"Thieves world" is an anthology of fantasy stories about a shared set of characters, each written by a different author. The stories are set in the city of Sanctuary -- a hard, lawless place on the edge on an empire.
The stories are dark although not quite grimdark; The characters, who are never true heroes, sometimes manage come out ahead of where they began. Sometimes, the don't.
As with any anthology, especially one set in a shared universe, both the tone and quality of the stories vary. To be honest, it was a bit of a chore to get through all three books. The first book was my favorite because it introduced the world and set up a world of possibilities.
In trying to figure out where the series leaves me disappointed, there are a few key issues. First, characters and their relationships are sometimes introduced without sufficient explanation. I don’t mind non-linear storytelling, but in a novel by a single author, there’s usually an implicit trust that unanswered questions will eventually be resolved in a meaningful way. That cohesion is lacking here. Sometimes the relationships are explained later, but these explanations can feel like after-the-fact fixes rather than natural developments, leading to a sense of inconsistency.
Second, some of the writing feels over-wrought. Obscure terminology is used where simpler language would do, and the prose often leans into extended metaphors and heavy descriptions that seem more self-indulgent than enriching.
Finally, I want to address the casual treatment of rape in these stories. Sanctuary is clearly meant to be a brutal, "might makes right" kind of world, so the presence of violence is understandable. However, rape is mentioned with unsettling frequency and little weight, almost as if it’s just another detail of the setting rather than a serious trauma.
These books were written between 1979 -- 1982, a time when awareness of sexual violence was growing largely due to the efforts of feminists and civil rights advocates. Still, harmful myths and dismissive attitudes were pervasive. While this review isn’t the place for a full historical analysis, I think contemporary readers will likely be struck by how casually sexual violence is treated in the narrative.