Streghe guerriere

Sword and Sorceress #11

by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Editor), Bunnie Bessel (Contributor), Lynn Michals (Contributor)

Ancora una volta l'abilissima «talent-scout» Marion Zimmer Bradley ha scelto trentatré racconti in cui magia e arti guerresche si affiancano a sentimento e umorismo. Accanto a nuove, originalissime voci, gli appassionati saranno telici di trovare autori spesso presenti in queste raccolte, come Diana Paxson, he, con Il canto dello spirito, ci racconta una storia ambientata nei Paesi scandinavi e impregnata di cultura e religione nordica; Vicki Kirchhoff, che ripropone i suoi due personaggi, Kenna e Dain, alle prese con quello che forse in realtà non è Il mostro dagli occhi verdi della gelosia; Jo Clayton, che, con Il festino delle larve — un racconto definito dalla Bradley «raccapricciante» —, ci mostra una sorta di partita a scacchi giocata sull'astuzia; e Deborah Wheeler, che, con Sogni avvelenati, ci regala un esempio di amore filiale nella brutalità di un regno in guerra e a dispetto del pericolo rappresentato da una lata prigioniera... Fra tradizione e innovazione, tra raffinate elaborazioni di temi «classici» e audaci incursioni in territori poco battuti dal genere fantasy, si dispiega così l'intera gamma di colori della fantasia e riverbera sulle nostre passioni e sui nostri desideri, tacendoci sognare.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Science Fiction

410 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

About the author

Marion 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)

Reviews

[Sylexlibris · Rating 3 out of 5]

- Il richiamo dei cavalli selvaggi: 5
- Il pegno: 2
- Il canto dello spirito: 3
- esame finale: 4
- l'orso di stratmoor: 3
- Snoot Brontolone: 4
- Storie: 4.5
- Il festino delle larve: 4
- I cavalieri della luna: 2
- al ladro!: 2.5
- La guarigione: 4
- la sorgente delle vergini: 5
- Il rifugio: 4
- il salvatore: 5
- sfortuna e maledizioni: 4.5
- l'enigma della signora: 5
- una lama arrugginita: 2.5
- immagini d'amore: 5
- un destino peggiore della morte: 2.5
- giochi di potere: 3
- la strega della palude: 3.5
- il mostro dagli occhi verdi: 4
- fuoco di neve: 2.5
- Antica Guerriera: 5
- Eredità Barbarica: 3.5
- Nebbia: 3
- guaritrice musicale: 3
- Non tutto è oro...: 4
- Sogni avvelenati: 4.5
- Il mostro della notte: 4.5
- Il regalo: 3
- La bara di cristallo: 5
- Anello di strega: 2.7

[Eliška · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not one of the better S&S offerings. Many of the stories are written by teenagers, and it shows. Of the ones that aren't, most of them have decent plots, but are awful in some other way - terrible dialogue, purple prose, an overabundance of adjectives...ugh. It doesn't even have a Cynthia story to redeem it. BPL copy, May 2013.

Worth rereading:

Call the Wild Horses, by Bunnie Bessell
Spirit Singer, Diana Paxson (the first Bera story, if I'm not mistaken)
The Haven, Judith Kobylecky
Savior, Tom Gallier
Rusted Blade, Dave Smeds
Fenwitch, Sarah Evans - overflowing with fairy-tale morality, but delightful
Snowfire, D. Lopes Heald
The Crystal Casket, Kristine Sprunger

[Anna Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of stories.

[Kathy Trueman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read many of Marian Zimmer Bradley's Sword & Sorceress anthologies. Some have had a few not-so-good stories in them, but nearly all the stories are at least good and worth reading, and many are awesome, the kind of story that stays in your memory and makes you glad you're holding the book. There's a mix of established authors and new ones, and a lot of variety in imagination. Another thing I like is that all the protagonists in these stories are female, and it's interesting to see how we women are portrayed in magical settings.

Disclosure: I picked this particular volume to review because one of the new authors in it is me (!).

[M. T. Moscariello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Speravo di più nel giudizio di una scrittrice considerata tra le regine del fantasy, ma, probabilmente, essendo l'XI raccolta, i migliori racconti erano già stati pubblicati. Ci sono storie molto carine, ma molte, troppo sono immature... più di una volta peccano di mancato sviluppo della trama, di un finale affrettato o di una trama che cerca forzatamente di trasformare il reale in fantastico, appiccicandogli addosso lustrini, e cercando di farli passare per polvere di stelle. Sono racconti che intrattengono, ma solo in pochi coinvolgono.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marion Zimmer Bradley edited this lacklaster collection. None of the short stories excited me, but two were better than the rest: Jessie Eaker's "Bad Luck and Curses," and Dave Smeds's "Rusted Blade."

[bluetyson]

Sword and sorceress xi (Sword and Sorceress) (1994)

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty mediocre collection with only a couple of standouts. Bradley was also pretty grouchy and cantankerous in her intro blurbs as well.

[Dakin Burdick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only place you can read Diana Paxson's Bera stories. See S&S numbers 11-20.

[Maddalenah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Triste ma vero, la maggior parte di questi racconti sono allo stesso livello, se non peggio, della media delle fanfiction che si trovano in rete -.-

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories were interesting.