Customer Reviews

Wings of Omen (Thieves' World, Book 6)

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I am very pleased with Amazon and the company which i purchased this book from. Very prompt delivery. Book was in great reading shape, sure the spine was cringed alot, and the pages alil worn, but any good book should have that, means it was well read.

AAAHHH! Some thing is finally happening in Sanctuary that makes sense! The Beysib invasion that was almost a non-event in the previous volume is finally generating the expected results. The Ranke empire has sent its third commando unit to Sanctuary to help take it back from the Beysib. The third commando is commanded by Kama who we find out is Tempus's daughter. Oh goody, goody! finally some sense.

Wait, what are Ischade and Roxanne doing battling each other and over what? Why does Ischade need unqualified stepsons to help her out? What's with this Zip character who in some stories is a disillusioned, callow, youth and in others is such a great leader of a revolutionary army that all the other factions in Sanctuary bow to him?

As usual with Thieves' World books, the format of the book is both its strength and its weakness. Strength in that the stories are imaginative and its very interesting to see different takes on the various denizens. Weak because we get no consistent treatment of characters. Some do not show up at all; others get short shrift; and some play major roles all of a sudden.

In this volume we also learn a bit more about the Beysib. Now, it is no longer enough to denigrate them as "fish-eyes" we actually read a story about the developing relationship between a male and female Beysib. Unfortunately, Hanse Shadowspawn appears and appears to go crazy! Oh well, there is more to come, obviously.

Wings of Omen, the sixth in the Thieves' World series, brings more of what one expects from the series. Featuring 8 stories from talented authors (including Asprin, Lynn Abbey, Diana Paxson, and C.J. Cherryh), Wings moves the town of Sanctuary into an open guerilla conflict on the street. Like the other Thieves' World books, the format of different stories occurring in the same location has strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, it is intersting to see the different perspectives each writer brings. On the other hand, interesting ideas generated by one writer or poorly followed up, or not at all. Too, there have been so many authors writing about so many characters that a glossary has become a must to keep track of who is whom. Nevertheless, Wings of Omen is an enjoyable, if somewhat dark and depressing at times, read.