What do you think?
Rate this book
Thieves' World #9
Blood Ties
Bereft of its magic, the ravaged city of Sanctuary and its colorful citizens fight for survival as they begin the task of reconstruction, in an anthology featuring the work of C.J. Cherryh, Chris and Janet Morris, Diane Duane, and other notable fantasy writers
238 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1986
5 people are currently reading
690 people want to read
About the author
Robert Lynn Asprin
224 books1,069 followersRobert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he wrote some stand alone novels such as The Cold Cash War, Tambu, and The Bug Wars and also the Duncan & Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series fantasy, such as the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, the Phule's Company novels, and the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves' World anthology series with Lynn Abbey. Other collaborations include License Invoked (set in the French Quarter of New Orleans) and several Myth Adventures novels, all written with Jody Lynn Nye.
Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.
Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.
Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.
Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 21, 2025
Blood Ties recaptured some of the shared world feeling that made the first few volumes so good. The previous book, Soul of the City, was kind of ponderous but did manage to resolve some of the hanging storylines from the earlier history, and here we see the beginning of reconstruction and recovery in a less magic-dominated Sanctuary. There are eight stories in the book, and I enjoyed six of them; I thought the Janet & Chris Morris and C.J. Cherryh pieces felt like incomplete installments but liked the ones from editors Lynn Abbey and Robert Lynn Asprin, as well as those by Diana L. Paxson, Diane Duane, and Robin Wayne Bailey. My favorite was Spellmaster by Andrew and Jodie Offutt. (I believe it's the only story Jodie Offutt was ever credited with.) After many tales of Hanse the Shadow, a new character, Strick, is introduced. Offutt said he modeled Strick after Ted Kluszewski, the power-hitting first baseman of the Cincinnati Reds 1947-'57, and their batting coach during the Big Red Machine era of the 1970s. Who would've guessed that Offutt was a big baseball fan? Anyway, it's a fine story, and a good closing piece for the book... perhaps they should have ended the series here on the high note.
August 10, 2022
The writing styles are starting to feel smoothed out by this volume, which is both a strength and a weakness. The overly-similar characters I complained about in another volume are starting to develop more distinct personalities--mad gods-favored Chenaya is the breakout unreliable narrator star here for me--and events are more closely tied together.
April 30, 2019
Making Soul the cutoff point was not in the cards, however, and the next Thieves’ World collection was published just scant months later. Soul of the City came out in January of 1986, and Blood Ties came out in August of the same year. Blood Ties has almost exactly the same lineup of authors as Dead of Winter, with the exception that Janet Morris is joined by Chris Morris, and Andrew Offutt is joined by Jodie Offutt.
And although Soul would have been a fine stopping point, these veterans of the Thieves’ World campaign do succeed in keeping the story of Sanctuary moving along. (And I just have to say this: I had been warming up to Molin Torchholder over the past few books, but what he did in Diane Duane’s “The Tie That Binds” was simply unforgivable.) C.J. Cherryh wrote the afterword to this collection, a short but interesting glimpse into the lives of the writers behind the stories. One final note, I usually ignore the titles that are given to the Book Club collections of the books (in this case, an omnibus of TW books #7, #8 and #9) but this grouping was published under the umbrella title The Shattered Sphere, and it works very well, on multiple levels.
And although Soul would have been a fine stopping point, these veterans of the Thieves’ World campaign do succeed in keeping the story of Sanctuary moving along. (And I just have to say this: I had been warming up to Molin Torchholder over the past few books, but what he did in Diane Duane’s “The Tie That Binds” was simply unforgivable.) C.J. Cherryh wrote the afterword to this collection, a short but interesting glimpse into the lives of the writers behind the stories. One final note, I usually ignore the titles that are given to the Book Club collections of the books (in this case, an omnibus of TW books #7, #8 and #9) but this grouping was published under the umbrella title The Shattered Sphere, and it works very well, on multiple levels.
January 27, 2020
Another great installment in the Thieves' World saga, one that I found more compelling than the previous couple of volumes. The last story in particular, "Spellmaster," seems to hint at bigger and greater things for the city of Sanctuary in the future, with the arrival of a white wizard opposed to all black magic in the city known as the Thieves World. I loved the first few volumes of this collection when I read them in the 80s, and in February 2019 I acquired a nearly complete set, so now I'm reading the ones I never saw back then. These were published just a few years too late to make gthe Gygax 'Appendix N" list, but I've always thought they would have been on this list if they had been a bit earlier.
April 11, 2018
Blood Ties brings us back to the "shared universe" model for Thieves' World, rather than the "shared novel" that we got in Soul of the City - although the Abbey/Cherryh/Morris cabal is still functioning. TW #9 has the denizens of Sanctuary dealing with the aftermath of events in SotC (mass destruction, riots, plague and a magical meltdown from the destruction of both Nisibsi globes of power) as well as a deadline from Emperor Theron that the Sanctuary be at peace by year's end or that he will use the army to pacify it. Overall, I liked this installment. I give this 3.5 stars, but possibly because it was much more enjoyable than the previous book.
June 3, 2023
The ninth Thieves’ World anthology may appear quiet after the violent action in Soul of the City, but I found it a really enjoyable addition to the series. There are eight stories in this collection, which introduce some new characters and say farewell to others, making it more varied and perhaps uneven than its predecessors, but as I say I found it enjoyable developing and rounding out earlier stories.
There is also an afterword from C J Cherryh partially describing how the stories in an anthology are written.
There is also an afterword from C J Cherryh partially describing how the stories in an anthology are written.
April 17, 2023
The past two novels have felt like the later MCU films--a bloated hippo ballerina tripping over her own toes. This books recovers the momentum, with more focused stories. Still, there is franchise fatigue.
December 8, 2017
ბოლო მოთხრობა გამოდგა ერთ-ერთი საუკეთესო მთელს სერიაში. ძალიან მაგარი პერსონაჟი გამოჩნდა ^_^
February 7, 2022
Getting better...
April 30, 2016
Introduction (Asprin). Hakim’s back. The intro is (as always) light but helps you get back into the setting [6/10].
Lady of Fire (Paxson). A nice return to form after the awfulness that was book #8. It’s particularly good in this story to see Lalo and Illyra working together, as they’re two of the series more likable characters, and their coming together here is very believable. Beyond that, this is a nice setup for Sanctuary’s newest problem [7/10].
Sanctuary is for Lovers (Morrisi). Do we have to see the fake-peace-to-fool-the-Rankans plot yet again!? This is one of Thieves’ World’s problems: it’s insistent on repeating the factions-fighting and witches-fighting plots again and again, ad boredom. With that said, the Morrisi do a good job of characterizing a multitude of characters and moving them through their lives … but it all feels so inconclusive, like we don't have a full story even when it's done [6/10].
Lovers Who Slay Together (Bailey). I’ll admit that I generally like Bailey’s writing and I like the character of Chenaya — who’s like a female Tempus that actually has fun. However, this is a good story too, both for how it puts Chenaya in direct contention with Tempus (in multiple ways) and for how it gives her the opportunity to make big changes in Sanctuary’s story [7/10].
In the Still of the Night (Cherryh). Like the Morrisi, Cherryh just doesn’t seem able to tell a complete story any more, and so instead we get a little chunk of a mosaic novel amidst more cohesive shorts — which doesn’t really work as a whole. There are interesting bits in here about interesting characters which raises the story up, but then it ends with Thieves World at its worst, as Cherryh says to Bailey: “You did something mean to my character, so I’ll do something mean to your character.” Too often it feels like the TW writers were playing a game of oneupmanship rather than telling a story [5/10].
No Glad in Gladiator (Asprin). This is why Asprin was a good writer: he could focus a 14-page story on a single scene between Jubal and Chenaya and make it riveting as he revealed their depths of characters and gave them them real reasons to change [7/10].
The Ties that Bind (Duane). Duane's writing of Harran, Siveni, Mregi, and their trinity are always fun to read, and this is no exception. It's interesting to see how the latest changes in Sanctuary have changed them [7/10] … but, OH, the ending seems to come out of nowhere and feels like a bit screw-you to fans [1/10].
Sanctuary Nocturne (Abbey). Like so many of the others, Abbey does a good job of getting into her characters' head. I really loved the relations between Kama and Walegrin here. However this story really felt like it wasn't going anywhere … until the last two pages hit me straight between the eyes! [7/10]
Spellmaster (Offuti). An interesting new character is introduced to Sanctuary, and he’s got enough mystery and good nature to keep you reading — making him a great end to the volume [7+/10].
Overall, the range of stories in Blood Ties went from average to good — and there are more good stories than average ones. Unfortunately, they fail to cohere as a whole; there’s no feel of a larger plot, just a bunch of authors writing in the same setting, and that ultimately keeps this book as a whole from rising up to the level of its better stories.
Lady of Fire (Paxson). A nice return to form after the awfulness that was book #8. It’s particularly good in this story to see Lalo and Illyra working together, as they’re two of the series more likable characters, and their coming together here is very believable. Beyond that, this is a nice setup for Sanctuary’s newest problem [7/10].
Sanctuary is for Lovers (Morrisi). Do we have to see the fake-peace-to-fool-the-Rankans plot yet again!? This is one of Thieves’ World’s problems: it’s insistent on repeating the factions-fighting and witches-fighting plots again and again, ad boredom. With that said, the Morrisi do a good job of characterizing a multitude of characters and moving them through their lives … but it all feels so inconclusive, like we don't have a full story even when it's done [6/10].
Lovers Who Slay Together (Bailey). I’ll admit that I generally like Bailey’s writing and I like the character of Chenaya — who’s like a female Tempus that actually has fun. However, this is a good story too, both for how it puts Chenaya in direct contention with Tempus (in multiple ways) and for how it gives her the opportunity to make big changes in Sanctuary’s story [7/10].
In the Still of the Night (Cherryh). Like the Morrisi, Cherryh just doesn’t seem able to tell a complete story any more, and so instead we get a little chunk of a mosaic novel amidst more cohesive shorts — which doesn’t really work as a whole. There are interesting bits in here about interesting characters which raises the story up, but then it ends with Thieves World at its worst, as Cherryh says to Bailey: “You did something mean to my character, so I’ll do something mean to your character.” Too often it feels like the TW writers were playing a game of oneupmanship rather than telling a story [5/10].
No Glad in Gladiator (Asprin). This is why Asprin was a good writer: he could focus a 14-page story on a single scene between Jubal and Chenaya and make it riveting as he revealed their depths of characters and gave them them real reasons to change [7/10].
The Ties that Bind (Duane). Duane's writing of Harran, Siveni, Mregi, and their trinity are always fun to read, and this is no exception. It's interesting to see how the latest changes in Sanctuary have changed them [7/10] … but, OH, the ending seems to come out of nowhere and feels like a bit screw-you to fans [1/10].
Sanctuary Nocturne (Abbey). Like so many of the others, Abbey does a good job of getting into her characters' head. I really loved the relations between Kama and Walegrin here. However this story really felt like it wasn't going anywhere … until the last two pages hit me straight between the eyes! [7/10]
Spellmaster (Offuti). An interesting new character is introduced to Sanctuary, and he’s got enough mystery and good nature to keep you reading — making him a great end to the volume [7+/10].
Overall, the range of stories in Blood Ties went from average to good — and there are more good stories than average ones. Unfortunately, they fail to cohere as a whole; there’s no feel of a larger plot, just a bunch of authors writing in the same setting, and that ultimately keeps this book as a whole from rising up to the level of its better stories.
January 17, 2016
Readability 8. Rating 6. Date estimated. One of the Thieves' World series of books, which collect short stories from a range of science-fiction and fantasy writers. The interesting aspect of these stories is the common setting (the City of Sanctuary) and the overlapping of characters and events. At it's best, the series provides multiple viewpoints in very different styles of events that impact each character's life to varying extents. The series also does an excellent job of maintaining a historical flow throughout the series. At this point (I am writing this well after the time I read the books), I cannot differentiate among the early books in this series. Note also, that this is the second reading for the first eight in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2012
I read a few Thieves' World books back in HS, and grabbed 9 off the shelf a few weeks back, cuz it was a fun series back then. Well i decided to start over at book 1. Its definately a book to start at the beginning for, there are so many different people and events going on, it is hard to keep track of. I do enjoy the series, would not want to live in Sanctuary. LoL
May 8, 2012
In this gripping ninth volume, the ravaged city of Sanctuary faces the awesome task of reconstruction. Deserted by gods and bereft of magic, the shattered city and its citizens struggle fiercely for survival...
June 8, 2009
I felt that this one was kind of the climax of the story arc that had been building so far. Held up well to the previous volumes. Good stuff.
March 19, 2014
Great!
April 27, 2013
see book 1
February 2, 2021
Not as good as the latest two as they wrapped up the best storylines. But great to see Siveni get murdered!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2015
Good shared world book series. The variety of writers keeps the stories fresh. Recommended
December 30, 2015
This is another one of the anthologies that stayed within the scope of the story lines and characters, but just seemed to be ok, not great.
Danny
Danny
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews