Sword and Sorceress XX [Paperback]

Marion Zimmer Bradley (Editor), Elisabeth Waters (Introduction), Ann Sharp (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Sword and Sorceress | Publication Date: August 5, 2003

It's the 20th anthology featuringfantasy's fiercest sword-swinging, magic-slinging females.

The bestselling Swords & Sorceress series continues with this exciting 20th edition of all-new stories. It's all here: hard-hitting action, spellbinding magic, butt-kicking heroines... and some of the most popular names in fantasy today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: DAW (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756401429
• ISBN-13: 978-0756401429
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,288,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies

More About the Author

Elisabeth Waters sold her first short story in 1980 to Marion Zimmer Bradley for THE KEEPER'S PRICE, the first of the Darkover anthologies. She then went on to sell dozens of short stories to a variety of anthologies. Her first novel, a fantasy called CHANGING FATE, was awarded the 1989 Gryphon Award. She is now working on a sequel to it, in addition to her short story writing and anthology editing.

She has also worked as a supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera, where she appeared in La Gioconda, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Khovanschina, Das Rheingold, Werther, and Idomeneo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The last one? Not yet, August 22, 2003

By 

"juliamd" (Saratoga Springs, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sword and Sorceress XX (Paperback)

As usual, MZB and her able staff have collected a wide range of stories. Many old favorites are back, along with some rarely seen writers. I have to say that I was not as happy overall with the quality of the stories as I have been in previous collections. Also, their proofreading/editing department needs to shape up a bit, I have never seen so many errors in one printing. The usual short funny story for the last entry is not present, being replaced by the homily given at MZB's funeral. The good news is that, despite published story to the contrary, this is NOT the last volume planned. I hope that the quality improves for the very last one.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid entry in this ongoing series, September 10, 2003

By 

Olaf Keith (Dortmund) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sword and Sorceress XX (Paperback)

I disagree with some of the previous reviews. The overall quality of the stories is okay. I think the real problem is that there are no really outstanding stories in this volume. The stories I liked best were by Charles Saplak, Lisa Deason and Deborah J. Ross. Unfortunately, most of the other stories are simply not memorable enough. I hope that the next volume will be as good as some of the early volumes. By the way, Diana L. Paxson will step in as editor.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very uneven, not up to MZB's high standards, August 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Sword and Sorceress XX (Paperback)

This reads like what it is: the bottom of the slush pile for S&S XVIII. There are some interesting ideas here, but no good STORIES. The editing is poor; there are many inconsistencies in storylines and "spell-check" proofreading, which completely destroys the meaning of the sentence, or even the story itself. I don't want to have to puzzle out what the author meant, that always take me out of a story. I finished the anthology last night and that's all I remember: misspelled words and grammatical errors on nearly every page.

I see that the publishers are going to continue the series past XX, which I think is a mistake. It would have been better to let XIX stand in tribute to Marion Zimmer Bradley. Ms. Bradley was an excellent editor, which, sadly, the so-called editors of this book are manifestly NOT.

I give it 2 stars for some of the ideas and because it's not wholly unreadable. However, I doubt I will waste my money on S&S XXI.