Anthologies Books - Page 5

Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows (Star Trek: Mirror Universe)

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Not yet published By: Star Trek

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Media -> Star Trek -> General

Editorial Review:

Fractured history. Broken lives. Splintered souls. Since the alternate universe was first glimpsed in the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror," something about Star Trek's dark side has beckoned us, called to us, tempted us -- like forbidden fruit on the Tree of Knowledge. To taste it is to lose oneself in a world of startling familiarity and terrifying contradictions, where everything and everyone we knew is somehow disturbingly different, and where shocking secrets await their revelation.

What began in 2007 with Glass Empires and Obsidian Alliances -- the first truly in-depth foray into the turbulent history of this other continuum -- now continues in twelve new short tales that revisit and expand upon that so-called "Mirror Universe," spanning all five of the core incarnations of Star Trek, as well as their literary offshoots, across more than two hundred years of divergent history, as chronicled by...

Christopher L. Bennett - Margaret Wander Bonanno - Peter David - Keith R.A. DeCandido - Michael Jan Friedman - Jim Johnson - Rudy Josephs - David Mack - Dave Stern - James Swallow - Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore - Susan Wright

The Philip K. Dick Reader

Philip K. Dick

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Citadel Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $4.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Anthologies
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Short Stories -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Short Stories -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

His religions, psychoses, divorces, and drug use aside, Philip K. Dick changed the face of American science fiction with his mind-bending writing. There may be readers who have only heard of him as the mind behind Blade Runner (based on his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). But even casual PKD fans should take a look at these 24 short stories, among them, "Second Variety," from which the movie Screamers was made, and "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," basis of the Schwarzenegger film Total Recall. Other standouts include "The Turning Wheel," "The Last of the Masters," "Tony and the Beetles," and "The Minority Report." Readers will recognize PKD's trademark themes: capitalism and the American dream run amok, a disquieting loss of ability to distinguish friends from enemies, and humans versus machines.

Since Philip K. Dick's heyday, and thanks in large part to his influence, the contemporary science fiction short story has evolved into a form more self-reflective and psychologically complex. This is a wonderful development, to be sure. But don't regard the older stories in this collection as dated. Instead, enjoy the peppery punch: PKD's stories provide plenty of plot twists and surprise endings. --Bonnie Bouman

The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard

List Price: $17.00 By: Holt Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( B ) -> Ballard, J.G.
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( B ) -> Burgess, Anthony
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Short Stories -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Food for Thought 4 out of 5 stars.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Ballard is one of the great "conceptualizers" of modern literature. The premises of his stories are the most immediately striking thing about them. Sometimes the story doesn't live up to the expectations he creates, but this is probably because he sets the bar so high.

In any case, whether a Ballard story is a total or only a partial success, it invariably provides plenty of food for thought. Three of them--"The Overloaded Man", "The Drowned Giant", and "The Garden of Time"--rank among my all-time favorites for their perfect fusion of speculative and mythic qualities. The more technology-based stories ("Concentration City", "The Voices of Time") are more interesting for their ideas than their execution.

In the introduction to this volume, Anthony Burgess hits on the central importance of Ballard's work: "Ballard considers that the kind of limitation that most contemporary fiction accepts is immoral... Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination." If you agree, buy this book.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1978, this collection of nineteen of Ballard's best short stories is as timely and informed as ever. His tales of the human psyche and its relationship to nature and technology, as viewed through a strong microscope, were eerily prescient and now provide greater perspective on our computer-dominated culture. Ballard's voice and vision have long served as a font of inspiration for today's cyber-punks, the authors and futurist who brought the information age into the mainstream.

The Starcraft Archive: An Anthology (Starcraft)

Jeff Grubb, Gabriel Mesta, Tracy Hickman, Micky Neilson

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Pocket Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $6.57

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Anthologies
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Movie Tie-Ins
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the distant future, a loose confederacy of terran exiles is locked in battle sixty thousand light-years from Earth, caught in the crossfire between two powerful alien races: the enigmatic protoss and the ruthless zerg swarm. Conflicts rage across the Koprulu sector as each of the three species fights for its existence among the stars.

LIBERTY'S CRUSADE: Behind the attacks of the zerg and the protoss lies the story of a lifetime, and investigative reporter Mike Liberty is determined to uncover it. But every new piece of information only deepens the mystery. Thrown into the middle of a war that may determine the fate of humanity in the Koprulu sector, Liberty reports on the escalating conflict and wonders whom he can afford to trust.

SHADOW OF THE XEL'NAGA: Bhekar Ro is a bleak, backwater world on the fringe of the Terran Dominion, and every day is a struggle to survive for the planet's human colonists. Yet when a violent storm unearths an unfathomable alien structure, Bhekar Ro becomes the greatest prize in the Koprulu sector. Zerg, protoss, and terran forces turn the planet into a bloody battlefield in their haste to claim the lost secrets of the most powerful species the universe has ever known.

SPEED OF DARKNESS: All Ardo Melnikov ever dreamed of was living in peace on the verdant colony of Bountiful. That dream was shattered when the zerg attacked the colony and annihilated his loved ones. Now a marine charged with defending the worlds of the Terran Confederacy, he must come to terms with the painful memories of his past...and the unsettling truths that may dominate his future.

UPRISING: She is the Queen of Blades. Her name has become legend throughout the galaxy, and that legend is death for all who dare oppose the swarm. Nevertheless, Sarah Kerrigan was once human, and an extraordinary human at that. Forced to become one of the Terran Confederacy's merciless psionic assassins, she carried out her orders without question until a twist of fate propelled her toward a destiny no one could have foreseen. This is the tale of Kerrigan's shadowy origins -- and the war that was fought for her very soul.

Pushing Ice

Alastair Reynolds

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ace Amazon Marketplace: 75 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Anthologies
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Short Stories
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Space Opera

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Clever Science, Stupid People 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Alastair Reynolds is excellent, sometimes brilliant, when it comes to science. Unfortunately he doesn't understand people as well as he understands physics. In his books "Revelation Space" and "Redemption Ark" the characters tend to lack depth and be a little two dimensional, but not so much that it interferes with the story. In "Pushing Ice", however, the characters make it very difficult to enjoy the book. The characters do things which are so incredibly stupid that you almost want them all to die. And it's not as if a character was written with a flaw that causes them to make a poor decision. Mr Reynolds needs to get the plot from point A to point B, and instead of thinking of a really clever way to make the transition, as he has in some of his other books, he makes a character do something completely retarded.
I really enjoy Mr Reynolds' books, and regret giving this one a bad review. But not as much as I regret the huge flaws in "Pushing Ice". Read "Revelation Space" instead, it is an excellent book.

Editorial Review:

2057. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. But nothing can prepare them for the surprises in store when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, spins out of control.

The New Space Opera

Gardner Dozois, Jonathan Strahan

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Eos Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $3.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( D ) -> Dozois, Gardner
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Anthologies
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Space Opera

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Perhaps just not a sub genre for me 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 12 people found this review helpful.

"New" space opera. I have to say I that I kind of liked the old space opera. I found these stories to be somewhat depressing and most seemed unresolved by the end of the story. I'm glad I read it however.

I think my biggest complaint is that the ends of the stories weren't generally satisfying to me. I guess the stories must have been sufficiently good in that I was anxious to see how they would turn out. However that is where I found myself disappointed.

I would recommend this collection, but I wouldn't put it at the top of my list.

Editorial Review:

An anthology of epic interstellar adventures from dazzling stars in the SF universe:

Kage Baker
Stephen Baxter
Gregory Benford
Tony Daniel
Greg Egan
Peter F. Hamilton
Gwyneth Jones
James Patrick Kelly
Nancy Kress
Ken Macleod
Paul J. McAuley
Ian McDonald
Robert Reed
Alastair Reynolds
Mary Rosenblum
Robert Silverberg
Dan Simmons
Walter Jon Williams

Naked Came the Manatee

Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry; et al.

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 108 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Hiaasen, Carl
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> Anthologies
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 50 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Multiple Authors Make an Interesting Read 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Back in the primary school days you probably partook in the exercise of everyone in the class writing a paragraph then passing the paper to the person sitting next to them who wrote the next paragraph, passed it to the next person and so on until everyone in the class had contributed to each of the 30 or so stories. Well that is exactly what the publishers of Naked Came the Manatee have done, with thirteen Florida authors, just on a bigger scale.

The quality of each chapter obviously varies with the quality of each author but that adds to the fun. Even though Hiaasen is on the spine also doesn't mean that all the authors are surreal humorous type writers either with some chapters being very crime thriller in style and even one, chapter 11 being poetic philosophy (must admit didn't really enjoy this one.) The story flowed on quite well (except from chapter 10 to 11) from author to author in most parts but you could definitely pick up the difference in style with each transition. The story overall lacked the high quality that many of these authors such as Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry have achieved in their own novels but it was still a very good and enjoyable read.

The basic plot of Naked Came the Manatee revolves around a Manatee, called Booger by the locals who is either part of or around the main action. Throw in a 102 year old woman, Fidel Castro, shiny steel boxes, dim-witted criminals, lawyers and politicians as well as the locals of Coconut Grove and you've got a pretty fun storyline.

If you like the multiple author novel and want to read another one that Dave Barry is in grab a copy of The Putt at the End of the World. Barry teams up with Lee K Abbott, Richard Bausch, James Crumley, James W Hall, Tami Hoag, Tim O'Brien, Ridley Pearson and Les Standiford in this surreal golfing adventure that golf related is to the world of novels what Happy Gilmore is to the world of movies.

Editorial Review:

In South Florida, everyone wants to get a head. But not just any head. A very famous human head--severed and snugged away in a cryonic container. A head that could spark a revolution and change the course of history.

Everybody wants a piece of the noggin: rotund gangster Big Joey G., a 102-year-old environmentalist, hard-boiled Miami reporter Britt Montero, lawyer Jake Lassiter,  and a would-be dictator in exile--with ex-president Jimmy Carter and a lovable manatee named Booger thrown in for good measure.

With bodies piling up it's anybody's guess what will happen from one chapter to the next, as an all-star line-up of Florida's finest writers take turns at taking this outrageously original novel to the limit--and beyond.

Planetkill (Warhammer 40,000)

Lindsey Priestley, Nick Kyme

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Games Workshop Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $3.91

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> War
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Adventure
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> Anthologies

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Each story with synopsis and rated individually. 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Voidsong by Henry Zou
Inquisitor Obodiah Roth is dispatched to Sirene Primal. His mission is to investigate the mild psychic disturbances emanating from the planet. Obodiah is on-world for close to a month before his group meet the female Blade Artisan named Bekaela. At first Obodiah believes Bekaela is guarding the ship behind her from intruders. Instead, Bekaela of the Blade is guarding against whatever lay within from getting out.

**** This is the first time I recall reading about an inquisitor being so new to his career. The author has done a pretty good job; however, Roth does not come across as being ready for a solo investigation, no matter how minor it was supposed to be. ****



Mortal Fuel by Richard Williams
The planet of Bahani has been depleted of all natural resources. The result is for the Imperium to evacuate and leave Bahani's people to their doom, except from some Bahani who are bonded to the Navy. Midshipman Dal Marcher is with Governor-Adept Kaizen when the area is attacked. His heroism under fire, which also saves Kaizen, gets Marcher promoted to Sub-Lieutenant. However, once aboard the Relentless> Marcher becomes a pawn. The ship's captain has been dead several months and First Officer Tomias Ward is acting Commander. Needing to put those beneath him back into line, Ward sets Marcher up to become an example. At the same time, there is a Bahani saboteur in hiding, waiting for the perfect time to dispense revenge on behalf of his people.

***** This story happens BEFORE the beginning of the novel "Relentless". If you have already read the novel, you will already know most of the characters. If not, the author has done a terrific job with minor explanations and you will have no trouble what-so-ever. More than one nice bout of irony comes into play as well. *****



The Heraclitus Effect by Graham McNeill
They wear a variety of Imperial uniforms, but are the opposite of what the uniforms stand for. The group consists of former members of the Raven Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus, and more. Warsmith Honsou is after revenge against one who had walked away from a fight. Ardaric Vaanes is the new champion of Honsou. It is Vaanes's duty to train the monster recently created, known only as the newborn. The newborn is a creature of Chaos. Biological hot-housing, demonic magic and debased tech of genetic theft has accelerated his growth with strands of geneseed from Uriel Ventris (a man Vaanes loathes). Their target is a planet well loved by Ventris. This is where they will leave a terrifying message.

*** Though very interesting as a whole, there is a lot of unnecessary scenes and information. The title of the story does not make any sense until close to the ending. This story reads as if it were a segment ripped out of a full-length novel. ***



The Emperor Wept by Simon Dyton
Life-Eater is what the Imperium of Man uses to administer Exterminatus. However, an evolved Life-Eater is about to be used for the planet's sterilization. It is named The Emperor's Tears. When the Doom Warriors use it for the first time they learn the true meaning of betrayal. "Doom ye!"

*** Fans of the Adeptus Mechanicus will get a very interesting glimpse into the chapter this time. ***



Phobos Worked in Adamant by Robey Jenkins
The Fabricator Lords, the Nine, hear that the Planet Killer is coming to Celare Artem. Desperately needing some sort of defense, the Nine allow Archmagos Ghuul to explore the ancient alien relics for possible salvation. Ghuul finds it in the form of a shield generator which can cover the entire world. However, the device requires one last element to work, life-force.

**** This story shows that many people will gladly make sacrifices to climb the corporate ladder. The author did a wonderful job. ****



Seven Views of Uhlguth's Passing by Matthew Farrer
The planet of Uhlguth misses its master and all the ones who once worked upon its back. Not content to sit and wait for a new master, Uhlguth begins to travel. Uhlguth will travel forever if that is what it takes. The rogue world's velocity dashes apart all in it path. Its travels will even go through the most chaotic of spaces. During its search, seven entities notice its passing.

** I simply did not like the writing style of this story. Squeezing seven different views, not including Uhlguth's, into such few pages only succeeded in making the story choppy. I would have rated this story even lower, except that I honestly enjoyed the sixth view about a captain, a seer, and a spirit revolting. The author should turn the main character, Ashya Drael, and the spirit revolting synopsis into a full-length novel. **



Mercy Run by Steve Parker
An ork warlord has sent seventeen massive asteroids hurtling through space on a collision course with the Imperial planet of Palmeros. Just before Sergeant Wulfe and his crew were scheduled for evacuation, they are pulled for one last mission. The Cadian 81st Armored (tanks) are ordered to escort Sister Superior Dessembra of the Adeptus Sororitas and two others from the Order of Serenity to the town of Ghotenz on a mission of mercy.

***** I would dearly enjoy seeing more of Sergeant Oskar Wulfe and his men in future novels. This leader understands the necessity of successfully completing the mission, but still has enough humanity to feel pain when forced to make extremely tough decisions with little or not hesitation. The author has done an outstanding job with this story. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

The Cyberiad

Stanislaw Lem

Amazon Price: $10.40 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvest Books Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $6.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lem, Stanislaw

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Stories held down held down by fixation on hollow science aesthetic 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Two stars, ouch. Don't get me wrong, The Cyberiad is filled with episodic comedy that I wouldn't crabbily dismiss. The presentation though gets heavily weighed down, or even flattened, by an overwhelming amount of limp techno-posturing. (I'd give some stars to the translator personally, I think-- sometimes I was shocked when I stopped to consider that the endless wordplay was a labored translation from the Polish. It really seemed that the Polish must have had a large amount of English loan words already in it. If that's not the case, somebody needs to buy this translator a cigar.)

I first read a single story from this book when I was younger ("Gargantua"), and only read the rest of the collection years later. At the time I loved that story-- it stayed on my mind for a long time and that's why I sought out this book-- but my opinion has taken a reverse course.

First, Lem ruins his world by overdoing it with ham-fisted puns. He populates his robotic universe with cyber-creatures. Throughout the narrative, instead of referring to earth dogs, Lem will refer to "St. Cybernards and Cyberman pinschers"-- with an exclamation point. (He means St. Bernards and Doberman pinschers.) Lem ham-fistedly puts "cyber-" in front of many many other words in the book. Why would a completely robotic and cybernetic world use the prefix "cyber-" for anything? It would be redundant, since that aspect would be taken for granted. (We could likewise prefix the names of all creatures on our planet earth with "bio-" and have the same effect.)

For that and similar reasons most of the punning comes off as only so many groaners to me. If you like Richard Lederer's work and puns in general, you'll like this book. No harm done. (A successful one is an inexplicable dragon, or "draganomoly" which even now I laugh at, but it's funny because of the scene, not the pun itself.)

Secondly, even though Lem superficially creates a unique robo-world from his imagination, he strangely resorts to tropes and cliches for much of the book. All the characters and locales have a feudal, ancient aesthetic-- that's fine and good, even great. But he re-imagines it all with an overblown cybernetic veneer. If Lem wanted to write fairy tales about the middle ages, which is what many of these are, he could have ditched the cybernetic veneer and been less distracting. The cliches (a character's "wire-hair stood on end") were tiring but went on endlessly.

Thirdly, the rest of the text is made up of strings of misused terminology from calculus and physics. In all seriousness they seem to have been pulled out of a glossary with no purpose or rationale. Some readers may enjoy that, since there is a newly emerged "math aesthetic" within some segments of popular culture that has no connection to the actual study or understanding of math or science (Real-world example: putting up on the wall a framed painting of a physics formula-- a painting of the formula itself in black and white, looking just like it would look when typed in a textbook).

A critic's blurb on the back cover says "Lem plays in earnest with every concept [...] from free will to probability theory", but asinine rhymes containing the word "stochastic" is the extent of the so-called "probability theory" you'll experience in this book. That is a prime example of the shallow science aesthetic: "probability theory" is referred to explicitly only because that term is oh-la-la techno-babble, not because it has any role in the narrative. The word lazily carries vague connotations of the higher-functions of human thought, that's all.

In summary, too much of the book is based on thematic overbearing wordplay that loses its freshness almost right away. The has a higher concentration of groaners than any book ever written, I'm pretty sure. (Example: Lem describes things as "informational and transformational", which in context has no justification other than that the two words form a (forced) rhyme, and that they have a loose floppy air of "technology" about them.)

Lem's Solaris was better than this, even in an English translation that came through French from the original Polish. In Solaris too there's some shallow scientific/techno posturing, but it was negligible since it made up a thinner layer of the book's content. Plainly put, the scientific bent of Solaris was a straw man, but the psychological core of the story was excellent and stayed with me. Or I'd suggest skipping The Cyberiad and getting Lem's THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS. Lem's indulgent there too, but with enjoyable results. You also might want to check out Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, which is distantly similar to The Cyberiad in its spacey themes but which I liked a lot more. Other than that I strongly recommend Kurt Vonnegut if you're looking for imaginative faux-sci-fi amazements. Vonnegut had and has no rival to the deftness he brings to fictional and non-fictional scientific concepts. (And for the record, the blurb by Vonnegut on this edition of The Cyberiad is a blatant misquote. Any discerning reader would do a double-take.)

If the puns and hollow misused jargon were stripped out, the residue could be commendable. The book isn't terrible. Afterall, I got through it. Meanwhile there are thousands of books out there that have no right to bring anyone past the first page. If I looked way past the drawbacks I have harped on, I could say Lem finds a creative and likeable thread.

Editorial Review:

Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. They travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their employers. “The most completely successful of his books... here Lem comes closest to inventing a real universe” (Boston Globe). Illustrations by Daniel Mr—z. Translated by Michael Kandel.

Crossroads and Other Tales of Valdemar (Heralds of Valdemar)

Mercedes Lackey

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DAW Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $1.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lackey, Mercedes -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lackey, Mercedes -> Paperback
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lackey, Mercedes -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Going out on a high note. 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Misty--if I may so call her--has said that she does not foresee writing any more Valdemar stories. I am sorry, for I have enjoyed them greatly. However, the last few have not been up to her usual high standards, so perhaps it is for the best.

Thanks, Misty.

All the stories were good-although, of course, some better than others. There were a few which really didn't seem to be Valdemar stories at all; they were good stories, but the bits that were distinctly Valdemar seemed to have just been stuck on, as though the author was anticipating later scraping the serial numbers off. Still, all-in-all, well worth it.

Misty does it again! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I've been reading Mercedes Lackey for over 20years now. She never fails to disapoint.
The Valdemar series has proven to be my favorite (even though it's so hard to choose, they are all great). This is the third book of short stories in the Valdemar Universe. It's great to see another perspective into a well-written world.
I highly recommend this to any fan of Misty's.

Editorial Review:

An original short fiction anthology set in Mercedes Lackey's bestselling world of Valdemar-featuring heroic Heralds and their horselike companions-and including an all-new novella by Lackey herself, as well as stories by masters such as Mickey Zucker Reichert, Judith Tarr, Tanya Huff, and others.