Thieves' World: Turning Points (Thieves' World Anthology) [Hardcover]

Lynn Abbey (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Thieves' World Anthology | Publication Date: November 1, 2002

New Stories by Raymond E. Feist, Dennis L. McKiernan, and others

Empires rise and fall, but Sanctuary lives on!

Sanctuary, a lawless city governed by evil forces, powerful magic, and political intrigue.

The Age of the Rankin reign of Kadakithis, the occupation of the Beysib, and indeed the erstwhile Renaissance are all in the past. It is years later and the legendary figures of Jubal, Tempus, Shadowspawn, and the Stormchildren are now just memories, myth, and rumor.

But the city and its people live on. A new pantheon of personalities have moved in and are making their mark on this dark and dangerous city.

Meet these denizens of the city where just surviving is a full-time occupation.

Meet Halott the Necromancer, Latilla—daughter of the legendary artist Lalo the Limmer, Dysan the short and scrappy thief, Jake the rat, and a host of others.

Return to Sanctuary and let the games begin!

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

From Mickey Zucker Reichert's opening tale of a jaded child whose desire for solitude is quashed by a group of determined women ("Home Is Where the Hate Is") to Jeff Grubb's story of a fugitive sorcerer with a head filled with words of power ("Apocalypse Noun"), the 11 selections in this shared-world anthology introduce a new generation of readers to the lawless and enticing city of Sanctuary. Shapechangers, wizards, cutpurses, and assassins share the spotlight in stories by Lynn Abbey, Raymond Feist, Andrew Offut, and others. Fans of the original "Thieves' World" series should enjoy this volume, a sequel to Abbey's novel Sanctuary and a harbinger of other volumes to come. A good choice for most fantasy collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Brilliantly conceived." - C. J.Cherryh

"Thieves' World was a signal event in fantasy history for two reasons: The first was turning a lot of talented writers loose in a neutral world. The second was the creation of books that were rightfully hailed by fans and other professionals alike for their unique approach to the storyteller's craft and its rich legacy of first-rate story."-Raymond E. Feist

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312875177
• ISBN-13: 978-0312875176
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,561,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A return to the past and a new begining, January 20, 2004

By 

papaphilly (Bayonne, NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Thieves' World: Turning Points (Thieves' World Anthology) (Mass Market Paperback)

Many moons ago there was an anthology called Thieves World. It was about a small city called Sanctuary and the goings on within this city. A caste of characters was developed by different authors and as the books progressed, so did the characters. The difference was the authors could use characters from each other. This gave a very rich narrarative to the various tales. Instead of getting one version of events, the reader recieved many versions of the same accounts. This gave the world of Thieves World a depth not very often seen.

Lynn Abbey has returned to the city again and worked his magic. Once again the city of Sanctuary is in full bloom. This is the first of the new set and it is a great beggining. The setting is many years after the end of the last book from the last collection. This gives the city a new feel, but does leave an old reader wondering what happened to the various characters from the last anthology. Some old characters do make appearences as older or dead versions of themselves, but most of them are gone without mention. A new reader can figure out what had happened with the history from the new stories, but there is nothing like living the old books. This is my only complaint about first book. The writing is superb and Abbey gets my compliments with his editing and choice of writers. My personal favorite story is "Doing the Gods' Work" by Jody Van Nye. Even in a city of cutthroats, somebody is trying to build something for the good.

This book is great start to something new and does harken back to the old for those of us who enjoyed the first Anthology. Highly reccommended.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Story Collection for the New Thieves' World, August 23, 2005

By 

Rodney Meek (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thieves' World: Turning Points (Thieves' World Anthology) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first Thieves' World volume to follow Lynn Abbey's "Sanctuary", the novel that, if it didn't wipe the slate clean for this shared-universe setting, at least erased a whole lot of what had come before. "Sanctuary" was a "and now, many years later" type of reboot to clear the decks of a lot of old characters and punt a whole mess of overly byzantine plotlines to the curb. This collection of short stories therefore deals mostly with brand new characters with a different set of concerns and goals than the "old school" heroes and villains from the original run back in the Eighties. It's a good point to jump aboard because things haven't become too terribly convoluted yet.

I just had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Abbey this past weekend at a convention. In addition to the second new short story collection, "Enemies of Fortune", that has already been released, there is a third volume that is being planned. We are very unlikely to see the return of the big names from the past (such as the loathsome Tempus). In some cases (in particular Marion Zimmer Bradley's Lythande the Blue Adept) this is because the authors in question spun their characters off into stand-alone novels and went beyond the scope of the shared universe and were told that there was no bringing them back into Sanctuary. At any rate, Ms. Abbey will be trying to keep each collection more self-contained, so that plots don't span multiple volumes and the characters won't be pursuing 18 different agendas simultaneously.

In addition to sharing tidbits of how things were done back in the day (the writers from the first run seemed to spend plenty of time plotting against their own editors, when they weren't taking out their frustrations on the characters of fellow authors they were quarreling with), Ms. Abbey and some folks from Green Ronin fielded questions about the new Thieves' World role-playing game. Chaosium had their own version of this 20 years ago, but now the game rights have been transferred and Green Ronin is rolling out four d20-compatible volumes, two of which have already been released. The upcoming guide to the world of Sanctuary (including city maps and details on all of the realms we've heard of, such as the Rankan Empire, Ilsig, and so on) sounds really great. And everything in the RPG material will be considered canonical. Worth a look when it comes out!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff but McKiernan?????, July 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Thieves' World: Turning Points (Thieves' World Anthology) (Hardcover)

Overall the book was a fairly strong return to Thieves' World. With, for the most part, a good stable of returning authors as well as what look to be some very promising new (to Thieves' World) authors.

By and large, the new characters offer a great deal of potential for diverse and interesting stories. In the entire volume, I personally only found the Andrew Offut and Dennis McKiernan stories to not be to my liking. Offut's story simply failed to insire me while McKiernan's was, by and large, little more than an exercise in literary powergaming. At least at this point in the renewed series nothing is lost but wasted time if a reader were to wisely choose to skip that particular story.