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Sword and Sorceress #17
Sword and Sorceress XVII
THE STRENGTH OF WOMEN
Can a young witch survive when summoned to intervene in a marital spat between angry gods?
When a Seeker of Truth discovers a terrible tragedy, will she choose to uphold her vows of honesty, or will she withhold evidence to protect her community?
Will a girl with the ability to manipulate metals be able to free herself from the shackles of an abusive father?
Can a princess seeking safe passage past Amazon lands uncover the truth behind the murder of their queen?
In ancient Britain, can the vision of a young seer save her castle from destruction by enemy forces?
Travel with Diana L Paxon, Deborah Wheeler, Dorothy J Heydt, Dave Smeds, and their fellow spell-casters, to enchanted kingdoms where women - wheather they be sword-sworn or sorcerers-in-training - face challenges too often considered the sole province of men, in twenty-one original stories collected and edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Can a young witch survive when summoned to intervene in a marital spat between angry gods?
When a Seeker of Truth discovers a terrible tragedy, will she choose to uphold her vows of honesty, or will she withhold evidence to protect her community?
Will a girl with the ability to manipulate metals be able to free herself from the shackles of an abusive father?
Can a princess seeking safe passage past Amazon lands uncover the truth behind the murder of their queen?
In ancient Britain, can the vision of a young seer save her castle from destruction by enemy forces?
Travel with Diana L Paxon, Deborah Wheeler, Dorothy J Heydt, Dave Smeds, and their fellow spell-casters, to enchanted kingdoms where women - wheather they be sword-sworn or sorcerers-in-training - face challenges too often considered the sole province of men, in twenty-one original stories collected and edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
312 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2000
3 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
About the author
Marion Zimmer Bradley
800 books4,878 followersMarion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series, often with a feminist outlook.
Bradley's first published novel-length work was Falcons of Narabedla, first published in the May 1957 issue of Other Worlds. When she was a child, Bradley stated that she enjoyed reading adventure fantasy authors such as Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, and Leigh Brackett, especially when they wrote about "the glint of strange suns on worlds that never were and never would be." Her first novel and much of her subsequent work show their influence strongly.
Early in her career, writing as Morgan Ives, Miriam Gardner, John Dexter, and Lee Chapman, Marion Zimmer Bradley produced several works outside the speculative fiction genre, including some gay and lesbian pulp fiction novels. For example, I Am a Lesbian was published in 1962. Though relatively tame by today's standards, they were considered pornographic when published, and for a long time she refused to disclose the titles she wrote under these pseudonyms.
Her 1958 story The Planet Savers introduced the planet of Darkover, which became the setting of a popular series by Bradley and other authors. The Darkover milieu may be considered as either fantasy with science fiction overtones or as science fiction with fantasy overtones, as Darkover is a lost earth colony where psi powers developed to an unusual degree. Bradley wrote many Darkover novels by herself, but in her later years collaborated with other authors for publication; her literary collaborators have continued the series since her death.
Bradley took an active role in science-fiction and fantasy fandom, promoting interaction with professional authors and publishers and making several important contributions to the subculture.
For many years, Bradley actively encouraged Darkover fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories. As a result, the novel remained unpublished, and Bradley demanded the cessation of all Darkover fan fiction.
Bradley was also the editor of the long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series, which encouraged submissions of fantasy stories featuring original and non-traditional heroines from young and upcoming authors. Although she particularly encouraged young female authors, she was not averse to including male authors in her anthologies. Mercedes Lackey was just one of many authors who first appeared in the anthologies. She also maintained a large family of writers at her home in Berkeley. Ms Bradley was editing the final Sword and Sorceress manuscript up until the week of her death in September of 1999.
Probably her most famous single novel is The Mists of Avalon. A retelling of the Camelot legend from the point of view of Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, it grew into a series of books; like the Darkover series, the later novels are written with or by other authors and have continued to appear after Bradley's death.
Her reputation has been posthumously marred by multiple accusations of child sexual abuse by her daughter Moira Greyland, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children.
(from Wikipedia)
Bradley's first published novel-length work was Falcons of Narabedla, first published in the May 1957 issue of Other Worlds. When she was a child, Bradley stated that she enjoyed reading adventure fantasy authors such as Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, and Leigh Brackett, especially when they wrote about "the glint of strange suns on worlds that never were and never would be." Her first novel and much of her subsequent work show their influence strongly.
Early in her career, writing as Morgan Ives, Miriam Gardner, John Dexter, and Lee Chapman, Marion Zimmer Bradley produced several works outside the speculative fiction genre, including some gay and lesbian pulp fiction novels. For example, I Am a Lesbian was published in 1962. Though relatively tame by today's standards, they were considered pornographic when published, and for a long time she refused to disclose the titles she wrote under these pseudonyms.
Her 1958 story The Planet Savers introduced the planet of Darkover, which became the setting of a popular series by Bradley and other authors. The Darkover milieu may be considered as either fantasy with science fiction overtones or as science fiction with fantasy overtones, as Darkover is a lost earth colony where psi powers developed to an unusual degree. Bradley wrote many Darkover novels by herself, but in her later years collaborated with other authors for publication; her literary collaborators have continued the series since her death.
Bradley took an active role in science-fiction and fantasy fandom, promoting interaction with professional authors and publishers and making several important contributions to the subculture.
For many years, Bradley actively encouraged Darkover fan fiction and reprinted some of it in commercial Darkover anthologies, continuing to encourage submissions from unpublished authors, but this ended after a dispute with a fan over an unpublished Darkover novel of Bradley's that had similarities to some of the fan's stories. As a result, the novel remained unpublished, and Bradley demanded the cessation of all Darkover fan fiction.
Bradley was also the editor of the long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series, which encouraged submissions of fantasy stories featuring original and non-traditional heroines from young and upcoming authors. Although she particularly encouraged young female authors, she was not averse to including male authors in her anthologies. Mercedes Lackey was just one of many authors who first appeared in the anthologies. She also maintained a large family of writers at her home in Berkeley. Ms Bradley was editing the final Sword and Sorceress manuscript up until the week of her death in September of 1999.
Probably her most famous single novel is The Mists of Avalon. A retelling of the Camelot legend from the point of view of Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, it grew into a series of books; like the Darkover series, the later novels are written with or by other authors and have continued to appear after Bradley's death.
Her reputation has been posthumously marred by multiple accusations of child sexual abuse by her daughter Moira Greyland, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 14, 2020
Note, May 14, 2020: When I read short story collections intermittently over a long period of time, my reactions are similarly written piecemeal, while they're fresh in my mind. That gives the reviews a choppy, and often repetitive, quality. Recently, I had to condense and rearrange one of these into a unified whole because of Goodreads' length limit; and I was so pleased with the result that I decided to give every one of these a similar edit! Accordingly, I've now edited this one.
This is another volume of editor Bradley's long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series. Published in 2000, it collects 21 tales by, as usual, a mix of both newcomers to the series and veteran contributors. I've encountered stories by at least four of the writers here --Vera Nazarian, Deborah Wheeler, Diana L. Paxson, and Patricia Duffy Novak-- in earlier volumes.
Of the stories here, Nazarian's "Caelqua's Spring" was far and away the weakest. It has some beautiful passages, but ultimately the world-building is lacking, I couldn't relate to the main characters, and the plot never gelled enough for me to be able to really have a handle on the premise. The whole thing struck me as very much an exercise in vaguely New Age-style mysticism, without a lot of content. (This author's "The Stone Face, the Giant, and the Paradox" also exhibited tendencies that way in some passages; but there, the story was well-told enough to compensate for this. That's not the case here, IMO. All in all, it's a very inferior work to her earlier "Beauty and His Beast.")
To various degrees, though, I liked all of the other stories; well-chosen tales that work very well; there was nary another weak or ineffective one in the bunch. To be sure, Charles Laing's "Weapons at War" is short and light, a humorous gag involving sentient weapons bickering with each other; but it's meant to be short and light, and that's fine. And Carrie Vaughn's "The Haunting of Princess Elizabeth" is neither fantasy (it's set in Tudor England) nor endowed with a heroine who's either warrior or sorceress, although she's certainly a strong-willed, tough-minded young woman; but it's a good story, probably best calculated to appeal to British history buffs. To be sure, history doesn't record that the ghost of her mother Anne Boleyn (later joined by the shade of Katherine Howard, and eventually of Jane Grey) watched over and counseled the young Elizabeth until her accession to the throne --but the Elizabeth depicted here didn't tell anybody, and nobody but she could see them.
Jenn Reese's "Valkyrie" draws nicely on Scandinavian mythology (which I can appreciate, being of Viking stock myself) in a story that assumes that the myths are real. Novak's "Luz" and Cynthia Ward's poignant "The Tears of the Moon" are set in fantasy worlds where pagan goddesses really exist; the former is a particularly thought-provoking tale. "Free Passage" by Mary Catelli features Amazons (but not all Amazons are nice or honest people!) and an herbalist's quest for an herb that will save her people. We have a coming-of-age story of sorts, with a sorceress' apprentice as protagonist, in ElizaBeth (no, that's not a typo!) Gilligan's "Demon Calling." In "Hell Hath No Fury...." Lee Martindale suggests that even demons are entitled to be treated fairly and honestly. (This is one of the few stories in the series with a humorous tone.) Dave Coleman-Reese (Jenn Reese's husband, and one of three male writers represented in this volume) contributes perhaps the deepest story in this batch, the outstanding "Memories of the Sea." Another favorite was "My Sister's Song" by T. Borregaard, a graduate student in archaeology whose writing is flavored by that interest. This is one story that actually has no magical or fantasy element at all, though the setting is exotic, the narrator's cultural environment unfamiliar to most readers, and the denouement really unique and unusual; it's straight historical fiction, a fictionalized re-telling (with invented characters --though there really were warrior women among tribes like the Heptakometes) of a real incident in the resistance of the indigenous tribes around the Black Sea to Rome's attempt to conquer them.
Some of the other stories, from the amount of backstory or the complexity of the world-building, read like they could be parts of a story cycle. For instance, sorceress Cynthia in Dorothy J. Heydt's "An Exchange of Favors" (set in an ancient Greek milieu where the Olympian deities are real, and intervene in mortal affairs as selfishly and capriciously as in the legends) could easily be, and maybe is, a series character. A number of these ten are emotionally complex, powerful and evocative stories, on a par with the gems in the previous anthologies I've read in the series; the prevalence of that caliber of story in these volumes is a tribute to Bradley's skill as an editor. Often it's difficult to make comments on these without spoilers. But I can say that after you read Cynthia McQuillen's "Deep as Rivers," you won't view trolls with the race prejudice you did before. Diana L. Paxson characteristically sets her "Lady of Flame" in Dark Ages Scandinavia (where the demi-deities of mythology are real) and uses her knowledge of actual early northern European cultures to create a rich cross-cultural narrative. Almost all our protagonists in these selections are magically gifted --healers, conjurors, scholars, etc.-- but Blaze in Bunnie Bessell's "The Summons" is a fighter, called upon to make a significant moral choice in the deepest tradition of serious fiction. Probably the most poignant story here is "The Price of the Sword" by Kim Fryer --which, in our world of post-traumatic stress disorder and addictive violence, speaks to us symbolically of the psychic costs of warfare, even if it's waged with guns and bombs instead of swords. Lisa Silverthorn's "Soul Dance" also deserves mention here as another standout and favorite. But all of them are good, and none deserve to be slighted, though considerations of space and time may force me to.
If you're a fan of swords and sorcery, strong heroines, fantasy in general, or just well-written traditional short fiction with a plot, you won't go wrong with this series, IMO!
This is another volume of editor Bradley's long-running Sword and Sorceress anthology series. Published in 2000, it collects 21 tales by, as usual, a mix of both newcomers to the series and veteran contributors. I've encountered stories by at least four of the writers here --Vera Nazarian, Deborah Wheeler, Diana L. Paxson, and Patricia Duffy Novak-- in earlier volumes.
Of the stories here, Nazarian's "Caelqua's Spring" was far and away the weakest. It has some beautiful passages, but ultimately the world-building is lacking, I couldn't relate to the main characters, and the plot never gelled enough for me to be able to really have a handle on the premise. The whole thing struck me as very much an exercise in vaguely New Age-style mysticism, without a lot of content. (This author's "The Stone Face, the Giant, and the Paradox" also exhibited tendencies that way in some passages; but there, the story was well-told enough to compensate for this. That's not the case here, IMO. All in all, it's a very inferior work to her earlier "Beauty and His Beast.")
To various degrees, though, I liked all of the other stories; well-chosen tales that work very well; there was nary another weak or ineffective one in the bunch. To be sure, Charles Laing's "Weapons at War" is short and light, a humorous gag involving sentient weapons bickering with each other; but it's meant to be short and light, and that's fine. And Carrie Vaughn's "The Haunting of Princess Elizabeth" is neither fantasy (it's set in Tudor England) nor endowed with a heroine who's either warrior or sorceress, although she's certainly a strong-willed, tough-minded young woman; but it's a good story, probably best calculated to appeal to British history buffs. To be sure, history doesn't record that the ghost of her mother Anne Boleyn (later joined by the shade of Katherine Howard, and eventually of Jane Grey) watched over and counseled the young Elizabeth until her accession to the throne --but the Elizabeth depicted here didn't tell anybody, and nobody but she could see them.
Jenn Reese's "Valkyrie" draws nicely on Scandinavian mythology (which I can appreciate, being of Viking stock myself) in a story that assumes that the myths are real. Novak's "Luz" and Cynthia Ward's poignant "The Tears of the Moon" are set in fantasy worlds where pagan goddesses really exist; the former is a particularly thought-provoking tale. "Free Passage" by Mary Catelli features Amazons (but not all Amazons are nice or honest people!) and an herbalist's quest for an herb that will save her people. We have a coming-of-age story of sorts, with a sorceress' apprentice as protagonist, in ElizaBeth (no, that's not a typo!) Gilligan's "Demon Calling." In "Hell Hath No Fury...." Lee Martindale suggests that even demons are entitled to be treated fairly and honestly. (This is one of the few stories in the series with a humorous tone.) Dave Coleman-Reese (Jenn Reese's husband, and one of three male writers represented in this volume) contributes perhaps the deepest story in this batch, the outstanding "Memories of the Sea." Another favorite was "My Sister's Song" by T. Borregaard, a graduate student in archaeology whose writing is flavored by that interest. This is one story that actually has no magical or fantasy element at all, though the setting is exotic, the narrator's cultural environment unfamiliar to most readers, and the denouement really unique and unusual; it's straight historical fiction, a fictionalized re-telling (with invented characters --though there really were warrior women among tribes like the Heptakometes) of a real incident in the resistance of the indigenous tribes around the Black Sea to Rome's attempt to conquer them.
Some of the other stories, from the amount of backstory or the complexity of the world-building, read like they could be parts of a story cycle. For instance, sorceress Cynthia in Dorothy J. Heydt's "An Exchange of Favors" (set in an ancient Greek milieu where the Olympian deities are real, and intervene in mortal affairs as selfishly and capriciously as in the legends) could easily be, and maybe is, a series character. A number of these ten are emotionally complex, powerful and evocative stories, on a par with the gems in the previous anthologies I've read in the series; the prevalence of that caliber of story in these volumes is a tribute to Bradley's skill as an editor. Often it's difficult to make comments on these without spoilers. But I can say that after you read Cynthia McQuillen's "Deep as Rivers," you won't view trolls with the race prejudice you did before. Diana L. Paxson characteristically sets her "Lady of Flame" in Dark Ages Scandinavia (where the demi-deities of mythology are real) and uses her knowledge of actual early northern European cultures to create a rich cross-cultural narrative. Almost all our protagonists in these selections are magically gifted --healers, conjurors, scholars, etc.-- but Blaze in Bunnie Bessell's "The Summons" is a fighter, called upon to make a significant moral choice in the deepest tradition of serious fiction. Probably the most poignant story here is "The Price of the Sword" by Kim Fryer --which, in our world of post-traumatic stress disorder and addictive violence, speaks to us symbolically of the psychic costs of warfare, even if it's waged with guns and bombs instead of swords. Lisa Silverthorn's "Soul Dance" also deserves mention here as another standout and favorite. But all of them are good, and none deserve to be slighted, though considerations of space and time may force me to.
If you're a fan of swords and sorcery, strong heroines, fantasy in general, or just well-written traditional short fiction with a plot, you won't go wrong with this series, IMO!
May 24, 2013
It doesn’t quite feel like Bradley did the editing on this one even though she is listed. “Memories of the Sea” will make you look at pearls differently, and that really is the only reason to read this book.
July 19, 2020
Marion Zimmer Bradley personally gathered these stories, and makes an opening comment about each one. Comments I often disagree with. The contents:
Introduction by Marion Zimmer Bradley - blessedly short 4 pages, although comments continue throughout as noted above. The story introductions are included in the page counts for each short story.
Memories of the Sea by Dave Coleman-Reese - a good tale from a new author about listening to pearls plucked from the ocean's depths, this is a promising tale that would be a great intro to a new world - 11 pages - rating 4 stars
Free Passage by Mary Catelli - interesting but not riveting story of Amazons in a tale calling to mind the myths of Ancient Greece - 14 pages - rating 2.5 stars
The Conjuror's Light by Lisa Campos - a different twist on magic, where the conjuror builds illusionary pictures but is called on to make them real in this tale of a magical sword - 25 pages - rating 3.5 stars
My Sister's Song by T. Borregaard - different use of magic, especially herbology, in a way that reminds me of the work of other authors, but still interesting - 14 pages - rating 3 stars
The Summons by Bunnie Bessell - this tells of a warrior assigned to guard a wayward prince in a kingdom with many princes, any of whom could be king one day, but the overall story felt flat to me - 19 pages - rating 2 stars
Luz by Patricia Duffy Novak - this story was well written and extremely predictable in many ways, but still a good read, as it speeds along a tale that covers many years in it's short pages, telling of acolytes in a temple who share visions as part of their graduation to priesthood; this tale would be better served as a full novel - 14 pages - rating 3 stars
Caelqua's Spring by Vera Nazarian- this was a decent, comfortable story of a reincarnation of a near diety, but felt as though I had read it elsewhere - 10 pages - rating 2 stars
Deep as Rivers by Cynthia McQuillin - a different twist on the interactions of various humanoid species, including trolls, humans and elves, this story deals with mortality in an interesting way; built out, this could be the start of a great novel (or the ending of one) - 18 pages - rating 4 stars
Weapons at War by Charles Laing - this was a blessedly short story of a talking tempermental sexist sword - 5 pages - rating 1.5 stars
Hell Hath Fury by Lee Martindale - again the story felt as though I had read something similar, but the way it was told overcame that, drawing me deep in to a tale involving magic and demons, making me want to read it as a full novel - 9 pages - rating 4.5 stars
An Exchange of Favors by Dorothy Heydt -this was an interesting story which read as though lifted from the midpoint of a prepared novel, in would be best served in 20 times it's length - 14 pages - rating 4 stars
Price of the Sword by Kim Fryer - although this tale too has a reminiscint musk of other stories read and mostly forgotten, it was a good script of a warrior burdened with a magic sword that forces her to kill again and again, even as she demands that witches remove the sword's curse - 9 pages - rating 3 stars
Demon Calling by Elizabeth Gilligan - I had to reread the entry in order to review this story of a young apprentice girl who follows a magic user, trying to discover her true calling - 12 pages - rating 1 star
Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Deborah Wheeler - this too felt as though I have encountered it elsewhere, even as I read it with enjoyment, feeling the hinted at parental abuse, the violent society, and the overbearing rulers of the area in a story of a magic in a young girl who at times reads as only about 10, then again as possibly as old as 16 - 18 pages - rating 2.5 stars
The Haunting of Princess Elizabeth by Carrie Vaughn- this was a fun read with it's hints as to the real reason that Princess, later Queen, Elizabeth kept her own counsel, and at times could be seen seeming talking with herself; ghosts surround the Princess as we stay with her in her constant forced relocation in the years prior to her becoming Queen Elizabeth I; the main problem with the story is that the characters never have a chance to mature; another story that would benefit by a huge expansion - 20 pages - rating 2.5 stars
Shadow Soul by Laura J. Underwood - this story of the stealing of the soul from the just-married bride, and the necessary recovery be a magical woman is well built and worth reading the whole collection for - 16 pages - rating very close to 5 stars
Memories Traced in Snow by Dave Smeds - some memories are best forgotten, especially in small communities where everyone is known, but forgetting has a price, and sometimes memories return in unsettling ways, which brings us the theme of this excellent entry - 27 pages - rating 5 stars
Valkyrie by Jenn Reese - this interesting story brings us a different story about Valkyries, those harvesters of warrior souls on the battle plain - 5 pages - rating very close to 3 stars
Soul Dance by Lisa Silverthorne - here we have a slave who was formerly a war commander for the very people she now slaves for, attending at the event of a dance to ferret out the truth during a dance, it shows good promise but was pretty predictable - 13 pages - rating 2.5 stars
Lady of Flame by Diana L. Paxson - this tale is set in the days when the Norse raiders were everywhere, but dwelling on the lives of those around the homeplace, and the interaction of different religions and beliefs - 21 pages - rating 2.5 stars
The Tears of the Moon by Cynthia Ward - the story takes us into the life of a reluctant magic user, who wants only to stay with the boy she loves, even though he loves another, and the effect her reluctance has on her and her village as magic denied nearly kills everyone - 14 pages - rating 3.5 stars
Introduction by Marion Zimmer Bradley - blessedly short 4 pages, although comments continue throughout as noted above. The story introductions are included in the page counts for each short story.
Memories of the Sea by Dave Coleman-Reese - a good tale from a new author about listening to pearls plucked from the ocean's depths, this is a promising tale that would be a great intro to a new world - 11 pages - rating 4 stars
Free Passage by Mary Catelli - interesting but not riveting story of Amazons in a tale calling to mind the myths of Ancient Greece - 14 pages - rating 2.5 stars
The Conjuror's Light by Lisa Campos - a different twist on magic, where the conjuror builds illusionary pictures but is called on to make them real in this tale of a magical sword - 25 pages - rating 3.5 stars
My Sister's Song by T. Borregaard - different use of magic, especially herbology, in a way that reminds me of the work of other authors, but still interesting - 14 pages - rating 3 stars
The Summons by Bunnie Bessell - this tells of a warrior assigned to guard a wayward prince in a kingdom with many princes, any of whom could be king one day, but the overall story felt flat to me - 19 pages - rating 2 stars
Luz by Patricia Duffy Novak - this story was well written and extremely predictable in many ways, but still a good read, as it speeds along a tale that covers many years in it's short pages, telling of acolytes in a temple who share visions as part of their graduation to priesthood; this tale would be better served as a full novel - 14 pages - rating 3 stars
Caelqua's Spring by Vera Nazarian- this was a decent, comfortable story of a reincarnation of a near diety, but felt as though I had read it elsewhere - 10 pages - rating 2 stars
Deep as Rivers by Cynthia McQuillin - a different twist on the interactions of various humanoid species, including trolls, humans and elves, this story deals with mortality in an interesting way; built out, this could be the start of a great novel (or the ending of one) - 18 pages - rating 4 stars
Weapons at War by Charles Laing - this was a blessedly short story of a talking tempermental sexist sword - 5 pages - rating 1.5 stars
Hell Hath Fury by Lee Martindale - again the story felt as though I had read something similar, but the way it was told overcame that, drawing me deep in to a tale involving magic and demons, making me want to read it as a full novel - 9 pages - rating 4.5 stars
An Exchange of Favors by Dorothy Heydt -this was an interesting story which read as though lifted from the midpoint of a prepared novel, in would be best served in 20 times it's length - 14 pages - rating 4 stars
Price of the Sword by Kim Fryer - although this tale too has a reminiscint musk of other stories read and mostly forgotten, it was a good script of a warrior burdened with a magic sword that forces her to kill again and again, even as she demands that witches remove the sword's curse - 9 pages - rating 3 stars
Demon Calling by Elizabeth Gilligan - I had to reread the entry in order to review this story of a young apprentice girl who follows a magic user, trying to discover her true calling - 12 pages - rating 1 star
Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Deborah Wheeler - this too felt as though I have encountered it elsewhere, even as I read it with enjoyment, feeling the hinted at parental abuse, the violent society, and the overbearing rulers of the area in a story of a magic in a young girl who at times reads as only about 10, then again as possibly as old as 16 - 18 pages - rating 2.5 stars
The Haunting of Princess Elizabeth by Carrie Vaughn- this was a fun read with it's hints as to the real reason that Princess, later Queen, Elizabeth kept her own counsel, and at times could be seen seeming talking with herself; ghosts surround the Princess as we stay with her in her constant forced relocation in the years prior to her becoming Queen Elizabeth I; the main problem with the story is that the characters never have a chance to mature; another story that would benefit by a huge expansion - 20 pages - rating 2.5 stars
Shadow Soul by Laura J. Underwood - this story of the stealing of the soul from the just-married bride, and the necessary recovery be a magical woman is well built and worth reading the whole collection for - 16 pages - rating very close to 5 stars
Memories Traced in Snow by Dave Smeds - some memories are best forgotten, especially in small communities where everyone is known, but forgetting has a price, and sometimes memories return in unsettling ways, which brings us the theme of this excellent entry - 27 pages - rating 5 stars
Valkyrie by Jenn Reese - this interesting story brings us a different story about Valkyries, those harvesters of warrior souls on the battle plain - 5 pages - rating very close to 3 stars
Soul Dance by Lisa Silverthorne - here we have a slave who was formerly a war commander for the very people she now slaves for, attending at the event of a dance to ferret out the truth during a dance, it shows good promise but was pretty predictable - 13 pages - rating 2.5 stars
Lady of Flame by Diana L. Paxson - this tale is set in the days when the Norse raiders were everywhere, but dwelling on the lives of those around the homeplace, and the interaction of different religions and beliefs - 21 pages - rating 2.5 stars
The Tears of the Moon by Cynthia Ward - the story takes us into the life of a reluctant magic user, who wants only to stay with the boy she loves, even though he loves another, and the effect her reluctance has on her and her village as magic denied nearly kills everyone - 14 pages - rating 3.5 stars
September 9, 2024
A few good stories and a bunch of really fucking dull ones. I hope the other Sword & Sworceress collections aren't so lackluster because I bought myself a few. The stories worth reading:
+ Memories of The Sea - Dave Coleman-Reese
+ The Conjuror's Light - Lisa Campos
+ The Summons - Bunnie Bessell
+ Luz - Patricia Duffy Novak ~ enjoyable writing but the story was a bit infuriating
+ Deep As Rivers - Cynthia McQuillin
+ Weapons At War - Charles Laing
+ Price of the Sword - Kim Fryer
+ The Tears of the Moon - Cynthia Ward
+ Memories of The Sea - Dave Coleman-Reese
+ The Conjuror's Light - Lisa Campos
+ The Summons - Bunnie Bessell
+ Luz - Patricia Duffy Novak ~ enjoyable writing but the story was a bit infuriating
+ Deep As Rivers - Cynthia McQuillin
+ Weapons At War - Charles Laing
+ Price of the Sword - Kim Fryer
+ The Tears of the Moon - Cynthia Ward
June 17, 2021
Entertaining reading. Some not as interesting as prior short stories. But a good series
July 25, 2023
A good collection of short stories.
March 7, 2014
The tradition of the Sword & Sorceress anthologies is evident here, a mix of stories that deal with the deeply personal conflicts of female characters in fantasy. Many of the tales have a strong emotional component, and a few hit me hard. The quality is generally high: there is only one real miss, though there are a few of what I would call "beginner" stories - they hit you over the head with their plot points, resolution, description, etc. The two flash fiction pieces are easily among the best, though I really wanted a full-length tale from the humorous one (“Weapons at War” by Charles Laing). Length does a few of these tales a disservice: they would have been much stronger if allowed to breathe. On the converse side, “Memories Traced In Snow” by Dave Smeds would probably be better served by being about a third shorter.
Far and and away my favorite story here is “Luz” by Patricia Duffy Novak, a tale I simply could not put down until its conclusion … and it takes the ending a step further into something thought-provoking and a little unsettling. I also really liked “Nor Iron Bars a Cage” by Deborah Wheeler for the ‘magic’ used within and the development of its narrator. The opening and closing stories are both well-chosen; they’re shorter, deceptively simple, and with emotional impact.
On the flip side, I simply didn’t get “Caelqua’s Spring” by Vera Nazarian. It just felt like flowery, opaque language for the sake of it. “Demon Calling” by ElizaBeth Gilligan has the opposite problem – there’s not enough specificity to the story to be that compelling.
One thing I loved about the collection, too, was how many of the stories were inspired by history and mythology. And it was obvious that the authors loved their source material, more than just a casual encounter: it came through vividly. I’d definitely recommend this volume.
Far and and away my favorite story here is “Luz” by Patricia Duffy Novak, a tale I simply could not put down until its conclusion … and it takes the ending a step further into something thought-provoking and a little unsettling. I also really liked “Nor Iron Bars a Cage” by Deborah Wheeler for the ‘magic’ used within and the development of its narrator. The opening and closing stories are both well-chosen; they’re shorter, deceptively simple, and with emotional impact.
On the flip side, I simply didn’t get “Caelqua’s Spring” by Vera Nazarian. It just felt like flowery, opaque language for the sake of it. “Demon Calling” by ElizaBeth Gilligan has the opposite problem – there’s not enough specificity to the story to be that compelling.
One thing I loved about the collection, too, was how many of the stories were inspired by history and mythology. And it was obvious that the authors loved their source material, more than just a casual encounter: it came through vividly. I’d definitely recommend this volume.
May 27, 2013
This is a really good S&S anthology, with more stories worth rereading than otherwise. The theme MZB recognized in the stories she chose for this one was that of justice - "Do you keep the vows you made no matter what happens; or, if the situation has changed drastically, do you do what you feel to be right? How do you tell right from wrong, especially when other people are trying to make up your mind for you?" (from the intro). That's probably why I like it so much, actually.
As I said, this has far more excellent stories than mediocre - instead of listing the ones I'd love to read again, I'm going to list the few I wasn't terribly keen on:
Free Passage, Mary Catelli
Caelqua's Spring, Vera Nazarian
Demon Calling, Elizabeth Gilligan
The Haunting of Princess Elizabeth, Carrie Vaughn
Valkyrie, Jenn Reese
This volume's Bera story (Lady of Flame, Diana L. Paxson) is not quite as good as the others I've read, but it's still worth reading. The Cynthia story (An Exchange of Favors, Dorothy Heydt) is excellent as usual. Ah, Hermes.
As I said, this has far more excellent stories than mediocre - instead of listing the ones I'd love to read again, I'm going to list the few I wasn't terribly keen on:
Free Passage, Mary Catelli
Caelqua's Spring, Vera Nazarian
Demon Calling, Elizabeth Gilligan
The Haunting of Princess Elizabeth, Carrie Vaughn
Valkyrie, Jenn Reese
This volume's Bera story (Lady of Flame, Diana L. Paxson) is not quite as good as the others I've read, but it's still worth reading. The Cynthia story (An Exchange of Favors, Dorothy Heydt) is excellent as usual. Ah, Hermes.
August 17, 2015
It's really hard to rate a book of short stories. There were some stories in this book that I really enjoyed, others were a bit 'meh'. Overall a pretty good selection of stories. I liked the theme of strong women throughout.
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April 29, 2009Contains my story "Valkyrie."
December 27, 2018
This one had a few stories with very interesting and new twists, as well as revisiting a lot of now favourite characters.
November 28, 2011
A mixed bag of short stories.
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