The Enchanter Completed

by Harry Turtledove (Editor)

For seven decades, L. Sprague de Camp was a giant in both science fiction and fantasy, renowned for his fast-moving action-adventure tales with a strong humorous element. Now, Hugo-winner and best-selling author Harry Turtledove has gathered together top writers in SF and fantasy to write stories in the same humorous adventure vein which de Camp practically invented. On board are Poul Anderson, Frederik Pohl, David Drake, Judith Tarr, Esther M. Friesner, S.M. Stirling, Michael F. Flynn, Turtledove himself and more, including a remembrance of de Camp by Robert Silverberg.

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Science Fiction, Fiction

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag of stories in honour of L. Sprague de Camp - most of them don't seem to quite get the humour that pervaded his work. Interesting introduction from Turtledove, about his friendship with de Camp.

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an anthology of short stories set in the various universes of L. Sprague De Camp. I don't know how I managed to miss out on this early giant of sci fi / fantasy, but despite the fact I have read only one of his stories (Lest Darkness Fall), I found the anthology enjoyable overall and did not suffer too greatly from my lack of background in De Camp's stories. I especially enjoyed the first story about the Strange franchise, and a later one about Orpheus. I did, however, skip most of the story about Tom O'Bedlam and Insane Nick because it made no sense whatsoever in the first several pages and was not at all interesting in its "madness."
I was inspired to track down a copy of "The Incomplete Enchanter" from which the anthology's title is taken and it's next on my reading list.

[Mf · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a book of short stories by various people who were inspired by L Sprague de Camp. While I love Sprague, I just couldn't get through these. I pushed my way about 1/3 of the book, but the effort required to read these unenjoyable stories was too much.

[Brentman99 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that is not bad, but not up to Turtledoves's normal standard.