Lords Of Swords: Thirteen Stories Of Heroic Fantasy

by Daniel E. Blackston (Editor)

Featuring thirteen heroic fantasy stories by popular and critically acclaimed writers, this anthology offers a fascinating and unique roster of contributors who provide gripping tales that run the gamut of fantasy themes and settings. Providing a compelling selection of unpublished, original stories that cover the central themes of the fantasy subgenre, these short stories include the works of recognized masters Tanith Lee and "cult" favorites John C. Hocking and D. K. Latta, alongside rising stars E. E. Knight and Howard Andrew Jones. A range of themes and settings that are at once eclectic and thematically unified make this the ideal showcase of contemporary fantasy fiction.

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies

301 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2005

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anthology books tend to always be mixed bags due to all the different authors and the shorter length of stories to establish characters, motivations, plots and a decent enough ending. The only author I ever heard of prior to reading this was Tanith Lee and though her story was a different take on a swordsman and his sword.
That said I did like three stories a lot. "Line of Blood" by Howard Andrew Jones focused on female pirate/fighter Raas and her lizard man friend Jekka. "The Slaying of Winter" by Vera Nazarian featured a tough as nails female warrior named lliss on a mission of vengeance to slay Trei, the god of winter. And last "Blood Drop" by Joseph A. McCullough V which was a great pirate caper by way of Dashiell Hammett.

[Joel Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts out as one of the best anthologies of fantasy stories I've encountered, tales reminiscent of the pulp age by John Hocking and DK Latta and others, and then goes south after five stories. It's front-loaded with great tales and then, save for a story by Joseph McCullough, leaves you scratching your head and wondering what happened.