Tag: theme

Thoughts after finishing Legend by David Gemmell

I just stayed up a bit late, finishing Legend by David Gemmell.  Wow.

According to his  wikipedia entry, Mr. Gemmell wrote Legend in two weeks while waiting to hear if his cancer diagnosis was terminal.  After reading this book, I can definitely see how that influenced the writing.

This book is incredible, one of the most authentic, thought-provoking things I’ve read.  It is…just incredible.  I’ll articulate my thoughts better when I write the review, but let me just say that reading this book made me a better man.

I want to quote the passage that impacted me the greatest, because it has to do with some of my more existential thoughts about being an aspiring writer–no, being a writer and aspiring to be an author.

“All things that live must die,” said Vintar. “Man alone, it seems, lives all his life in the knowledge of death.  And yet there is more to life than merely waiting for death.  For life to have meaning, there must be a purpose.  A man must pass something on–otherwise he is useless.

“For most men that purpose revolves around marriage and children who will carry on his seed.  For others it is an ideal–a dream, if you like.  Each of us here believes in the concept of honor: that it is man’s duty to do that which is right and just, that might alone is not enough.  We have all transgressed at some time.  We have stolen, lied, cheated–even killed–for our own ends.  But ultimately we return to our beliefs.  We do not allow the Nadir to pass unchallenged because we cannot.  We judge ourselves more harshly than others can judge us.  We know that death is preferable to betrayal of that which we hold dear.

I don’t want to write books just to entertain.  I don’t want to fill pages with words just so I can get paid and take care of my temporal needs.  Both of those are important, of course, but I don’t want to write “good reads” that people put down and completely forget about after a few months.

At the same time, I don’t want to write just to express myself either.  I don’t think I deserve any special treatment for being a writer, and I don’t suffer under the delusion that I’m somehow gracing the world with my genius (at least, I hope I don’t).  The world owes me nothing, and I’m certainly not the most qualified person to  be out doing this kind of thing, making the world a better place by telling stories.

What I do want to do, however, is write books like Legend, or Mistborn, or The Neverending Story, or Ender’s Game, or Spin, or any number of other books.  Books that you read and remember, because they changed or inspired or impacted you in some profound way.  Books where you read the last hundred pages in a breathless sprint, because you connect with the story in a deep and personally moving way.  Books that help people to understand the world better, to appreciate its beauty, to see the people in your life in a new light, and connect with them in new ways.

I can tell you exactly when I crossed the threshold from childhood to adolescence, down almost to the very day.  I crossed that threshold by reading a book: Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech.  For what I was going through at that pivotal time in my life, that book had a profound, formative impact.  It helped me to see my family members in a new light, to understand a little bit better the changes I was experiencing in my own life, and to get through an emotional period that was particularly rocky.  When I read that book, I changed as a person.

That’s the kind of stuff I want to do as a writer: pass something on.  Something meaningful.  Something that will make this world a better place by connecting with someone, anyone, on a deeply personal and intimate level.  Something that will help peope to stand tall and live their lives more fully.

I don’t know if I’m getting this across effectively, but those are my thoughts at this time.  Legend is a damn good book.  It’s in good company, along with all the other books that have just made me go “wow.” Someday, I hope something I write will be up there on the same level for someone else.

Hero in the Shadows by David Gemmell

Waylander gave up his dark life as an assassin years ago–or so he thought.  When an ancient magic gateway begins to break down and evil beings from another world set out to reconquer the lands of Kydor, Waylander finds himself caught up once again in the cycle of war and bloodshed.

Waylander joins forces with Kysumu, a rajnee warrior who has been training all his life to be the best swordsman, and Ustarte, an escaped  changeling experiment who has come from the demon world to organize a resistance.  But when the spirit of Qin Chong comes from the past to aid the fledgling resistance, he comes to the unlikeliest person of all–the ditch-digger Yu Yu Liang.  As Kysumu wrestles with envy over the spirit’s choice, he comes to understand what it truly means to be a hero.

This book was good. Way good.  Not only was it a thrilling action/adventure story, it was full of deep, wonderful insights into the nature of courage and cowardice, life and death, good  and evil, and true heroism.  David Gemmell’s books are full of wonderful insight, and deliciously complex in the way they deal with life’s most important and meaningful questions.

I read the last hundred pages at a breathless sprint.  So many of the characters died!  Yet even though the story was very violent, I didn’t feel that it was excessively so.  The violence always had a reason to be there, and added something to the story.

What really surprised me was how Gemmell redeemed even some of his most evil characters.  Just when you think one of the main antagonists is soulless and outright evil, he shows you another side of the character and makes you rethink him/her entirely.  Amazing.

Not only where the “good guy” characters imminently likeable, they were surprisingly relatable.  I felt like I understood exactly how Kysumu felt, having spent his whole life training to be the best warrior, only for the spirit of Qin Chong to choose a clumsy, shameless commoner.  As he struggled with his  jealousy, I felt I knew exactly what he was going through.  Interesting stuff.

Waylander, too, was very interesting.  Even though he was the best warrior out of anyone in the book, he was far from invulnerable or perfect.  He had a dark side that was very believable–not too gritty or over the top.  In fact, I think Waylander was originally an antagonist in the earlier books in the series.

When I read White Wolf, I had issues with the plot structure and excessive use of flashbacks.  Not so with this novel.  The plot progressed wonderfully, keeping me engaged and interested the whole time.  The twist ending was delicious!  Wonderfully satisfying.

Above all else, this is a book that means something, that actually says something.  I came away from this book satisfied, not only because of the excellent, entertaining story, but because of the way the story made me think.  Gemmell is an expert at creating depth to his characters and his stories, pulling you beneath the surface to glimpse at things that are really important and meaningful.

Some thoughts

This is going to be real quick, since it’s 1:30 am and General Conference is tomorrow.   The revision is going along really well for Genesis Earth–I am really excited about this project.  My only regret is that I don’t have more time to dedicate to it.  As it is, I’m probably putting too much time into it already.  But it’s worth it–it makes me happy, and I feel I’m telling a story worth hearing.

Yesterday was also the awards banquet for the English department.  It was a very positive experience.  I saw a few familiar faces–Chris from my English 318 reading group last year, and slipperyjim from Quark.

The main address and proceedings in general were very interesting.  There was a lot of talk about the value of literature, its importance in our society, but more than that, the importance to write good literature.  By that, I don’t mean the kind of stuff that has the stamp of approval of some elite clique of stuck up literary types somewhere–by that, I mean literature that has purpose and meaning, that shows us something worth living for, not merely pointing out the absurdities of our modern world.  There are plenty of absurdities and paradoxes and stupid little meaningless things, but where does it really get us to be pointing those out all the time?

I came away from the conference with something really valuable: a heightened awareness of all the things that made me want to write Bringing Estella Home, the novel I’ve been working on this semester. 

Bringing Estella Home is very tragic, a little dystopian, and has a lot of unrealized hopes–a lot of shattered lives.  It’s essentially a tragedy, and I’ve found that I don’t particularly enjoy writing tragedies.  When you’ve worked on one for a few months, it tends to grate on you–all of these suffering characters, and you with the knowledge that it’s only going to get worse.  Not very feel-good.

But that’s not the thing that made me want to write this book.  There were two things that I wanted to get across, two major ideas: sacrifice and loyalty.  If that makes any sense.  I guess it won’t, unless you read the finished book, but I wanted to show how people struggling to do the right thing in a world turned upside down could find meaning and depth in their suffering, in their trials.  Suffering comes and goes, but it shapes you in ways that last forever, and I wanted to show good people becoming better through their suffering.  I guess that’s the best way to put it.

I think I’d lost sight of that recently.  This novel needs a lot of major changes to it, especially in the middle section, which I was just wrapping up when I put it on hold.  But with a clearer idea of the overarching goal of the story–what deeper meaningfulness I’m trying to get across–I think I’ll be able to pick it up again and give it a strong finish.  That’s good.

I don’t know if I’ll ever write another tragedy again.  This one has been quite a ride.  However, I shouldn’t just throw it out and run away from it–I really need to listen to this story and tell it like it needs to be told.  I guess that’s the ultimate motivation, or should be.  I don’t just sit down and write because it’s what I do, I do it because it is something meaningful, something that can help others see the world in a new, better way, and obtain those truths that will really bless their lives.