The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

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David Gemmell

4 universes Last reviewed 2026-09-24

David Gemmell was born on August 1, 1948, in London, and was expelled from school at sixteen for running a gambling syndicate. Before turning to writing, he worked as a laborer, a lorry driver's mate, and a nightclub bouncer, and later became a journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of five local East Sussex newspapers and freelancing for national papers including the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. His breakthrough novel, Legend (1984), originally written under the title The Siege of Dros Delnoch, launched a career in heroic fantasy that produced more than thirty novels, including the Drenai Saga and the Troy trilogy, selling more than a million copies worldwide. Gemmell died on July 28, 2006, in Hastings, England, of complications following heart bypass surgery; the following year, the David Gemmell Legend Award was established in his memory, decided by public vote with a steering committee of authors.

Universe(s)

The Drenai Saga

  • Core Canon books: 11
  • Current rank: #59 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.27
  • Award recognitions: 1 won

The Rigante

  • Core Canon books: 4
  • Current rank: #43 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.31
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Jon Shannow (Stones of Power)

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #126 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.20
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Troy

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #23 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.37
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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