Masters of Fantasy

Paksenarrion #5.6 - Gifts

by Bill Fawcett Brian M. Thomsen, Brian M. Thomsen (Editor)

Masters of Fantasy has a star-studded cast of popular fantasy writers, each offering a brand new adventure set in his or her most popular series.
Among the stellar cast are Janny Wurts (with A War of Light and Shadow story), David Weber, Mercedes Lackey (with a new Valdemar story), Mickey Zucker Reichert, Andre Norton, Elizabeth Moon, David Drake, Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye (collaborating on a story in which their separate series collide with hilarious results), Margaret Weis, Alan Dean Foster, Michael Resnick, Christopher Stasheff, and more.
A feast of fantasy adventure that will be a must-buy for all fans of the field.

Table of Contents:

Introduction. From Category to Genre in a Bookselling Sense
by Brian Thomsen
• Out of the Deep: A Valdemar Story
by Mercedes Lackey
• Earthborne: A Witchworld Story
by Andre Norton
• Mything in Dreamland: A Myth Adventures in Dreamland Story
by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye
• Race for the Sky: A Bifrost Story
by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• Shadamehr and the Old Wive's Tale: A Shadamehr Story
by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin
• Serenade: A Spellsinger Story
by Alan Dean Foster
• Child of Prophecy: A War of Light and Shadow Story
by Janny Wurts
• The Afterlife of St. Vidicon of Cathode: A Warlock Story
by Christopher Stasheff
• The Elf House: An Isles Story
by David Drake
• Gifts: A World of Paksenarrion Story
by Elizabeth Moon
• The Amorous Broom: A John Justin Mallory Story
by Mike Resnick
• Web of Deception: A Bahzell Story
by David Weber

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Short Stories, Audiobook, Ebooks, Fiction

576 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Average Rating: 3.58 stars

Best Bets: 'Child of Prophecy' by Janny Wurts (4.5 stars); 'Shadamehr and the Old Wive's Tale' by Weis and Perrin (4.0 stars); and, 'Serenade' by Alan Dean Foster (3.5 stars).

The most confusing story of the bunch for me was 'Afterlife of St. Vidicom of Cathode', and perhaps it's a failing of mine for never reading a novel in Christopher Stasheff's Warlock universe.

See my comments attached to my status updates (below) for slightly more information, thoughts and reactions to individual stories.

A masterful fantasy collection of short stories in various established universes by well-known authors of the genre. I definitely recommend it to round out your reading repertoire for these authors.

[Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Below this is a breakdown of the ratings I gave each story, overall though this Anthology rated surprisingly Low. I, for the first time ever, had to average out the scores, and it came out to a 2.58333~ so I've rounded it up to 3 overall since Goodreads doesn't have half star ratings. Lots of the stories in this collection just didn't sit well with me personally, for others that may not be the case. For me however, the line up of middle stories being predominantly low-scoring made me drag this book out for quite a long time, fearing the longest story at the end would also be low scoring and not worth the time. I'm very glad I persisted though, that last one was amazingly good and allowed the book overall to end on a high note, and earned that bump to 3 stars instead of a drop to only 2 stars.

Out of the Deep (A Valdemar Story) by Mercedes Lackey - Always love revisiting Valdemar! Can't wait to read more as I work through the main series! 4/5

Earthborne (A Witchworld Story) by Andre Norton - This one had me off-balance the whole time, it felt... unfinished? Like a lot was left out but not on purpose, more like it was simply forgotten and alluded to later on. I'm not at all familiar with this particular author or the world this story comes from, maybe that's why. 2/5

Mything in Dreamland (A Myth Adventures in Dreamland Story) by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye - Pretty interesting! A dreamworld based around magic with its own rules. 3/5

Race for the Sky (A Bifrost Story) by Mikey Zucker Reichert - Interesting, I'd give it 3 stars. bit of a cliffhanger though at the end, sort of? not too bad though.

Shadamehr and the Old Wive's Tale (A Shadamehr Story) by Margaret Weis & Don Perrin - Eh. 2 stars, the hero a bit bland, the heroin was much more interesting.

Serenade (A Spellsinger Story) by Alan Dean Foster - Eh, adventurous enough but not a style of reading I like, it seemed kinda clunky most the time, with a bit of a 'self-hype' vibe and odd descriptors, 2/5

Child of Prophecy (a War of Light and Shadow Story) by Janny Wurts - 1 star. Bout halfway through there was a big 'ew' moment that hurt the rating pretty badly. otherwise... Meh. The series it comes from might prove better then this short story, but I'm not sure I'll pick up the series any, this short didn't really connect me with the parent series enough to investigate.

The Afterlife of St. Vidicon of Cathode (A Warlock Story) by Christopher Stasheff - 1 star. Personally I HAAAAATE Churchy stories, and this one is nothing but churchy. I don't hate the religion it's based on, mind, but Church-based stories are NOT my cup of tea. It felt like reading a homework assignment where all you want to do is skip it entirely and take the failing mark for it.

The Elf House (An Isles Story) by David Drake - 2 Stars. Seemed like there was a lot that couldn't be written due to the length of the story. Would have been nice to see this one run a bit longer to fill in some of the blanks and smooth out some of the awkwardness, but overall pretty good! The clunkiness brought the rating down some. Might look into this series to see how a whole story turns out

Gifts(A World of Paksenarrion story) by Elizabeth Moon - 3 stars! Liked this one much better then the last few. Good blend of elements, good pacing, no akward vibes or descriptions.

The Amorous Broom (A John Justin Mallory Story) by Mike Resnick - 3 stars, reminds me a bit of the Dresden Series by Jim Butcher. This story was annoyed-groan worthy, but entertaining

Web of Deception (A Bahzell Story) by David Weber - 5/5! The longest story in the collection (by FAR!) but don't let that stop you! It's worth the read, nearly a whole book in and of itself, but I loved it! I need to see more of these characters and the world they come from.

[Thalla Rothach]

Just want everyone to know "Race for the Sky," Mickey Zucker Reichert, is Bifrost Guardians 5.5, a coda to the epic series, catching up with the band in modern America. Don't know why it's not on the series' list.

[Kevin Potter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm starting to realize that maybe I'm just not a short story reader. The stories by Margaret Weis and Andre Norton were pretty good, but I found the rest rather dull.

[Jenny Gervais · Rating 4 out of 5]

So hard to rate short story collections...there were a couple stories that I really did not care for, others were the some of the best fantasy stories I’ve ever read! Most were good or better than; It is well worth a read, especially as an introduction to the worlds of some of the most renowned fantasy authors of our time!

[Elden]

Got this as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. Have yet to even read it.

[Gail Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of short stories by several authors.

[Rebecca]

I've read:
"Child of Prophecy" by Janny Wurts - 4.5 Stars