Reviews for Rarity

The average rating for Rarity based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-08-20 00:00:00 chika okwesa Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune edited by Lynn Abbey, is the 2nd book in the new Thieves' World short story anthology series (not to be confused with the 12 books in the original Thieves' World anthology series.) For those who don't know, Thieves' World is a series in which each book has short stories all set in the same fantasy world, written by different authors. The only restriction is that while authors can make use of each others characters (and are encouraged to), they can't kill them. In the original series, this often led to authors causing all sorts of mayhem to each others characters, without killing them off, such as imprisoning them, torturing them, framing them, etc. The series is set in the cess-pool of a city, Sanctuary, an independent city state which is remote from most other countries, but relatively weak on it's own, and often conquered by various outside parties. Basically, imagine Sanctuary as the worst a fantasy city has to offer, and with all of the assorts ruffians, smugglers, mercenaries, necromancers, slavers, and of course, thieves, that you would expect in such a city. In this volume, the a central event has links to many of the stories - a treasure laden ship has sunk not far away, and many of the items scavenged or washed ashore have turned up in the city. Aside from this, the stories are relatively independent, which doesn't in any way make them un-enjoyable. The stories range from average to good, with a few that are excellent, and stand above the rest. Many of the stories are about small events, even though they are important to the protagonists, which is a refreshing change of pace from most fantasy stories that eventually revolve around epic quests to save the (city, kingdom, world, or multiverse.) The stories I particularly liked were Lynn Abbey's "Good Neighbors" about one of the tragic lives of a typical resident of Sanctuary, Dennis L. McKiernan's amusing "Pricks and Afflictions" and the always entertaining escapades of the half-hairless, lisping, and well endowed dwarf Rogi, and the stellar "Man from Shemhaza" by Steven Brust. This last story is a gem all on it's own - one of the best short stories I've ever read, and has large implications for Sanctuary in future volumes. As for future volumes, this book was published in 2004, and unfortunately, there's no next book in sight. I hope that something is able to be put together soon, since it's been a joy to re-visit Sanctuary for a few books, after the first series ended, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to read how some of the storylines begun in this book play out.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-13 00:00:00 Adrian Yoshiyama To the best of my knowledge, this is the last collection of Thieves' World stories, and probably the last there will ever be - an excellent set of stories, great sword-and-sorcery fantasy fiction. I'm sad to have reached the end of the road - but what a great trip it has been! If you have a love of fantasy fiction, you could do much worse than to pick up any volume of Thieves' World and start reading!