Blessings and Curses

The Crafters #2

by Various Authors, Christopher Stasheff (Editor), Bill Fawcett (Editor)

The descendants of Amer Crafter must come to terms with their Talent as they struggle to survive in an age of science and reason in a collaborative work by such writers as Morgan Llywelyn, Robert Sheckley, and Christopher Stasheff. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies

275 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1992

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Assorted tales of descendants (down to the 7th generation) of the Crafter family. Fun to see how some of the authors intertwined American history and important figures into their stories.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I missed something by reading book 2 first, but that so often doesn't matter with anthologies. I found this a very mixed bag. Stasheff's was amusing (which is good, since that's why I picked it up), but Friesner's was surprisingly difficult to get through, as were a couple of others. Sheckley's flat-out annoyed me by being completely ignorant of US geography. Unless the world of the Crafters is actually that physically different--an impression I did not get from any other story--one does have to cross the great river (Mississippi) before getting to Missouri. Story should have been set in Illinois or possibly Kentucky. Completely threw me out of the story, which had some fascinating alternate world elements in it until that point. I should love to read a story with Roman legions in the Americas.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could not finish. God knows why. It's not....bad, just -- can't enjoy it. I think I got tired of the constant "we are from England but there is this awesome, sexy, cool american character who shows up to save the day\seduce the pretty lady\be awesome."

I don't know why that annoyed me, but it did. In theory, I should have loved the book. But after 5 or 6 short stories, I was done with it. Thinking I might be a little too tired of short stories, I picked up a Mammoth book....and I had a ball. So no, it was just an issue with the book. Maybe I should have read the first one?

[Thomas Knowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a new release from Event Horizon EBooks, an eBook reprint of the original 1992 Ace Books paperback edition. Note that the rating is posted by the publisher.