A small detour from my reading list -- I read the next two books in the Troy series. When I read the first one, Lord of the Silver Bow, I had dismissed the writing style as "summer potboiler," but that was too light a brush. I had already realized the strength of the story was the characters, but the strength of the writing is that everything is perceived through the characters: neither David nor Stella ever show their hand as authors -- they let their characters do the work, which makes for a very compelling story.
And yet this is deeply their story, so much so that it hurts to think about it. Shield of Thunder could have easily been named Everyone Dies in the Arms of Their Loved Ones, and David Gemmell died before this was published. His wife Stella finished the last book, Fall of Kings, using his notes, and in the last chapter, when Andromache lights her husband's pyre, it is clear that this was not just the story of Greek heros and heroines, but the authors' story as well.
As I got toward the end, I was reading slower and slower. It was hard to finish this series because it dawned on me that I knew what would happen to Troy -- everyone does -- and that these characters were all going to die. It made me ridiculously greatful for the characters who did survive despite how ridiculous the set-up was. (Friends who became enemies became friends again; against improbable odds, Helikaion and Andromache are reunited with his two sons; his sons are set up as the models for Romulus and Remus; oh and there was more.) We are all heros and heroines in our own stories, and part of that mythology lives forever, and yet all of us die: it is so powerful a theme, and all the more so because the authors were living (and dying) in its unfurling.
Lessons for writing seem so trite after so powerful a tale. Let your characters tell The Story...not a story.
And Stella Gemmell is still writing. Her "first" book is here.
And yet this is deeply their story, so much so that it hurts to think about it. Shield of Thunder could have easily been named Everyone Dies in the Arms of Their Loved Ones, and David Gemmell died before this was published. His wife Stella finished the last book, Fall of Kings, using his notes, and in the last chapter, when Andromache lights her husband's pyre, it is clear that this was not just the story of Greek heros and heroines, but the authors' story as well.
As I got toward the end, I was reading slower and slower. It was hard to finish this series because it dawned on me that I knew what would happen to Troy -- everyone does -- and that these characters were all going to die. It made me ridiculously greatful for the characters who did survive despite how ridiculous the set-up was. (Friends who became enemies became friends again; against improbable odds, Helikaion and Andromache are reunited with his two sons; his sons are set up as the models for Romulus and Remus; oh and there was more.) We are all heros and heroines in our own stories, and part of that mythology lives forever, and yet all of us die: it is so powerful a theme, and all the more so because the authors were living (and dying) in its unfurling.
Lessons for writing seem so trite after so powerful a tale. Let your characters tell The Story...not a story.
And Stella Gemmell is still writing. Her "first" book is here.
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