A Stark and Wormy Knight: Tales of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Suspense

by Tad Williams

Tad Williams is an acknowledged master of the multi-volume epic. Through such popular series as Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and Otherland, he has acquired a huge and devoted body of readers who eagerly await each new publication. A Stark and Wormy Knight offers those readers something both special and a virtuoso demonstration of Williams's mastery of a variety of shorter forms.

The range of tone, theme, style, and content reflected in this generous volume is nothing short of amazing. The title story is a tale within a tale of dragons and knights and is notable for its wit and verbal inventiveness. 'The Storm Door' uses The Tibetan Book of the Dead to forge a singular new approach to the traditional zombie story. 'The Terrible Conflagration at the Quiller's Mint' offers a brief, independent glimpse into the background of Williams's Shadowmarch series. 'Ants' provides an ironic account of what can happen when a marriage goes irrevocably wrong.

Two of the longer entries show Williams working, with great facility, within the fictional creations of other writers. 'The Thursday Men' is a hugely entertaining foray into the world of Mike Mignolla's Hellboy comics. The wonderfully titled 'The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or the Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee' is both a first-rate fantasy and a deeply felt homage to Jack Vance's immortal Dying Earth. Two other pieces offer rare and hard-to-find glimpses into other facets of Williams's talent. 'Bad Guy Factory' is the script for a proposed series of DC Comics that never came to fruition. 'Black Sunshine' is the immensely readable screenplay for a movie that remains, at least for the moment, unproduced. One can only hope.

These and other stories and novellas comprise a stellar collection that really does contain something for everyone. For longtime Williams readers, and for anyone with a taste for literate imaginative fiction, A Stark and Wormy Knight is a welcome--and indispensable--volume.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Horror

442 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Tad Williams is a California-based fantasy superstar. His genre-creating (and genre-busting) books have sold tens of millions worldwide, in twenty-five languages. His considerable output of epic fantasy and science fiction book-series, stories of all kinds, urban fantasy novels, comics, scripts, etc., have strongly influenced a generation of writers: the ‘Otherland’ epic relaunches June 2018 as an MMO on steam.com. Tad is currently immersed in the creation of ‘The Last King of Osten Ard’, planned as a trilogy with two intermediary novels. He, his family and his animals live in the Santa Cruz mountains in a suitably strange and beautiful house. @tadwilliams @mrstad

Reviews

[Kat Hooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of Tad Williams since I read MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN many years ago — a series I loved back then and need to revisit soon to see if it’s as wonderful as I remember. I’ve also enjoyed a few of Williams’ short stories that I’ve come across in anthologies — especially one that was one of my favorites in my very favorite anthology: Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance. So I was eager to read more of Tad Williams in his story collection A Stark and Wormy Knight. Most of these 11 stories have been printed elsewhere, and I had read a couple of them previously, but if you don’t already own them, this is a nice eclectic mix and a good introduction to an excellent author. Here are the stories you’ll find in A Stark and Wormy Knight:

“And Ministers of Grace” — (Originally published in 2010 in the Warriors anthology, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois) Lamentation Kane is an enhanced human who thinks he’s the hand of God. His current mission is to travel to Archimedes, a world that rejects religion, to kill their leader while she’s giving a speech. Tad Williams explains in his introduction that he’s been thinking about writing an epic in which Lamentation Kane will be a main character. Kane is an intriguing invention, but not very likable in this story. However, the ending suggests that he may be a better hero in the future, so I’ll be keeping my eyes out for more Lamentation Kane stories.

“A Stark and Wormy Knight” — (From the anthology The Dragon Book, 2009, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois) A mother dragon is telling her son a tale of his great grandfather’s encounter with a knight. This is a playful story, full of puns and made up words. It was cute and creative, but I’m glad it was short because those invented words just don’t trip off the tongue.

“The Storm Door” — (First published in The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology, 2010, edited by Christopher Golden) I don’t usually like zombie stories, but I did like this scary story about a paranormal investigator who suspects an imminent zombie invasion. Even though I anticipated the surprise ending, I admired Williams’ creepy atmosphere.

“The Stranger’s Hands” — (From Wizards: Magical Tales From the Masters of Modern Fantasy, 2007, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois) When the townsfolk discover that a hobo camping in the woods outside town has the ability to grant the desires of the heart, the town begins to thrive... until a famous magician hears about it and comes to stop the nonsense.

“Bad Guy Factory” — (Original) Tad Williams explains that this story is his idea for a DC Comics series, so it’s written as such, with explanations for what’s to be shown in the art interspersed between the captions. I’d never read anything like this before (a comic book without the art), so it was interesting for that reason. I thought the premise was cool, too — a training school for the henchmen of supervillains. Most of the characters were really obnoxious — cussing and fighting with each other constantly — but what you can expect from evil minions?

“The Thursday Men” — (From Hellboy: Oddest Jobs, 2008, edited by Christopher Golden) Hellboy is asked to investigate a strange death at a haunted house on the California coast. I had never read a HELLBOY story before, but if this one is representative, I should read some more.

“The Tenth Muse” — (First published in 2009 in The New Space Opera 2, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan) Tad Williams seems to have taken the topic of the anthology The New Space Opera 2 pretty literally because this story is really about a space opera. It’s bizarre and entertaining.

“The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or the Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee” — (From Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, 2009, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois) As I’ve already mentioned, I love this hilarious story about a magician who gets attached to a deodand when his spell misfires. The purpose of the anthology it was written for was to honor Jack Vance by writing in his style in his DYING EARTH world. That’s a tall order, but Tad Williams delivers.

“The Terrible Conflagration at The Quiller’s Mint” — (First published online in 2002) This is a mystery set in Tad Williams’ SHADOWMARCH world. It’s a nice tale which gives some history and context to that epic.

“Black Sunshine” — (Original) This is a really frightening horror story set both in the present and the past, and written here as a screenplay. On a night back in 1976, four teenagers experimented with drugs and suffered the consequences. They’ve lived with the horrid memories for 25 years and now they’re reliving that terrible night. If you’re ever tempted to try acid, read this story first. But not on a stormy night like I did — it gave me bad dreams, which I suppose is a mark of an effective horror story.

“Ants” — (From Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary, 2009, edited by Carol Serling) Here’s another scary story about a man who really needs to get his kitchen clean. This one is gory, so not my kind of thing at all, yet I was completely absorbed and I appreciated the ironic ending.

As you can see, this is an eclectic mix of stories and you’re bound to find some you like here. I already knew that Tad Williams is creative, funny, and has a good sense of irony, but now I’ve learned that he can also write gory horror stories, clever comics and chilling screenplays. I enjoyed getting to know him better with A Stark and Wormy Knight and I recommend this collection if you’d like to get to know him better, too.

[Terence · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recently, a friend sent me a link to a review in the LA Times of several of this year’s Best of… SF anthologies. The reviewer argues that the SF field has become complacent and self-satisfied; there are few authors really pushing the boundaries or using the genre to explore things other media can’t. In his opinion, most of the stories in these collections are good enough in a technical sense but lack any desire to make the reader think. In fact, he thought the best story was James Tiptree Jr.'s “And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side,” a short story written 40 years ago and included in one of the collections in honor of Tiptree’s lifetime achievements.*

Based on the stories to be found in Tad Williams’ A Stark and Wormy Knight, the review’s author may have a valid point. There’s no particularly bad story. All are entertaining to some degree and all are very, very “safe.” Seeds of potentially good stories are here (cf., “And Ministers of Grace”), and – as always – Williams is a fine story teller but most are too predictable and by the numbers.

“And Ministers of Grace” – This story is about Lamentation Kane, an assassin for the theocratic world of Covenant, whose mortal foe is the hyper-rationalist society of Archimedes. “Lamentation Kane,” alone as a name, nearly makes up for any shortcomings in the story. The greatest of which is that it reads like a chapter in a larger work (which Williams as much as admits to in his “Introduction”). That and we have seen this kind of anti-hero before.

I mentioned “seeds” of good ideas. Some to be found in this story include Lamentation Kane, who has the potential to be an interesting character, if Williams can find the time to write a few more stories about him. Another is the brain implants that plague both societies. On Archimedes, it’s a continuous feed of targeted commercials and infotainment; on Covenant, it’s called Spirit and it keeps everyone safely on the heterodox path.

“A Stark and Wormy Knight” – The titular story of the collection is a typical bedtime story about a princess, a knight and a dragon but told from the dragon’s point of view. It’s cute, though the dragonspeak it’s written in can get annoying, i.e.:

“Mam! Mam!” squeed Alexandrax from the damps of his strawstooned nesty. “Us can’t sleep! Tail us a tell Ye Elder Days!”

“Child, stop that howlering or you’ll be the deaf of me,” scowled his scaly forebearer. “Count sheeps and go to sleep!”

“Been counting shepherds instead, have us,” her eggling rejoined. “But too too toothsome they each look. Us are hungry, Mam.” (p. 57)

It goes on like that but only for a mercifully brief 12 more pages.

“The Storm Door” – This is the best piece in the collection. It’s about what happens when the hungry ghosts of the Tibetan hells learn how to possess the dead. Very dark, and with no happy ending.

“The Stranger’s Hands” – You can see the twist coming from the first page but it’s a likable story about an “evil” wizard who inadvertently gets the power to grant wishes (at the expense of his mind) and the “good” wizard who can’t have that. It’s another exploration of the theme that the good guys aren’t always that good and the bad guys aren’t always that bad which informs much of Williams’ work.

“Bad Guy Factory” – This is a pitch for a comic book series about where the villains go to get training.

“The Thursday Men” – This is a Hellboy story originally written for the Hellboy: Oddest Jobs anthology. I’m not a fan of the “Hellboy” franchise in comic or movie form so the tale didn’t make a great impression upon me, though – like “The Stranger’s Hands” - it wasn’t a bad one.

“The Tenth Muse” – This is the second best work in the anthology. It may or may not take place in the same ‘verse as “And Ministers of Grace.” Covenant is mentioned but there is none of Archimedes, whose rationalist polity seems to have been replaced by the Confederation. It has the potential to be a really good story about first contact and communication between alien minds.

“The Lamentable Comical Tragedy (or the Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee” – This is an homage to Jack Vance and his “Dying Earth” stories, and as such it succeeds fairly well. Williams can’t always capture Vance’s tone (who can?) but he comes close and it’s a good story in its own right.

“The Terrible Conflagration at the Quiller’s Mint” – This is a short story set in Williams Shadowmarch world. Well told if unmemorable.

“Black Sunshine” – This is a draft script for a horror film about an experimental drug, the teen-ager who takes it, and the consequences for his friends 20 years later. The story idea is pretty well known and well used by now, and I can’t see it as becoming a particularly good movie.

“Ants” – This one reminded me of nothing so much as Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter.” Anyone who’s read that classic will understand the general tenor of the story.

I wouldn’t recommend buying this unless you’re a Tad Williams completist but there’s enough good stuff here to justify a library checkout, borrowing from your friend the TW completist, or picking up a copy for less than a buck at a library remainders table.

*I read the story when I was about 14 in the collection Ten Thousand Light Years From Home. Anyone who’s read this collection will understand what a powerful impact these stories can have on an adult reader; you can imagine what they had on a newly pubescent teen-age boy. On the other hand, I’m very glad my parents exercised no censorship on what I could read (except for the obvious stuff most parents censor like “Playboy”).

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story has a mother dragon telling he youngling a bedtime story about his grandfather and the knight he faced.

This story has left me very unsure what to think of it. I liked some of the humor and the whimsical, made-up words these dragons use but on the same token I hated it too. I went nuts at times wanting to say, "That's not how you say it" or "That's not how it is spelled." So I would be a bit irritated and laugh at the same time. But it is still a light-hearted quick read.

[Shalini Gunnasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man! Was this book all kinds of fun.

I quite squealed when I came upon the Hellboy fanfic. It'd have been four stars otherwise, simply because the comic-book script and the movie-script stories were kinda hokey. But they were all fun, and the final story was a great ending to this anthology.

[Angela]

21 December 2015: $4.99 on Kindle

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's pretty rare that I love All The Stories in a short story collection, but boy did I love all the stories! I should be surprised: it IS Tad Williams, after all .

The Bad Guy Factory was a little hard to read just because of the story board style, but I still enjoyed the story.

The titular story was probably my second favorite.

"Ants" is my favorite (don't read into THAT too much, haha).

I know nothing of Hellboy except for what he looks like, but you really don't need to know anything about him to enjoy Thursday Men.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous. These stories would be worth a full 4 stars if most of them didn't end with a long-winded speech explaining what happened in them, but they're still a good read all the same.

[Debbie Bode · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eclectic collection of Tad Williams short stories, I enjoyed every disturbing and and magical word.

[The Bookish Panda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only enjoyed maybe 2 or 3 out of this one.

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, but I didn’t love it as much as I expected, either. I think Tad Williams might be one of those writers that (for me) does epic tales a bit better than short stories. Still, some of these were very, very good, although others weren’t for me. There’s an introduction by the author, but no introductions or notes on the stories – reading the cover flap is helpful, for some of them – that’s the only place you’re going to find out what’s going on for a couple of them!

Contents:

‘And Ministers of Grace’ – Really well done. From the point of view of a future religious terrorist/assassin who sees the ubiquitous advertising of the future as evidence of our sinful ways. As Williams notes, it could work well as the opener to an epic story. I especially like that the Christians and Muslims are working together against the science/technology-based society – makes sense.

‘A Stark and Wormy Knight’ – A humorous dragon story, full of playful language.

‘The Stranger’s Hands’ – A re-read – this also appeared in the ‘Wizards’ anthology, edited by Jack Dann. Probably my favorite story in this book. A village takes in two wanderers - a man who seems to have lost his wits in an injury, and his caretaker. Soon, it is discovered that some who touch the disabled man's hands have their heart's desire magically granted. Soon, the needy flock to the town in hopes of having their wishes granted. But with greater exposure comes the revelation that the village's miracle man is (or was) actually one of the most powerful, dangerous, and evil wizards around. Is there some trick here? A well-crafted and thought-provoking tale.

‘Bad Guy Factory’ – This is an outline for a comic book featuring a number of costumed superheroes. The cover notes say it was a proposal for DC. I would much rather read a comic book than a text outline for a comic book; and superheroes just aren’t my thing.

‘The Thursday Men’ – This is a ‘Hellboy’ story. (In text format, not comic-outline). I suspect I might have enjoyed it a little more if I were more familiar with the back story. A rather noir-ish tale of saving the world from an incursion from other dimensions.

‘The Tenth Muse’ - A battles-in-space story. A low-ranking crewmember relates the story of how a condescending and annoying passenger stepped up to the plate and saved his ship (and, possibly, a whole lot more) from a mysterious alien ship that unexpectedly popped out of a wormhole, guns blazing. Some nice twists.

‘The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (Or the Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee’ – If you are attracted by that title, you will probably like this story. According to the cover notes, it’s an homage to Vance’s Dying Earth novels –which I’ve never been a fan of, despite trying. A travelling mountebank buys/extorts some spells from a real wizard. Unfortunately, one of them rebounds with unexpected effects, and he finds himself bound to a dangerous, man-eating monster. How to extract himself from this unenviable situation?

‘The Terrible Conflagration at the Quillers Mint (from the diaries of Finn Teodoros)’ – As the title suggests, a man relates the story of a terrible fire that burned down an inn. He doesn’t really know who (or if anyone) set the fire, although he has suspicions. It’s set in the ‘Shadowmarch’ world, but I have to admit it’s been long enough since I read those that I’m missing the connections. (I suspect there are some important clues here to unexplained events in that story.)

‘Black Sunshine’ – This is a screenplay for what would be a really-not-very-good (and rather short) B-movie based on our social paranoia about drugs.

‘Ants’ – A horror story about a man who kills his wife and tries to cover up the crime. In a house infested by ants. Well done, if fairly standard.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK. I had a fairly thorough review written here when the "computer idiot" portion of my brain took over and killed it. So short sweet version:

1. "And Ministers of Grace"--Excellent. The only thing unfortunate about this story is that Williams indicates in the introduction it might have been a novel or novels. Oh to read those books....

2. "A Stark and Wormy Knight"--Fantasy as written by an extremely erudite Dr. Seuss. I loved the punning, the nonce words and the language games in this one. Wouldn't work as a longer story, but at this length it was a lot of fun.

3. "The Storm Door" unfortunately reads like the prologue to a normal sized Williams novel. It is disappointing at its size because it could have been so much more. I could see the end coming further off than I wanted to, but the premise of the story could so easily be something longer...

4. "The Stranger's Hand" deftly illustrates that speculative fiction is able to handle the truths of the "human condition" that people who say literature with an accent claim is reserved for stultifyingly depressing realism. And it's a darn good fantasy story as well.

5. "The Thursday Men"--Tad Williams does Hellboy. What else could you ask for?

6. "Bad Guy Factory" would be a cool idea as a comic--in this format it's all potential and a wonderful demonstration of why we don't normally read comic book scripts.

7. "The Tenth Muse" is a great space opera with nice commentary on art and its potential and purpose snuck in amid the fun. The narrator is fantastic character with a clever background that works in some neat worldbuilding without being even slightly info-dumpy.

8. "The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (Or Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee" is a story originally published in Songs of a Dying Earth a Jack Vance tribute anthology. It is cleverly amusing, and every time I remember it I feel that urge to go try Jack Vance--which given that Williams is attempting to borrow his style for the piece means that on some level at least he thoroughly succeeded.

9. "The Terrible Conflagration at the Quiller's Mint" is a regrettably forgettable Southmarch bit. Perhaps if I had read the series more recently I would have better appreciated it, but it seems like the kind of worldbuilding fragment that seems interesting beforehand and then turns out kind of humdrum, because, well, it's insignificant.

10. "Black Sunshine" is a very strange horror/thriller/sci-fi screen play. Nice twist at the end that I didn't see coming, and the it's amazing how well Williams' "stage directions" (what do you call those in a screen play anyway?)set up the trippy surreality of the story. Not my kind of movie, for sure, but interesting.

11. "Ants" is a short crime story with a well thought out ending that worked nicely for me. I missed it entirely until just before the ending was explicitly revealed--which is to say I missed it until exactly when Williams/the story wanted me to remember.

The most accurate descriptions I've seen of this book emphasize the eclectic nature of the stories it contains. As such, not everything is going to hit with every writer. Even for me, and I love Tad Williams' work, not all of the pieces hit. Still, they were all worth the read and those that did hit were wonderful.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading Tad Williams since forever so me buying this was a no brainer and I love short stories
what's interesting is how vast the breadth is, but also how eclectic it is, sometimes he plays with language and sometimes with scope but this is an author playing, and rubbing his hands together in fiendish glee at what he can do
often the ideas are better than the stories but having read a lot of teen vampire trash it was nice to see proper punctuation
the last book of "fantasy" shorts I read was "Reave the Just" and in comparison to that the stories do fall flat but it's like comparing eggs to cheese, they're both excellent for different reasons
the stories are sometimes too short, and dark where they should be laugh out loud funny but the collection itself is a very good one

[Cristi DiGenova · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is such a change to read short fiction. It was especially nice to read to read the author's comments from the introduction after I had read a story.

The stories are diverse, but all do fall in that range between horror and scifi and fantasy, and seeing as how that's kinda my cup of tea, I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection. All are well told.

I think my favorite was the first one about Lamentation Kane called "And Ministers of Grace". I'll also mention the final story, "Ants", because I had just coincidentally read a short story by Roald Dahl (not from Henry Sugar) and so I could appreciate the connection... though I doubt Dahl wrote anything so gory.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It always surprises me looking back that I only ever remember reading the epics of Tad Williams and not his shorter works. And that is a crime as here is a collection of his short stories and there are some truly brilliant pieces. There is a great selection with introductions and explanation - ok you don't have to read them but it does help colour them and for me helps me understand the mind from which them came. And personally I feel it suggest there are still plenty more brilliant stories to come.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful stories by a great author. I confess I didn't read the comic nor the screenplay, but I liked the short stories especially A Stranger's Hands.

[Alice Paterra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title tale and the end story, "Ants" are the best of this collection.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ones I read (ie., not the screenplays) were good and the one about Lamentation Kane was downright creepifyin'.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

really enjoyed as big fan of tad.Really well done,especially Ants!!

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent collection of short stories.

[Jim Galford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whimsical tale of a mother dragon telling a tale about an ancestor's meeting with a knight. Very light-hearted and probably more enjoyable to a younger audience.