If David Gemmell was still with us..?

[Narkalui]

If David Gemmell hadn't passed on so prematurely, how do we think his work would have evolved over the last 13 years?

Personally I think, in his later work he started to lean towards a more pacifistic ideology. I think it's clear he still admired acts of great valour, but his later books seem to be more admiring of characters and personalities who looked for peaceful resolutions before resorting to violence.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I think he would definitely have moved toward historical fiction. He mentioned before about wanting to, but that his publisher(s) insisted he needed to be marketed as fantasy.

It was only at the very end of his career that he was able to make any real attempt to break through, with his Troy trilogy, which was certainly very ambitious and brilliant in parts for it, but definitely more historical fiction than fantasy.

EDIT: Oh! I was just about to add that he could have done really well in the Roman historical fiction market, but then I remembered that he was seriously considering something to do with Byzantium as his next project after Troy.

 

[Narkalui]

That must have been about Belisarius and Justinian! That would have been a cracking read...

Now that you mention it, I do seem to recall him saying once that he'd wanted to do the battle of Hastings, but couldn't bring himself to it because the wrong side won...

 

[J Riff]

If he were still around he'd be a ghastly shambling zombie, could be entertaining. *)

 

[Udo]

Does anyone know if he had anything planned for post-Troy trilogy? I had always hoped for a return to the Rigante..

 

[Narkalui]

Welcome aboard Udo, I remember reading somewhere that he planned on writing a third book for Skilganon The Damned

 

[Brian G Turner]

Does anyone know if he had anything planned for post-Troy trilogy? I had always hoped for a return to the Rigante..

Welcome to the chronicles forums.

We published an interview with him just before he died: David Gemmell's last interview

He mentioned there:

5) Upon the completion of the Troy series do you plan to write something else about the ancient civilizations, or will you go back to the Drenai? Yet you have also mentioned an interest in the Native American tribes, are we likely to see a standalone or the continuation of another series such as the Rigante?

For reasons too personal to go into I have no plans at the moment for what will follow Troy. I would like to visit the Rigante one more time. I would also like to complete the Skilgannon series. There is also a Byzantine character who fascinates me, and would make a wonderful book. Time will tell.

 

[Narkalui]

So that's where I read it

 

[BAYLOR]

I would like to have seen him write a Conan or a King Kull novel.

 

[Chris von shannow]

He always said that there was more Drenai to come The War of the twins was often mentioned

 

[BAYLOR]

He always said that there was more Drenai to come The War of the twins was often mentioned

Excellent writer . But haven't see any of book in the store in along time .

If I may offer a suggestion

Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner

 

[biodroid]

I feel that he was killing off main characters way before it became popular with GRRM and ASOIAF. So maybe he would have got more recognition and more sales?

 

[The Big Peat]

I'd have liked to see him visit the mythology he created around Anharat and Emsharas more.