Celebrating the female in fantasy writing

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor.

This week’s column began as a tribute to my favourite fantasy novel heroes, inspired by my current read, David Gemmell’s Legend. The book is often listed as Gemmell’s most famous. It also serves as our introduction to the legendary hero Druss, who goes on to be featured in several other books by the author.

Legend is my first book by Gemmell, and I find it extremely absorbing so far – even though it does lean much more towards that epic fantasy style that I’ve not been reading much of late (with the exception of George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series).