiasm.
Details of the process whereby these new awards will be administered can be found on our website.
Our aim is to establish, over time, a set of awards covering all aspects of the fantasy genre. Launching this pair of new awards takes us a step nearer to that objective.
The 2010 David Gemmell Awards ceremony will again be held at The Magic Circle headquarters in London, on Friday 18th June.
Please feel free to contact either of us if more information is needed.
Stan Nicholls (Chair)
Deborah Miller (Awards Administrator)
This is the press release.
The first annual David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy has been won by Andrzej Sapkowski for his novel Blood of Elves (published in the UK by Gollancz).
The Award was accepted on Sapkowski’s behalf by his UK editor, Jo Fletcher.
Presented before an audience of publishing industry professionals, authors, media and fans at the Magic Circle headquarters in Euston, London on 19th June, the Award has been established in memory of fantasy author David Gemmell, who died in 2006. The trophy, supplied by Raven Armoury, takes the form of a butterfly axe, named Snaga, that featured in Gemmell’s fiction.
Born in Poland in 1948, Andrzej Sapkowski worked in business before turning to writing. His cycle of tales set in the world of The Witcher have made him a bestseller in his native Poland and internationally.
The other shortlisted authors were:
- Joe Abercrombie: Last Argument of Kings (Gollancz & Pyr)
- Juliet Marillier: Heir to Sevenwaters (Tor)
- Brandon Sanderson: The Hero of Ages (Tor)
- Brent Weeks: The Way of Shadows (Orbit)
Each of the runners-up were presented with a miniature version of Snaga.
The Award was decided by an open ballot, and attracted over 10,000 votes from 75 countries.
**Photographs of the award ceremony to follow.
Further information: millerlau@clara.co.uk
Official website: http://GemmellAward.com
Stan Nicholls (Chair)
Deborah Miller (Award Administrator)
Congratulations to Andrzej Sapkowski, and to everyone involved in the award (the first of hopefully many David Gemmell Legend Awards).
Quick update about the David Gemmell Legend Award, there’s an article in the Guardian Online covering the award, you can read it here.
Here’s the article intro,
A group of fantasy authors have teamed up to launch a new award celebrating the genre and the bestselling author David Gemmell, who died in 2006.
The 18 authors on the steering group for the annual award, chaired by Stan Nicholls, author of the bestselling Orcs novels and administrated by Deborah J Miller, who has written the Last Clansman and Swarmthief series, hope the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy will help to redress the negative way in which fantasy is often viewed.
Don’t forget to visit the main site (http://gemmellaward.com/) and check out the long list, you have until the end of March to read and vote.
You can now follow the David Gemmell Legend Award website and info on Twitter.