Sword and sorceress iv [Paperback]

Marion Zimmer Bradley (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: DAW (July 7, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886774128
• ISBN-13: 978-0886774127
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,219,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best so far, February 18, 2009

By 

Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sword and sorceress IV (Sword and Sorceress) (Paperback)

Bradley herself migh pooh-pooh the notion, but the number four was sacred in many American Indian cultures, and this fourth volume of the S&S anthology series provides the greatest number (and percentage) of personally (to me, I mean) enjoyable tales of any of those I've read to date. Several heroines from previous volumes appear here, as in Mercedes "Misty" Lackey's "A Tale of Heroes" (a new adventure of her swordsisters Tarma and Kethry); Diana L. Paxson's "Blood Dancer" (warrior-princess Shanna wanders into a city stricken by plague and must save a hospice from a blood-mad mob); and Dorothy J. Heydt's "The Noonday Witch" (former gladiatrix Cynthia finds herself the only person unaffected by a sleep-spell being used to cover an attempted assassination). Then there are the original entries, including Robin W. Bailey's "The Woodland of Zarad-Thra" (soldier and unwilling mother Cymbalin, lost in a blizzard, finds herself facing a thief, a demon, and its sorcerous master); "The Weeping Oak" by Charles deLint (a second-sighted tinker is asked to free a wizard from the tree that binds him); Dave Smeds's "Gullrider" (Serla, a trained guardian of fishermen and mistress of the sorcerously-modified giant gulls, must tame a wild one in order to destroy a ravening kraken); Paul Helm Murray's "Kayli's Fire" (a fire-mage and her sentient pet dragon give refuge to a wounded warrior and must face the sorcerer who tried to kill him); Jennifer Roberson's "Rite of Passage" (a short adventure of her warrior-partners Tiger (male Southron) and Del (female Northerner)); Stephen L. Burns's "Redeemer's Riddle" (a defeated soldier seeks the key to the defeat of the demonic conqueror who threatens her land and people); and several others, for a total of 18. Some of these stories are humorous, some have a fairy-tale or legendary feel, and some are plain classic fantasy, so there's probably something in the collection for everyone. If all anthologies were as good as this one, I wouldn't go so heavily by the editor's name in choosing them--I wouldn't have to.