Kell's Legend

Saark on the back, then rubbed thoughtfully at his bloodied beard, and with glittering eyes said, “We all die sometime, laddie,” as the first of the cankers burst from the opening in a flurry of claws and fangs and screwed up faces of pure hatred.
    With a roar, Kell leapt to meet them.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    Many thanks must go to various people for advice and encouragement along the way, especially when the road glittered dark. Thanks to Ian Graham, author of Monument, for hardcore test reading, insightful advice and hallucinating the cankers. Cool!
    Thanks to Green Sonia the Savage, for encouraging me to write for insane periods of time in order to hit those deadlines, and never moaning.
    Thanks to Joe Blade and Olly Axe, for making me smile when the forest seemed dark.
    And thanks to Marc Gascoigne, for giving me a fresh crossbow-shot at scribing fantasy. I owe a few tankards of honey-mead!
    Finally, a big thank you to Claire and Natalie Ralph, for their original inspiration and for being such good little vampires.

Extras…
20 MINUTES INSIDE THE MIND OF
Andy Remic
    As part of getting to truly know our authors, we sometimes like to throw a bunch of quickfire questions their, see if we can get a glimpse of what they really think. And then, well, we lobbed some of those questions at Rem…
    One book
    Legend by David Gemmell. I read it when I was 15 years old, and it was extremely influential. I later struck up a friendship with Dave, and he never forgave me for a critique I once did (circa 1990) in which I said one of his novels had elements of the “turkey” in it. He said his book had never been described as fowl before, and I was lucky not to receive a right hook.
    One book to burn
    I don’t really criticise other writers’ works if I can help it. Authors, without exception, work incredibly hard, even if a book is perceived as “ready to burn”, so I leave the acid to “professional critics”.
    One film
    This would have to be Blade Runner, extremely influential and dark, moody, violent, intelligent, and based on a superb Phil Dick source text! Although I do have a secret passion which will guarantee small children point at me and laugh—I love those old Conan films. “Conan, what is best in life…”
    One film to burn
    What do I hate? Hmm. I think it’s got to be The Wizard of Oz. Everybody bangs on about how brilliant it is; I thought it was a pile of sputum. Go on, burn it. As an aside, I am pretty good at burning things myself. I set fire to my decking a few weeks back using petrol on a BBQ; dumb, I know, and I nearly died, but on the upside the firemen thought it was pretty funny (especially as my brother is a fireman), and I got an invitation from Keith Flint to his annual summer party. Firestarter? Twisted firestarter? Surely not.
    One song/record
    “Green and Grey” by New Model Army, from the album Thunder and Consolation. Just perfect. But it’s closely followed by Cypress Hill’s “Tequilas Sunrise” from IV. That’s more than one, right? Hot damn, I wish I could count.
    One record to smash
    Showwadaawaddywaddy, or however the bastard you spell it. Hell! It’s hell, I tell you. I bought an album when I was 10 years old. The shame. The horror. The horror. Kurtz, kill me now.
    One creative person you always wanted to be
    JRR Tolkien. Think of those royalty statements!! And of course, he was a genius masquerading as a university lecturer. Or maybe a university lecturer masquerading as a genius.
    One book you wish you’d written
    Harry Potter. Very well written, and just think of those fat royalty statements!
    Who’s your hero?
    Justin Sullivan, of New Model Army, who ironically sang, “There are no heroes anymore”.
    Ideal dinner party guests
    Why, that would be the wonderful people from Angry Robot Books. OK, aided and abetted by New Model Army, and hell, why not, the cast from Twilight. Yes, I am getting back in touch with my teen roots. Although it has to be said, if Milla Jovovich popped in, I wouldn’t deny her a sausage.
    The biggest influence on your writing
    David Gemmell, recently departed King of Heroic Fantasy. Sorry. It’s just the way it is. Because of Dave, I started writing seriously, and indeed started writing heroic fantasy.
    The biggest influence on your life
    My dad. A complex one this, so I won’t go into it here (it’s part of my PhD, it’s that complex). He was as close to a hero you could get or hope for. Heescaped from two prisoner-of-war camps, and he