Swords & Larceny

by David Afsharirad (Editor), Mark Finn (Editor), Bill Willingham

TALES OF THIEVES AND WARRIORS, WRITTEN BY FAN FAVORITES!

FIND THE MARK

The dragon’s hoard. The dwarves’ hidden mine. The mage’s secret library overflowing with enchanted relics. The world is brimming with treasures—if you’re bold enough to claim them.

PLAN THE JOB

Waltzing in with a broadsword and demanding the crown jewels? That’s a fast track to the dungeon. A true master thief needs a strategy—one with style, cunning, and just the right amount of risk.

ASSEMBLE THE TEAM

It is dangerous to go alone. You’ll need the best in the business—whether they be fae tricksters, goblin lockpickers, elven illusionists, or human masterminds.

PULL OFF THE HEIST

But even the most flawless plans have a way of unraveling. When the stakes are high and the odds are stacked, only the cleverest and most daring will make it out with the prize. Thirteen daring tales of fantasy heists and high-stakes capers—where charm is as sharp as steel, and the score of a lifetime is just one misstep away.

With stories by Christopher Ruocchio, Wen Spencer, A. Lee Martinez, Edward M. Erdelac, Jim Zub, John C. Hocking, James Enge, Tim Akers, Mark Finn, Bill Willingham, Adrian Simmons, Tracy S. Morris, and Stephen Aryan.


Christopher Ruocchio
Wen Spencer
A. Lee Martinez
Edward M. Erdelac
Jim Zub
John C. Hocking
James Enge
Tim Akers
Mark Finn
Bill Willingham
Adrian Simmons
Tracy S. Morris
Stephen Aryan
David Afsharirad

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).


David Afsharirad was an Associate Editor at Baen Books. For five years, he was the editor of Baen's The Best Military and Adventure SF series; he also edited the all-Davids anthology The Chronicles of Davids. His short fiction has appeared in various anthologies and magazines. He lives in Austin, TX.

Mark Finn is an author, an editor, and a pop culture critic, recently named one of the top movie reviewers in Texas by the Associated Press Managing Editors. A nationally recognized authority on Robert E. Howard, his work has appeared in publications for the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Comics, The Cimmerian, Two-Gun Raconteur, The Howard Review, Wildside Press, Centipede Press, The University of Texas press and elsewhere. Finn’s fiction can be found in Rayguns Over Texas, Road Trip, Tails of the Pack, Empty Hearts, Fight The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey, and elsewhere.

When he is not waxing eloquent about popular culture, he writes comics and fiction, performs community theater, and runs a small-town movie theater in North Texas.

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction, Anthologies

288 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Jason Waltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finn opens things up with a terrific and fun foreword that appropriately sets the stage. Then he follows that with "The Beer Run" - He is a born storyteller and this is a fine, fun, fantasy heist. A series of tales follows that, while mostly fun, seem more regular or epic fantasy than the somewhat heralded Sword and Sorcery, so it was nice to reach Martinez' "The Orpheus Job" which was a fun story told in a well-written and fun style and I would read more of those definitely Sword n Sorcery characters. Hocking delivers a great story of a popular character in "The Darkflame Deception" which includes a clever heist. Ruocchio, Zub, Enge, Erdelac all share stories that deliver bits of excitement and entertainment. Aryan's is the weakest tale for me, the tale I least connected with. My favorite two are from Simmons -- his "Five Beneath the Palace of Kalgranis" is delightful, with loads of danger, dangerous alliances, even more dangerous action, and then a mad scram for survival! Good story! -- and Tim Akers, whose "To Steal a God" is Da Bomb! Great story, super exciting world of powered-up sorcerous and divine characters. The MC isn't a typical hero by far but was quite spectacular in his role. Fun read - I absolutely want more of this world.

Akers, Simmons, Finn all tell 5-star tales and with only one low-star tale, this ends up being a grandly entertaining anthology, that's mostly Sword & Sorcery.

[Jeff Pena · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 specifically for “The Shrine of Lost Stars” by Christopher Ruocchio.

[Vincent Darlage · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Review of “Swords & Larceny.”
By Vincent N. Darlage, PhD.

“Swords & Larceny” is a collection of short stories edited by David Afsharirad and Mark Finn. I don’t know who David Afsharirad is, but I certainly know who Mark Finn is – he’s the author of “Blood & Thunder,” the first Robert E. Howard biography I ever read, the man who taught me to appreciate Howard’s humor, and the author of “The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey.”

"The Beer Run" by Mark Finn was a delightful romp, with goblins, dwarves, and other D&D-type races all living together in a campaign world. The narrator has pulled together a heist involving a beer auction and a system of laundering money for a network of criminals. Of course, things went sidewise, and some quick-thinking goblins, competent protagonists, and a lot of mayhem may well save the day. I thought this was a fun story. It was light-hearted, but I thought the characters were great. I liked the criminal enterprise, and how the protagonists worked together to try and damage it. I appreciated that the thieves acted like rogues, and were not mercenaries hired to do a job for the profit of someone else. I always struggle with that trope of fantasy thieves. Anyway, these thieves had a reason to do what they did, and it was for themselves. I liked that.

“The Mistress of Spiders and the Hooded Crow" by Bill Willingham was an excellent story, with wonderful atmosphere and wording. Honestly, it was so well done that I felt myself immersed to the point that I forgot I was reading a book about larceny and heists, so the ending honestly took me by surprise!

The descriptions in the story were clear, and the backstory was quickly handled when needed with a minimum of fuss. We have a baron moving his family and retainers into a wild land because of a usurper. They are attacked and rescued by a merry band of woodsmen, who made me think of Robin Hood and his Merry Men (we have a Tom Scarlet instead of Will Scarlet and Laughing John instead of Little John. And the leader is the Hooded Crow instead of the Hooded Robin). It’s set up nicely with that kind of short hand that instantly recalls one thing so he doesn’t have to go into a lot of detail that would bog down the short story.

The heist element shouldn’t have caught me by surprise in hindsight, but I’ll own that it did. Brilliantly played, Mr. Willingham, brilliantly played. You caught me off guard despite everything that should have clued me in.

“Gilt and Glamour" by Tracy S. Morris was a decent enough of a D&D style adventure for some thieves hired to steal some compromising documents. So, we get the first instance in the book of thieves hired to steal something. I had a feeling that was inevitable. However, I liked the stakes; the author did well there. I didn't like how easy the magic worked (but that's a taste thing, not a real critique of the writing, YMMV). I liked the characters. Some of the bickering to give back-stories felt forced; most people don’t talk that way and don’t need to keep bringing up people’s past. I think the backstory for most of them was unnecessary, and if needed could have just been included outside of dialogue. Most of the dialogue on page 24 felt forced and unrealistic. I liked the political set up in the story, though. That was well-done and felt realistic.

“The Unworthy" by Stephen Aryan turned out to be a tragic horror story, which I liked. It had an unfortunate "As you know, Bob" moment on the first page, which almost soured me on the story, but it carried itself through. People just don’t tell people things they know already, and certainly don’t presage the unnecessary backstory with “As you know…” Just give us the information outside of dialogue. It’s fine. Not a great story, but I did like the tragic, horrific ending. That was brilliantly pulled off.

“Legacy of Dragons" by Wen Spencer was a lot of fun, filled with magic, wonder, thievery, a kitty race (the kissa), and some great locations. I enjoyed this story a lot. I liked that the kissa’s name was Mjau, which sounds to me like it’d be pronounced “meow.” Cutesy but kind of fun. I liked it, but then again, I am a cat person. I thought the author did a great job of setting up his world with a minimum of fuss, and made it feel like there were stakes to the story, and stakes to the heist. The thief wasn’t hired to do a job, but had her own reasons for doing it, and, all in all, this story was a joy to read.

“The Orpheus Job" by A. Lee Martinez was about an unlikely band of goblins invading the afterlife. At first, I thought I wasn't going to like this one - it felt cutesy and artificial on the outset, but darn it if the writing and characters didn't drag me right in. It turned out to be a charming, and fun – plus it had an honestly gripping story. The ending was a lot of fun, too. The author made me like a story style that I normally don’t care for – cutesy. Kudos for doing that.

“Five Beneath the Palace of Kalgranis" by Adrian Simmons was much more to my taste! This one was atmospheric and had a world that felt lived in. It was nice seeing a band of rival wizards functioning as thieves, and I liked how limited their resources felt. This is my favorite story in the book so far. This story felt super-professional and intentional in word choice and plot. The rogues were wizards, and they were gathered by a particularly roguish wizard who lied his way into getting their help. The world-building was handled well, with a minimum of fuss and without a lot of endless exposition. Everything made sense and felt right. The characters were likeable despite being a bunch of horrible people using sorcery to achieve their own ends.

“The Darkflame Deception" by John C. Hocking was everything I expected from a Hocking story. Aside from Mark Finn, this is the first author in this volume that I’ve heard of before, and I am always happy to read a John C. Hocking story. Great characters, interesting plot, effective descriptions, and a lived-in world. I thought the mystery was intriguing - and I have a soft spot for alliterative titles for detective/crime fiction. Great story. This time, the focus wasn’t on the thieves, but on those who catch the thieves. That was a nice difference from the other stories in this volume so far, and the focus was still on the heist.

“To Steal a God" by Tim Akers was a good story, but it felt off-point for this collection. It didn't feel like a team of thieves, a heist, or even larceny. But the angel powers angle was interesting, and the description of the evil goddess was incredible (and I mean absolutely incredible). It was a good story, I just didn’t feel like it really belonged in this collection. It was more of an assassination story in the course of a war with a redemption arc than an actual heist, with little larceny involved. The description of the banshee, though… worth reading the story just for that alone.

“Just a Bit of Smoke" by Jim Zub wasn't to my taste. I know Jim Zub from Conan comic books, so this is another author I’ve at least heard of, but… just not to my taste at all. Alright, so we quickly have a scene where the thief has a spider-climbing potion, so she is 30 feet in the air when the potion suddenly fails her. She cannot hold on long, nor can she hold on with one hand and get anything out of her backpack. She holds on until she can’t, and she falls. And this is where the story fully lost me. The falling scene was just too unrealistic. It takes 1.36 seconds to fall 30 feet - and she got a lot done in 15 feet (0.97 seconds) of free fall, including opening a pack, getting out a rope, attaching the rope to her belt, and throwing the other end of the rope so that it wrapped around a rafter above her, so that she dangled only 15 feet above the floor. Seriously, if she can move THAT fast (and we are talking speeds like the Flash), she wouldn’t need a spider-climb potion. I dare the author to show me how all of that can be done in 0.97 seconds of free fall. Further, the attempted humor fell flat for me. It felt more like a Tom & Jerry cartoon than a serious attempt to tell a story. It was filled with crazy situations and horribly unrealistic solutions to those crazy situations. None of it felt like anything more than a ridiculous cartoon. There simply was no verisimilitude in any portion of this story.

“Black Bones of the White Hypaethral" by Edward M. Erdelac was much more my speed. I enjoyed the descriptions and the characters - and the humor of the situation was real without being jokey, cutesy, or just bad dialogue. This story had real atmosphere. The way the whole heist worked out was well-done, and the ends the characters met were justified and kind of humorous without an obvious attempt at humor. His descriptions of the White Hypaethral were AWESOME. The dialogue throughout the story was realistic and I swear I could hear distinct voices in my head for the characters. Everyone spoke differently, according to their personality, and that is a rare feat in fantasy. The heist was interesting, although I wonder sometimes how often people hire thieves to steal stuff in real life, or if that is just a fantasy trope.

“The House of Fame" by James Enge was interesting, very Spencerian in its allegorical House of Fame, although without the allegorical knights learning a lesson of their own virtue, but with a cyclops and its cyclopean allegory intact. The cyclops, of course, has one eye, so they are, by default, cursed with tunnel-vision. They see one path forward and must go that way. And so he went in this story. I loved that. But the House of Fame itself, the way it was laid out reminded me of The House of Temperance, the Cave of Mammon, The Castle of Medina and her sisters, the House of Pride, and similar locations in Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene.” I liked that.

“The Shrine of Lost Stars" by Christopher Ruocchio irritated me to no end. It was difficult to get through – it literally took me hours to read through 40 pages because I had to keep stopping and rereading entire paragraphs to try to figure out what was going on, and much of the time I simply had no information to go on – plus, I found that just staring at the wall was more interesting than the story. The story starts out with an unidentified “it.” True, the pronoun game (which I despise) only lasted for the one sentence, the game kept me from visualizing the first sentence, when “The fortress” (which is what “it” was) would have served the opening sentence so much better.

Then we have an unidentified “they” and thus we have another pronoun game. I have no idea how many people or who “they” are. By the next page, the author decides to let us know, in bits and pieces, that there are three of them: Adaman, Neph, and Neffi (the latter two are twins). We also know they are after an astrolabe. I still wonder about this fantasy trope of people hiring thieves. Do people do that, like “thief” is some kind of profession, or is that something that started with AD&D in order to get character parties on the adventure by Dungeon Masters? Anyway, they were hired to steal an astrolabe. I guess this astrolabe can predict the future. Turns out, the whole temple is the astrolabe and they can’t steal it anyway. So much for the heist.

Another thing about this story that irritated me is that the author kept flinging unrelated background stuff at me that I just didn’t care about, giving me partial information as though it would intrigue me. Nope. That irritated me. We have Adaman wanting to know something, but we are not told what that is. Honestly, by the time I was kind of, sort of told, I had forgotten that part of the story. Another thing I didn’t like was all the names. Names for everything. “Godmake” was one of them. I don’t know why so many fantasy stories like to create words by slamming a noun into a verb. One of the other stories did that in this collection, with the “vowsworn.” The worse I remember reading was in another collection, where moonlight was renamed “moonthrow.” Geeze, just say it was made by the gods. We get hints that Adaman is more than human, but we get it in dribs and drabs. I nearly quit reading the story on page 230 when we have this random sentence: “Azara had seemed a woman in full flower, but she had been a crone, a monster ancient as the stars.” No one named Azara had appeared in the story yet. Nothing about this person appeared in succeeding paragraphs. Zero context was given. It didn’t belong. Turns out it was part of Adaman’s unclarified past that I didn’t care about. That sentence had no context, no reason to be in that part of the story.

So much of the story was like that – just stuff thrown about without any useful context. I still don’t understand what Adaman was or is. So much effort into world building for ONE short story, effort that was just confusing and, ultimately, useless. None of it piqued my interest to learn more. My mind just doesn’t hold onto things that don’t have context or don’t seem like they belong. Turns out, in dribs and drabs later, that Azara was some kind of which who gave Adaman regenerative powers. You know, that could have been information given up front. I didn’t need the whole “hero with a tortured past” trope that I had no interest in learning about. I wanted to read about the heist. At one point, Adaman starts randomly asking how he finds “him” again (pronoun game), and how to save Oranna (Oranna does not appear in the story, and I guess is just a part of his tortured backstory that I don’t care about).

One of the twins was a touch-clairvoyant, and saw a lot of maddeningly confusing stuff, often about Adaman. Again, I wasn’t interested in Adaman or his past. I wanted to read about a heist. All of this world-building for a world I am unlikely to ever visit again. We have a thing in the sky called the Hook, but I don’t know if that is a different world, a moon, a constellation, or what. We’re not told.

I also couldn’t follow a lot of his descriptions. On page 236, we have “The door above opened on a wheel.” What is that? What does that mean? Usually when door opens on something, that is the thing you see on the other side. Or maybe it meant the door was mounted on a wheel, like the rotating secret door in “Young Frankenstein” (“Put the candle back!”) or the rotating fireplace door in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” I have no idea what he was trying to convey. That happens a lot in the story. He also uses a lot of sentence fragments in his descriptions, which often just confuses the matter more. Maybe he meant it opens via the means of a hand wheel (like a modern ship’s watertight hatches). I don’t know. He didn’t say it opened via a hand wheel or with a hand wheel. It opened on a wheel, and I just don’t know what that means.

We get a lot of nonsense about a world with two suns that Adaman may or may not have seen. Just way too much world-building for a short story. He carries two swords. A scimitar at his hip and a two-handed sword on his back, and he has an armored arm that has a built-in grappling hook and line in it that can shoot out and retract, like an action figure. We get a lot of stuff about gods and goddesses of the world, with SO MANY NAMES. Ugh.

Apparently, Adaman’s two-handed sword is “The Namsar of Godhome.” I don’t know. At this point, I was really disinterested in the whole thing. The heist was a bust because they clearly can’t steal a whole temple (well… it would have been fun to see Adaman hijack the walking fortress-temple, and march it to the person who hired him, so it COULD have been done, but the author didn’t choose to go that route), so I basically just skimmed the last ten pages or so because there just wasn’t any more heist left. You get some weird betrayals at the end, and the twins try to steal the magic sword for some reason. I don’t know.

Way too much back story, given in dribs and drabs instead of in a clear manner, for a one-off short story; a heist that became impossible, instead of cleverly done; an attempt to make the protagonist some kind of tortured soul with a past, but mostly just presented in a confusing, pretentious manner, instead of feeling organic to the story or character, that had nothing to do with the story. I felt like the author didn’t understand the assignment, and was more vested in developing his fantasy world’s religion and cosmology than giving me a story about a great heist.

Overall
I hate that the book ended on such a negative note. Up until that final story, I really enjoyed the collection.

However, I did like the book. I enjoyed the stories up until that last one (even Jim Zub’s ridiculous one was at least fun), and I think most fans of fantasy stories will enjoy them also. Clearly that last one will be a matter of taste. Maybe you’ll find more of value in it than I did, or maybe you’ll become just as irritated at it as I was. But the other stories are good. I recommend it.

[Christoph Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sword and sorcery with a thievish twist. Awesome. In theory. In practice it seems a lot like the stories were ordered by entertainment value. I loved the first one, and couldn't finish the last one.

[Yev]

Swords & Larceny, edited by David Afsharirad and Mark Finn (2025)

The Beer Run - Mark Finn (2025)
After being betrayed by a criminal organization, Larcen and his crew decide to strike back by stealing beer casks that are half filled with gold ingots and other valuables. The story opens with the plan gone awry due to the two goblin members of the crew improvising.
Most of the story is planning and explaining rather than the heist itself.
Meh

The Mistress of Spiders and the Hooded Crow - Bill Willingham (2025)
A baron was usurped by the Dark-Eyed Prince and now flees with those who remain loyal with him into uncharted woods.
The resolution is mildly amusing, and would be more so if it were plausible. This is the kind of story where you really have to resonate with what the characters represent.
Meh

Gilt and Glamour - Tracy S. Morris (2025)


The Unworthy - Stephen Aryan (2025)


Legacy of Dragons - Wen Spencer (2025)


The Orpheus Job - A. Lee Martinez (2025)


Five Beneath the Palace of Kalgranis - Adrian Simmons (2025)


The Darkflame Deception - John C. Hocking (2025)


To Steal a God - Tim Akers (2025)


Just a Bit of Smoke - Jim Zub (2025)


Black Bones of the White Hypaethral - Edward M. Erdelac (2025)


The House of Fame - James Enge (2025)


The Shrine of Lost Stars - Christopher Ruocchio (2025)

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been attending Mark Finn's readings at sf cons for years now. He always has a good tale to share. I especially enjoy his unique character names, such as Clork Punchsack and his brother Pliff. And I appreciate his wry sense of humor.

So I was delighted last year when, at the conclusion of one of his sf con readings, he said that he had been approached to co-edit (with veteran editor David Afsharirad) a themed anthology composed of short fiction about fantasy heists & capers to be published by Baen. I was even more pleased that some of the authors whose work is in Swords & Larceny have been attending some of the same sf cons as myself for a number of years.

Now I can start attending some of their sf con readings as well.

This collection contains a baker's dozen of stories. In addition to the Mark Finn story, I highly recommend the Adrian Simmons story, the Wen Spencer story, and the Jim Zub story. As Mark says in his not-to-be-missed "Introduction: Stealing the Shire", "There's something here for every taste."

[Graeme Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swords & Larceny, edited by David Afsharirad and Mark Finn, is a thrilling anthology that delivers high-stakes fantasy heists with style, cunning, and a touch of mischief. Featuring thirteen stories from fan-favorite authors like Christopher Ruocchio, Wen Spencer, and Bill Willingham, the collection explores the art of stealing magical treasures, outwitting powerful foes, and assembling teams of clever misfits.

Each tale is fast-paced, imaginative, and packed with charm, suspense, and creativity. Whether it’s a dragon’s hoard, a dwarven mine, or an enchanted library, readers are transported into worlds where strategy is as important as skill, and where one slip can turn triumph into disaster. This anthology is perfect for fans of fantasy, adventure, and intricate heist plots, offering both excitement and clever storytelling in equal measure.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the Enge, Hocking, Ruocchio, and Willingham stories are the tightest.

[Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. They need to do another one.