I stumbled across the first volume of the Thieves' World anthology series shortly after it came out, and being a die-hard, ultimately I bought and read all 12 of the collections (and most of the novels), but after about vol. 6 it was more a labor of stamina and obligation than one of love. The town of Sanctuary is a sort of robbers' den of a town, at the far reaches of an empire that's seen better days - in other words, not much of a law and order kind of place. The trick to these stories, tho', is that any of the participating authors could use any character created by another author, and do anything to them short of killing them. As a result, we had a male character who, in the hands of another author, was recast as a woman in disguise; a thief of unknown parentage who started out just as a simple, hard-working criminal, but later learned that he was more than human; and, in one case, a military type who was revealed to be the avatar of a god and therefore immortal, which allowed another author to have him kidnapped and tortured at length by vivisection (yeah, they cut him up and he healed - over and over again. Didn't kill him - just hurt him. A lot.) The authors just had to roll with the changes, as it were. They were a hell of a lot of fun to read, until the whole thing devolved into repeated clashes between the various factions inhabiting Sanctuary - the failing imperial force, bands of mercenaries prone to switching sides at a moment's notice, an exiled ruler of still another country and her own entourage, including a well-armed militia... I intentionally avoid political thrillers because the who's-doing-what-to-whom part bores me, and I hate it when my SF goes that way. I soldiered on (pun sort of intended) until the series ended with Book 12, but it was only for the sake of finishing the job in a way, not because I was really enjoying the stories. Besides, they lost several of my favorite authors and their characters along the way, which took some of the gloss off.
While wine flowed prior to a sci-fi con in ’78, Robert Asprin said to his cohorts, “Imagine if our favorite sword-and-sorcery characters shared the same settings and time-frames. Imagine the potentials. Imagine the tie-ins. What if…” the characters know of each other and their paths crossed? What if several writers agree to contribute their own characters and plots? What if the writers could use each others’ characters? Such is how the fantasy anthology Thieves’ World and its series were born.Within the city of Sanctuary readers are introduced to Enas Yorl who is powerful but can’t undo his curse, thieving Shadowspawn who gets caught in a trap set for another, the wandering minstrel Cappan Varra, madame Myrtis who wants to bargain for her girls, and many others. They aren’t as cliché as they might seem. Because a writer’s character is shared, intonations and perceptions may seem to vary. It’s a case of he said she said. Thieves’ World is like a mystery where everyone is asked to give their account. And as Asprin said in his editor’s note, “the pecking order of Sanctuary will vary depending on who you talk to…or more importantly, who you believe”.Those who let their arms be twisted into joining the project are: * John Brunner- “Sentences of Death” * Lynn Abbey- “The Face of Chaos” * Poul Anderson- “The Gate of the Flying Knives” * Andrew J. Offutt- “Shadowspawn” * Robert Lynn Asprin – “The Price of Doing Business” * Joe W. Haldeman- “Blood Brothers” * Christine DeWees- “Myrtis” * Marion Zimmer Bradley- “The Secret of the Blue Star”Thieves’ World is a fun, entertaining, and enjoyable read. Some of the the writing may not be the best, but it gets points for originality. While some writers went on to other projects later on, new contributors joined Sanctuary. I’m looking forward to reading more of the anthologies and/or the spin-off novels, of which there are many.
What do You think about Thieves' World (1982)?
Finally got around to finishing this. It lived up to my expectations; some juicy swords and sorcery with likeable characters and some enjoyable twists. I enjoyed getting to know the setting and getting to read to the different stories told within it. I hate nothing more than falling in love with a setting in a book or show and just wishing they'd gone in a different direction with the story. Here you get bite-sized morsels of story going in every which direction. It's a Whitman's sampler of fantasy tales. I did find it amusing, if not surprising, that an author's characters were often more interesting when used by a different author. It was sometimes disappointing to to get to the "real" story of a character and find them suddenly lacking. One character in particular really burned me especially since I was looking forward to their future tales. All in all a good read, and I'm looking forward to more from the series. And as a final note, the chapter about how the anthology was put together was a real blast from the past. We sort of take for granted the wonders of modern technology until you read about how this anthology was coordinated over the phone and in letters with concerns that delays in the mail could hold up the process. Let's all give thanks for cell phones and the internet.
—Michael Thorn
Not as good as I was hoping it might be but worth a read nonetheless. The eight stories are kind of a mixed bag and probably only Blood Brothers and The Face of Chaos (by authors I was previously only dimly aware of)are really top quality with Anderson and Zimmer Bradley's contributions being readable but very sub-par by their usual standards. Anderson I was especially disappointed in as his story really feels the least grounded in the setting with his too thinly disguised Scots Highlander and a story with a nobler tone than I thought really appropriate. By The Broken Sword standards, this was poor indeed. Asprin's The Price of doing Business could have been a stone cold classic but is rather let down by and unlikely and tediously moralising end. Offut's Shadowspawn felt somewhat out of place but I always find his stories somewhat clunking anyway. Really the eponymous Shadowspawn is the least plausible of the characters in the book (strangely perhaps for Sword and Sorcery the women and the magicians are easily the best save perhaps for for One-Thumb). The other three stories Sentences of Death, Myrtis and the short introductory story are decent enough. Basically a great idea and executed with a surprising amount of consistency in 'background feel' to the stories with a gritty feel to the best bits (found generally in The Price of doing Business, Sentences of Death and especially Blood Brothers) that I think some of the authors failed to really embrace properly.
—David Hunter
-Idea muy innovadora hace más de treinta años.-Género. Narrativa Fantástica.Lo que nos cuenta. En la ciudad de Santuario, emplazamiento fundado por esclavos huidos al sur del Imperio Rankano antes de que anexionase ese territorio a sus posesiones y que durante un tiempo fue floreciente pero ahora va viniendo a menos, se entremezclan las vidas de diferentes personajes. Novela formada por una serie de relatos interconectados, coordinados por Robert Lynn Asprin para dar a este Fix-Up especial tanto consistencia como continuidad y que incluye trabajos suyos, de John Brunner, Lynn Abbey, Poul Anderson, Andrew Offutt, Joe Haldeman, Christine DeWees y Marion Zimmer Bradley. Primer libro de la serie El mundo de los ladrones.¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
—Olethros
