Customer Reviews

Legends- Limited Edition

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book may well be worth more than one star, but I wanted your attention because...

I wanted to help redirect potential Amazon buyers to the book they are looking for. The book that I read had 11 short stories by 11 different authors. It seems that several people were looking for that book when they bought this one.

This edition of the book seems to contain only 4 short stories. There are other editions that contain the missing stories and complete the collection (Legends 2 : Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy and Legends-Vol. 3 Stories By The Masters of Modern Fantasy (Legends (Tor))), but if you want the original, here is how you find that book on Amazon.

First, it must have this information:

Hardcover: 708 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; 1st ed edition (August 25, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312867875
ISBN-13: 978-0312867874

You can look it up under the ISBN or click on the following link (Legends: Stories By The Masters of Modern Fantasy). Note how many pages it has and, also, that Amazon lists the author of this book as the author of the first story in the book, Stephen King.

Hope that helps you find what you are looking for.

(If you search inside the book featured here, and you look at the back cover, you will see that you only get four stories. The book I directed you to has more authors and stories listed on the back cover--but no option to view it. However, I know it is the right ISBN because I got it directly from the copy I read.)

LEGENDS: SHORT NOVELS BY THE MASTERS OF MODERN FANTASY, edited and introduced by Robert Silverberg, presents "eleven rich, robust new stories by the best-known and most accomplished modern creators of fantasy fiction, each one set in the special universe of the imagination that made that writer famous throughout the word." Thus we have, for instance, a Wheel of Time story by Robert Jordan, an Earthsea story by Ursula K. Le Guin and, of course, a Discworld story by Terry Pratchett.

THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA is Stephen King's contribution, set in the world(s) of The Dark Tower. It describes how the last gunslinger, Roland of Gilead, encounters first a band of mutant humans and then the not-so-benevolent sisterhood of the title.

THE SEA AND LITTLE FISHES features Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, set at the time of an annual competition to see who's the best at witching. Granny's inevitable victory shakes up the whole kingdom as she shows how she's bad at being nice but good at being right.

DEBT OF BONES is a story by Terry Goodkind, set prior to the events of his Sword of Truth books. Abigail come to plead with the First Wizard to save her family from an early invasion of the D'Harans, but her mission does not go quite as she intends...

GRINNING MAN presents Davy Crockett as he never was, in Orson Scott Card's alternate America of the Tales of Alvin Maker. Crockett causes trouble for Alvin who, thanks to the young Arthur Stuart, learns an important lesson in distinguishing truly good acts from the disguises taken by evil acts like revenge.

THE SEVENTH SHRINE describes an event on Silverberg's own Majipoor, late in the reign of Valentine as Pontifex, the senior ruler of the giant planet. A strangely ritualistic murder during an archeological dig of an ancient alien city prompts Valentine to investigate.

DRAGONFLY revisits the wizards (and witches) of Earthsea in Le Guin's contribution. A local witch has detected some unidentified power in the girl Dragonfly but refuses to teach her any magic. Years later, the grown woman concocts a scheme with a visiting wizard to pass herself off as a man and study on Roke.

THE BURNING MAN is a story from Tad Williams' lands of Osten Ard, the setting of his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn books. It is told by Breda, orphaned by one king and then adopted by another, and concerns first love, an occult rite and a difficult choice, all of which will burn in her mind forever.

THE HEDGE KNIGHT is an entertaining tale from the Seven Kingdoms of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Squire Dunk finds himself with a knighthood when his master dies, and decides to enter a local tourney to prove himself a champion.

THE RUNNER OF PERN is set, of course, on Anne McCaffrey's world. Tenna is the daughter of a long line of runners, message carriers for those who cannot use dragons to send their letters, and her story provides insights into yet another way of life on Pern.

THE WOOD BOY is a short tale from Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga and concerns Dirk, two dead bodies and a Lord's gold. Dirk's life is changed forever when his Lord's estate is occupied by the invading Tsurani, and changed again by treason, murder and revenge.

NEW SPRING describes how Lan met Moiraine as a prelude to Jordan's books of The Wheel of Time, answering the question of how he came to throw her into the freezing waters of a lake, and then become her Warder and join her twenty year quest to find the Dragon Reborn.

Before reading the collection, I had read books set in five of the eleven worlds presented, and I'm looking forward to further exploration of the other six. While writing good short fiction is difficult, writing good short fiction in a setting that's previously been described in the course of a number of novels must be even more difficult. Such a short story can't be treated merely as a chapter extracted from a novel, where storylines can be set up in earlier chapters and then concluded in later chapters, but I think that all of the authors met the challenge very well. Of course, many of them make their task a little easier by moving to a time before the events of any of their books, or to a setting that has not already been used, but the stories are still entertaining nonetheless. Possibly the only author to fall into the trap of providing too much background was Silverberg himself, though I'm still looking forward to reading the Majipoor books. Even those authors noted for writing huge individual works --- such as Robert Jordan, whose seven Wheel of Time books total over 4500 pages, constituting a single, continuous story --- managed complete pieces in eighty pages or less.

Coming at this from the point of view of a Pratchett fan, I can also recommend AFTER THE KING: STORIES IN HONOR OF J. R. R. TOLKIEN (Tor) and THE WIZARDS OF ODD (Ace).

I, like another, thought I was purchasing a book with 11 short stories with some of my favorite authors. I was disappointed to find ONLY 4 of the stories in this version. I went awry with the description in the Editorial Review, Amazon.com by Craig Engler, printed in conjunction with this text. Please include more accurate information!

Robert Silverberg's idea to collect short stories and novellas from some of this era's most notable and talented Fantasy authors is pure cream-filled joy for fans of the Genre. Despite having read the pertinent series by Stephen King, Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, Terry Goodkind, and Orson Scott Card, this book opened up new worlds to explore and new chapters in some of my favorite series.

My favorites were the ones by King, Williams, Silverberg, Feist, and McCaffrey. I have lost all interest in Terry Goodkind mostly because I find his characters to be wooden and uninteresting, and this story was no more compelling than the last book of his that I read. Goodkind also has a penchant for the "gotcha" ending, something that is frustrating to any reader who struggles to find logical connections between events and character motivation.

The best of this book, however, is The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin. I had never heard of Martin when I picked up Legends, and the first thing I did after finishing The Hedge Knight was to go pick up his novel "A Game of Thrones." Thanks to this book, I am now a fan of what may be the best epic fantasy series ever written, and yes, that includes Tolkien, Goodkind, and Jordan. The Hedge Knight is a simple tale of a young man recently knighted trying to make a name for himself in a tournament. The plain and honest style of Martin's prose hooks you in, and suddenly you care very deeply about this hedge knight, Dunk, and what is to become of him as he runs afoul of a vain and dangerous prince. Set approximately 100 years prior to the events that begin in "A Game of Thrones," this tale is a wonderful introduction to Martin's Westeros and the rich mythology and history he has built into it.

I was also intrigued by Feist's The Wood Boy, a tale that, for all it's positioning and setting as a chapter in a tale of strange alien invaders, is about nothing more complex than human nature and the compulsions that make us what we are as a species. Silverberg's Majipoor is also a very intriguing world, and I will be investigating it in the future.

Terry Pratchett's entry is also a key one, showing that not all fantasy need to be deadly serious or take itself very seriously at all. Pratchett almost recalls Douglas Adams' contributions to Science Fiction.

I think most Fantasy fans will be very happy with this book, largely becuase it is not a one-trick pony. There's something in here for every fan of the genre. Are you into fantastic worlds of extremes and mythology? Try Majipoor. Do you like to read tales that chill you and freeze your blood? The little sisters of Eluria are your ticket. Curious about an America that might have been? Orson Scott Card is yor man. Into knights and jousting, intrigue and politics? Martin and Jordan are for you. You can hardly go wrong buying this book, because if even one of the stories catches your interest, there's a new author for you to love. Thank you, Robert Silverberg.

There are 2 versions of this book in paperback. One has 4 stories (which unfortunately I bought by mistake) and the other has all 11 stories. I did enjoy 3 out of the 4 stories in the version I bought especially Stephen Kings and Raymond Feist.

To be honest, I bought this book for Robert Jordan and Raymond E. Feist.

I do not care for the Dark Tower series, so I did not read that one.

Feist's tale of the Riftwar was exceedingly predictable, and could have been set in any fantasy world. He could have done something besides mention the Tsurani to make it seem unique to the Kingdom of the Isles.

George R. R. Martin's "The Hedge Knight" is by far the best story in the book, and his Song of Ice and Fire series might turn out to be the best fantasy series ever written. The first two books are incredible.

Terry Pratchett's story about Granny Weatherwax was so funny, I now own every Discworld book so far, and I've pre-ordered the next one from Amazon.co.uk .

Aside from skipping King's story, and the disappointment of Feist's (still decent) story, everything was wonderful. Definetly a must have.

The original hardcover printing of this book featured 11 (I think) stories. Now the paperback collection finally arrives, and it only contains FOUR of the eleven, with the note that two more collections containing the rest of the stories will soon be available, thereby asking you to shell out more bucks! This is ridiculous!!! All of the stories in the hardcover could have easily fit into one paperback, but of course it's difficult when the "large-print-trick" is employed as it is here. Commercialism strikes again...

Inside this book you get to sample the writings and the worlds of eleven different fantasy authors. From high fantasy to alternative reality, there's something for every fantasy fan within the pages of this collection. Included are:

"The Hedge Knight" by George RR Martin. This story was why I read this book and it was worth it. Set before A Song of Ice and Fire, the main character was very sympathetic and the story was up to Martin's writing.

"The Little Sisters of Eluria" by Stephen King. I didn't know SK had written a fantasy novel and could picture it until I read this story. It is dark fantasy, to be sure, but it was interesting and had an unexpected twist at the end.

"The Sea and Little Fishes" by Terry Pratchett. I don't think I will ever read a Pratchett novel, and reading about witches isn't my thing, but I did laugh several times--out loud--while reading this short story. Entertaining.

"The Seventh Shrine" by Robert Silverberg. The world he's created sounds interesting, and the story pulled me straight through from start to finish; but when I got to the end, I was left hoping for more (of a climax).

"The Grinning Man" by Orson Scott Card. Okay...I had not read any other Alvin Maker stories and I'm not sure they're my thing. Maybe I prefer high fantasy. Anyway, I didn't enjoy this story, set in an alternative reality N. America, as much as the others but am curious to read a complete Card novel. Creative.

"The Wood Boy" by Raymond Feist. By showing us a glimpse of the conclusion at the beginning of the story, and then going back to tell it to us from the beginning, the author had me tearing through this story to find out what happened. Interesting enough to warrant a further look into his "world" via a complete novel.

"Debt of Bones" by Terry Goodkind. This was an incredible story and I will be looking into more Goodkind. As a mother, I found the heroine's plight heart wrenching and couldn't help liking her despite the secrets she was keeping. Compelling read.

"Runner of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey. What a sweet story. There was conflict and adventure and a hint of romance in McCaffrey's tale. Not integral to her Pern novels at all, but nevertheless, a story not to be missed. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

"New Spring" by Robert Jordan. Evidently, this short story was elaborated on to become a book of its own, but it was well written as is. I can see now how my husband got dragged into the Wheel of Time world as Jordan has written a fascinating story that gives background information on the relationship between two of his primary characters.

"Dragonfly" by Ursula LeGuin. A young woman knows she has the "gift" but women aren't allowed to learn it. She follows a young wizard, who is just trying to have s*x with her, to a school for only boys, and some of the wizards see in her the possibility of a fulfilled prophesy, so they teach her in non-traditional ways. This story needed to be filled out better, to be longer, to be a novel to itself.

"The Burning Man" by Tad Williams. I wanted more. I felt as if the story was going great and then--that's it? There was a huge build up and then the climax was a bit less than expected. The story was enough, however, to interest me in a giving a Williams novel a chance.

All in all, I was not disappointed that I took the time to read through this entire collection. It gave me a better idea of what type of fantasy I prefer and whose books I should look into next.

^Legends^ presents original stories from the best writers of fantasy literature. George R.R. Martin's "A Hedge Knight" is a must read for anyone who enjoys his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series (which should be everyone). Orson Scott Card's "A Grinning Man" is a gem that surely will put a smile on your face. It should be a law: Writers this gifted need to publish a new novella every year.

Two years ago, if someone told me that for less than $30, I could have almost a dozen novellas from great and varied authors and set in their worlds, I would have told them they were nuts, crazy and from another universe.

Lo and behold. Silverberg managed the feat. Are you a Wheel of Time nut? There is a prequel novella for you. Enjoy Tad Williams? The newest fantasy legend, George R.R. Martin? Yep, they are all here. Even stuff for Pern-lovers and Discworld fanatics.

The beauty of this work is two fold. First, the quality is high throughout. Nary a clunker in the lot. Second, if you haven't read all the authors' and their series, this is a good taste of a bunch of the best. Never considered Stephen King before? Here is a Gunslinger novella. If you are one of those afraid to try the huge Wheel of Time, the novella by Jordan gives a nice feel for his writing.

Buy it for a friend. Buy it for yourself. Buy it for someone who has never tried fantasy before. (I have done the first two...).