In Celebration of Lammas Night

by Josepha Sherman (Editor), Ru Emerson (contributor), Mark Shepherd (contributor)

An anthology of fantastical stories set in and around Lammas Night. In Lammas Night a young weaver is persuaded to bide a while in a small village, to make their village spells and keep the Dark at bay. The villagers give her the house of her predecessor. Now a half-seen phantom courts her. He is either her lover for all time--or a wicked spirit's seeming, the aim of which is to entrap her in an unspeakable fate.

Contents:
Lammas Night by Mercedes Lackey
Hallowmas Night by Mercedes Lackey
Harvest of Souls by Doranna Durgin
The Heart of the Grove by Ardath Mayhar
Miranda by Ru Emerson
Demonheart by Mark Shepherd
Sunflower by Jody Lynn Nye
Summer Storms by Christie Golden
A Choice of Many by Mark Garland
The Captive Song by Josepha Sherman
Midsummer Folly by Elizabeth Waters
The Mage, The Maiden and The Hag by S.M. Stirling and Jan Stirling
The Road Taken by Laura Anne Gilman
A Wanderer of Wizard-kind by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Circle of Ashes by Stephanie D Shaver
A Choice of Dawns by Susan Schwartz
Miranda's Tale by Jason Henderson
Lady of the Rock by Diana L Paxson
Before by Gael Baudino

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, High Fantasy, Magic, Science Fiction Fantasy

282 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

About the author

Josepha Sherman was an American author, folklorist, and anthologist. In 1990 she won the Compton Crook Award for the novel The Shining Falcon.

Reviews

[Jacqui Ainsworth]

This book is a collection of stories based on one of Mercedes Lackey's songs. Due to this, they all have similar plots. The twists make it interesting and confusing. Sometimes I would forget which story I was in. There were a couple that were excellent and some more soso. It was worth reading. A good bedtime book if you don't mind dreaming about seducing ghosts. There are definitely worse things to dream about!

[TheCosyDragon]

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

Lammas Night is a collection of short stories inspired by a Wizardly Ballad written by Mercedes Lackey. The foreword tells me that originally it was going to be a collection of songs based on what comes next, but it was deemed that it wouldn’t be salable.

I’m not sure why this book was salable, I’m certainly not going to read it again. Maybe it was the fact that Mercedes Lackey’s name was on the front cover, despite Josepha Sherman being the editor? Although Lackey always says writing novels isn’t really profitable enough to live on (she’s married to Larry Dixon, another fantasy author). When almost every short story follows the same pattern (that was set out in the original ballad) it’s predictable and boring. And of course there isn’t enough time to become properly attached to the characters during the course of a short story. I don’t think there was a single character that I wanted to hear more about.

A couple of the short stories bucked the trend and approached the ballad’s ending instead and what same next. In some cases, it seemed exactly like it was a follow on from someone else’s short story. But I found it hard to tell since there were so many different characters’ names floating around in my head.

I didn’t read this in one sitting, instead choosing to pick up another couple of novels in between. I borrowed it while we were on vacation from my Aunt and so it was intended as a leisure read. I can easily give this 3 stars for readability but would advise reading it over time so you don’t get bored. I didn’t hate any of the short stories due to the writing style, but I didn’t love any either.

[Hallie]

I'm giving this a 3 because I've been trying to find it for a long time and it's got a bunch of Lackey-nostalgia built in. Also, it's really weird to give a star rating to an anthology - as per usual, some of the stories are great, some of them are meh, and some of them are utterly uninspired.

What was weird about this anthology was the way the editor decided to order them. I have to imagine it's intentional. The first few are the most similar to the original song (even to the point of one being just "the same story from the spirit's POV"), then they start to stray more and more until the last handful are linked only by a single line, or the general idea of a character making a choice. (Which, lest that sound dismissive: that last story about the choice was actually really fucking good despite being in the style of Faulkner, who I absolutely despise.)

There were some pretty cool ideas sprinkled throughout, but overall I wish there was a little more uniqueness in the way the stories were handled. For the most part, the spirit was both good and bad (or there were two spirits), and way too many of them ended with him dying nobly and the wizard being sad and looking forward to meeting him again in death. Like, half of them were this. I wish there was at least one where the spirit was straight-up evil and her choice was wrong, but they seemed afraid to make her a dubious or flawed character.

Anyway, it was fun and gave me an excuse to listen to a lot of Lackey's music for a week while getting ready in the morning!

[Jae]

In Celebration of Lammas Night is an anthology edited by Josepha Sherman. Each story is based on a song written by Mercedes Lackey, entitled 'Lammas Night', in which a young, traveling mage is persuaded to stay in a small village to replace their wizard, who died under mysterious circumstances. She is given his cottage to live in, and gradually, she realizes she is being haunted by her predecessor. He shows her a spell book with two, virtually identical spells--one to banish a spirit, and the other to return said spirit to life. Now the witch must choose the wizard's fate.

Although the theme of each story was the same, it was interesting to see how the various authors interpreted it. Some had the mage making a clear choice, while others left it to the reader's imagination as to which spell she chose to cast.

I'm not a big fan of anthologies, but the book was entertaining enough. Giving it 4 stars.

[Susan]

Before Baudino, Gael
Harvest of Souls Durgin, Doranna
Miranda Emerson, Ru
A Choice of Many Garland, Mark A.
The Road Taken Gilman, Laura Ann
Summer Storms Golden, Christie
Miranda’s Tale Henderson, Jason
A Wanderer of Wizard-Kind Hoffman, Nina Kiriki
Hallowmas Night Lackey, Mercedes R.
The Heart of the Grove Mayhar, Ardath
Sunflower Nye, Jody Lynn
Lady of the Rock Paxson, Diana L.
A Choice of Dawns Schwartz, Susan M.
Circle of Ashes Shaver, Stephanie D.
Demonheart Shepherd, Mark
The Captive Song Sherman, Josepha
The Mage, the Maiden and the Hag Stirling, S.M. & Stirling, Jan
Midsummer Folly Waters, Elisabeth

and the lovely cover is by Victoria Lisi-Poyser

[Serena]

You may or may not know that Lammas Night is a song which Mercedes Lackey wrote. In the book the lyrics are the base for a anthology of various writers to share the story which the song inspired them to write. In reading it is key to remember that although as a reader you find many similar beginnings and endings, it is the story's journey in the end that we take away, for better or worse.

[Eliza]

I loved this book. Yes all the stories are similar since they are all based on the same song by Mercedes Lackey. The interesting part about the stories is that no two are exactly alike. Each author choose their own ending to the song and then wrote an excellent story leading up to it. Some of the stories are only vaguely connected to the song, but still made it interesting enough to draw you in.

[Morgain Tiger]

This book was an ok read. It was necessary for my Misty collection, but I don't think I'm going to read it again. It started with such hopeful promise of people finishing an incomplete story, but ended up being wild variations of REtellings and incomprehensible motivations.
perhaps this book is better left to those who have a preference for anthology work. I enjoy the idea of it, but in practice, it rarely satisfies the way I want it to.

[Lindsey]

I liked the Mercedes Lackey part, song and story. I'm not a fan of anthologies and this one was all the same story retold by different people. A great collection of variations and views but not my thing and I would not recommend it as a good sample of any of their works. Although it was a great gift idea from those authors to Mercedes Lackey as a commemoration of a song she had written.

[Cakester]

Fun short magical stories. I would love to be a wizard living in a village cottage somewhere, ideally with my cat. Not that all the stories are lighthearted, there are conflicts and dark aspects of magic and life to deal with.

[Angela]

I don't often read short story collections but this one was pretty interesting since each author told the same story but in - sometimes dramatically - different ways.

[Anne Elizabeth]

Josepha was the very first friend I made over the net, so my rating is not precisely unbiased. {Smile}

[Antonia]

Some stories are great, others not so much. They all have a similar premise of course but they each follow their own path.

[Merrypaws]

A very good anthology for a fantasy-lover, especially for one with a taste for romance. Despite the common theme to the stories, all of them provide their own different flavor to it.

[Pam Bales]

Another good fantasy read.

[Pat]

Interesting to see the different interpretations from the same base, but I had to take a break partway through as many of the stories were similar.

[Catherine]

I definitely thought this was a book of short stories about Lammas lore. Who wants to read a book with the same story told over and over every chapter? What a disappointment.

[Emily O]

Generally I've enjoyed books by Mercedes Lackey, so many moons ago I picked up this anthology with her name on the cover, thinking she had organized a group of short stories. That turned out to be only partially true.

Once upon a time, Lackey had written a ballad describing a magicwoman forced to make a choice on one of the darkest and most fearsome nights of the year. After taking over the previous wizard's position and home in a small town, she discovered a lingering spirit with information about her predecessor's disappearance. Whether the spirit was trustworthy or not is unclear, but the woman must decide whether to release it back to her own realm or send it on its way. *spoiler* The poem does not give you the answer.

As a birthday present of sorts, some of Lackey's friends decided to write prose versions of her story, each choosing an ending as they saw fit. The premise is generous and creative. Each author chose different back stories and settings with the same conflict and climax. They ranged from war refugees to wandering bards, true love to hopeful futures. However, as a reader, an entire book of the same story repeated became a trudge to finish. Few of the 18 short stories stuck out by the time I got to the end of the book. I am glad to have read it, but if you're going to pick it up yourself, don't read it all in one go. This is a collection to be spread out over weeks.

[Lisa]

Lammas Night by Mercedes Lackey (1996)

[M]

Where can I find this book online to read? Love the stories!!

[Tatiana Silva]

All the stories are really really boring