Legends: Fifteen Tales of Sword and Sorcery

by K.J. Colt

Seventeen New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling authors bring you fifteen epic tales of Sword and Sorcery.
LEGENDS is a ONE TIME ONLY limited bundle with over a million words of fantasy reading including original, never released stories from bestselling authors Nick Webb and K.F. Breene.

Immerse yourself in captivating worlds and kingdoms where fearless warriors quest, powerful sorcerers battle fiery dragons, and humble peasants rise from poverty to riches.

Grab LEGENDS today and discover some of the finest minds of epic fantasy.

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Fiction, Amazon, Epic Fantasy

3694 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 20, 2015

About the author

U.S.A Today Bestselling author Kylie J. Colt writes fantasy with a psychological twist. By threading common psychological pathologies such as anxiety, depression and mood disorders, into her storytelling she creates deeper, more dynamic characters.

Located on the sunny Gold Coast of Australia, she has been writing for three years. Her favourite writers are Kristin Cashore, Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan and Maria V. Snyder. She has an honours degree in psychology and counselling, enjoys road trips, gaming (Skyrim / Civilisation / Assassin's Creed / Bioshock / Banished), music festivals (electronica), playing pool, meditation, yoga, bushwalking, and gobbles up anything fantasy-related. Her favourite shows include Game of Thrones, Homeland, Dark Mirror, Downton Abbey, X-Files, House of Cards, Hannibal, Trueblood, IT Crowd and anything created by Hayao Miyazaki.

Reviews

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall rating (8 out of 15 stories): 3.1875 stars.

This anthology? 15 full-length stories. For free. Yep, that's right: FOR FREE. 14 of the stories are first instalments in series, too. Fantasy series. With magic and sorcerers and dragons and swords and stuff. Lots of stuff. So what are you waiting for?! Get it now!! ← apparently this anthology is no longer available. Life sucks so much. At least for those who didn't download the book before it went poof. Muahahahaha. How sad and stuff.

July 2018 update : permanently momentarily throwing the towel on this one I am. I’m about halfway through this anthology right now, and it took me two bloody shrimping years to get this far. Don’t know why but I kinda sorta have the feeling that this might perhaps maybe have something to do with the fact that most of the stories in this collection either are disgusting YA, or feature revolting juvenile characters . Anyway, I seem to have quite miraculously survived said stories and even more miraculously managed to enjoy some of them (but don’t tell anyone I said so, or else and stuff) , but I still think it’s time for me this anthology to get some rest. It does indeed deserve it after painfully sitting on my currently-reading shelf for so long. I mean, imagine how those abominably youthful characters must feel after spending years in the near vicinity of my luscious Black Company babes, my scrumptious Sandman Slim, my yummy Daniel Faust, and the rest of my moderately amoral, ruthless (and a teensy little bit homicidal) ancient grown-up boyfriends and girlfriends! They must be slightly traumatized and stuff! Ergo, time to go into early retirement it is, you Repulsively Underage Bunch (RUB ™)!



Is the bath water too hot for you, little dears? Oops. So terribly sorry about that.

➽ Recap of Doom :
✔ Concealed Power by K.J. Colt: nothing short of awesome.
✔ The Blacksmith's Son by Michael G. Manning: pretty cool, too. Even though it's kind of YA and kind of features youngish characters ← I never said any of this. You are completely delusional.
• Balanced on the Blade's Edge by Lindsay Buroker: read it a few years ago. Not bad, but the PG-13 is strong in that one *shudders*
✘ Ren of Atikala by David Adams: DNF. Go me and stuff.
✘ Magic of Thieves C. Greenwood: not too suicide-inducing despite the Disgusting YA Factor (DYAF™). It wasn't good, though. I DNFed it, though. Surprise, surprise.
✘ Requiem's Song Daniel Arenson: not all dragons are worth reading about, my Little Barnacles. QED and stuff.
✔ Witch Hunt by Annie Bellet: cool curse + mute elf + pixie-goblin + mini-unicorn + Annie Bellet = YUM.
✔ Forged in Blood by K.F. Breene: a Shanti prequel. Need I say more? Didn’t think so. Ha.



① Concealed Power by K.J. Colt: 4.5 stars
➼ Series: The Healers of Meligna



Trigger warning: sexual abuse.

This is the end. I just gave a Freaking YA story a freaking 4.5-star rating. And it's YA, too. You know, as in YOUNG ADULT. As in NOT Adult. I am SO doomed. And you know what makes it worse? The story broke the little heart I don't have over and over and over again. And you know what makes it worse, worse? I want to read the rest of this Freaking YA series. But I have an excuse: this might be YA as in NOT Adult as in the mc is 13 as in I must be out of my freaking mind, but it's gloriously dark. This is only YA in the sense that the NOT Adult TEENAGE mc is a freaking YOUNG Adult. A YOUNG Adult that keeps being treated like shit by everyone "for her own good" (or not). A YOUNG Adult who has tons of potential and has all it takes to become an awesome character.

[An interruption from Goodreads support: no, this account hasn't been hacked. Sarah might not be very sane, but it is really her little self semi-fangirling about a Freaking YA Not Adult story with a Freaking YA Not Adult heroine here.]

The themes developed in this story do not involve fluffy bunnies, cute kitties and pastel-colored rainbows. They do involve abuse (verbal, physical and sexual), and cruelty, and betrayal, and trauma, and tragedy. Lots of it. Things can get deliciously bleak in this unique world on the brink of war. Hidden agendas and half-truths abound. No one can be trusted. It's beautiful. Well it's beautiful to me, anyway. Because I'm twisted and almost have no heart. I am pretty sure this story will prove disturbing to lovers of cute fluffy bunnies. And I am pretty sure they are going to hate how the Healing process that is as the base of this story works. Especially since it involves young girls. And that's all I am going to say about it because reasons. And spoilers. Yeah, that too. You can thank me later for not ruining this awesome *whispers* YA story for you. You're welcome.

➽ And the moral of this mini non-review is: this story is YA. I freaking LOVED it. What does that tell you? That there is a good chance everyone else will think it is pure, undiluted crap. But that's only because everyone else has despicable book taste. Ha.



② The Blacksmith's Son by Michael G. Manning: 4 stars
➼ Series: Mageborn



Oh dear. This was another trap. Oh dear. This was another YA story. Oh dear. I didn't DNF it. Oh dear. I slightly enjoyed it. Oh dear. I want to read the rest of the series. Oh dear. Something seems to be seriously wrong with me. Oh dear. I think I'm broken or something. HALP!

Okay, okay, so this story wasn't mind-blowingly original. Okay, okay, so this story is pretty light despite being sprinkled with a few slightly horrid scenes. But it was fun. And entertaining. And fast-paced. And not stupidly stupid. Most importantly, it didn't awaken the homicidal maniac in me, which is quite a feat these days.

Just in case you were wondering, this story is about a blacksmith's son. Hahaha, I'm SO funny sometimes. But anyway. This blacksmith's son is sixteen (nobody's perfect). This blacksmith's son discovers he is a mage with rare built-in magical powers (cool shit happens sometimes). Chaos and mayhem ensue. More or less. And barely there sex, too. Well done, Mr Manning. Because even though the sex is not graphically there, it still is. There, I mean. Which is, you know, good. And stuff. Especially since this is, you know, *whispers* YA. And stuff.

I didn't write any of this ↑↑ This story isn't *whispers* YA, I didn't read it and I certainly didn't enjoy it.



③ Balanced on the Blade's Edge by Lindsay Buroker: 3 stars
➼ Series: Dragon Blood

Read in 2014. Crappy review here.



④ Ren of Atikala by David Adams: 2.5 stars
➼ Series: Kobolds

☠ DNFed somewhere along the way. Boring Kobolds on a boring hero's journey is boring. The End.





⑤ Magic of Thieves by C. Greenwood: 2 stars
➼ Series: Legends of Dimmingwood

☠ DNFed somewhere along the way. Not sure where or when. Go me.

Okay, so I didn't die while reading this one, which is nothing short of a miracle since it belongs to that terrifying genre known as Young Adult



. Actually, this one started out surprisingly well: ruthless slaughtering of innocent villagers, outlaws à la Robin Hood (only that there is none of that silly "stealing from the rich to give to the poor" business here, thank our Shrimpy Father! These outlaws are delicious bastards who steal and kill for their own benefit, which is slightly yummy), a distastefully young yet not entirely unlikeable MC… I must admit it was all very survivable, and quite entertaining not entirely not enjoyable. But it went downhill fast. Really really fast. Because:

➽ After a gloriously dark beginning, the story becomes dull dull dull, boring boring boring and lackluster lackluster lackluster. Our disgustingly juvenile, recently orphaned heroine goes to live with the not-so-Robin-Hoodish outlaws in the Sherwood Dimmingwood forest. It could have been pretty awesome, had there been a little devious wickedness here and there. And a tiny little bit of blood and gore. But there wasn't, so it wasn't. It was all "heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to do boring camp stuff I go." Which was highly fascinating.



➽ The unpleasantly immature heroine gets her whine-o-matic on. Full throttle. And becomes increasingly bitchy. And turns into a total asshole. And a selfish one at that. You nasty, hateful little brat need to be chopped into tiny little pieces and then be fed to the murderous crustaceans. No, that would be too cruel, my poor babies would never be able to digest such a shameless, spiteful harpy. I hear piranhas have quite a strong digestive track, though. There you go boys! Bon appétit!



I love anti-heroes. I love cunning, devious bitches. But childish, egotistical, bad-tempered, obnoxious, worthless little punks? I think not.

Bye now.



⑥ Requiem's Song by Daniel Arenson: 2 stars
➼ Series: Dawn of Dragons

Yes, there was glorious violence in this book. Lots of it. And that's about it. The premise is intriguing but the execution bloody shrimping lacking. Nothing happens outside of the fight/battle scenes. A big, fat nothing. Just tons of blah blah blah, whining galore and drama aplenty. It's really amazing that the characters didn't commit mass suicide before the book was over, come to think of it. I mean, things are always hopelessly hopeless and bleakly bleak and woe is us and oh we love being victimized 24/7 and oh we're constantly being abused and this is the end and we are all going to die and stuff. In cases like this one, it is highly advisable to put an end to the reader's one's pathetic misery and go all seppuku on one's little exoskeleton and all that crap. Had the uplifting characters in this story had a quarter of half a third of depth, or had they shown the tiniest of teensiest hint of insignificant development, I might have advised them to keep fighting to the bitter fishing end instead of taking their own miserable, silly lives. But they didn't, so I didn't.



The end.

P.S. Don't read this thing.
P.P.S You're welcome.



⑦ Witch Hunt by Annie Bellet: 3.5 stars
➼ Series: Gryphonpike Chronicles

The long short and short of it:



Now if really you want to know why this story is slightly cool and why some clueless barnacles read it slightly wrong, click here.



⑧ Forged in Blood by K.F. Breene: 4 stars
➼ Series: The Warrior Chronicles

Warrior. Chronicles. Prequel. FOR FREE.

*starts hyperventilating*

Bloody shrimping Warrior Chronicles Prequel FOR FREE!!!!!!

*faints*
*vaguely regains consciousness*

» Shantiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii's baaaaaaaccccckkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!

*stops breathing*
*resumes breathing after Sanders performs mouth to mouth*
*faints again because Sanders*



To be continued...

June 2016 update : if you want to read the review I never wrote for this story, please feel free to click here. You are most welcome and stuff.

Shantiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii's baaaaaaaccccckkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!



⑨ Rise of the Dragons by Morgan Rice: to be read.
➼ Series: Kings and Sorcerers



⑩ A Gift of Shadow by Nick Webb: to be read.
➼ Standalone



⑪ Hidden by Megg Jensen: to be read.
➼ Series: Dragonlands



⑫ The Book of Deacon by Joseph R. Lallo: to be read.
➼ Series: The Book of Deacon



⑬ Talon by Michael J. Ploof: to be read.
➼ Series: The Windwalker Archive



⑭ Dawning by M.S. Verish: to be read.
➼ Series: Black Earth Series



⑮ The Sorcery Code by Dima Zales and Anna Zaires: to be read.
➼ Series: The Sorcery Code

[Maria Dimitrova]

I'll be reviewing each story as I read them so this will get bumped up quite often. Sorry about that but I don't trust myself to remember my feelings and thoughts correctly a few months after I've read the story.

Concealed Power: 4 stars
This is a complicated and emotionally draining full length novel. It contains some strong themes like attempted rape, sexual abuse and it's consequences, incest and murder. Fair warning - it is not for the faint of heart. It made me anxious and angry. It made me cry and scream. Because it shows life as it is - cruel, unfair and full of lies. Because it reminded me that it's the people we love most, the ones we hold most dear that hurt and betray us. It reminded me that the world will use you and take as much as it can without giving anything back. That people only look after themselves and will do unspeakable things to you if given half the chance all the while pretending that they're doing it for your own good. I loved this story and I'll be reading the rest of the series once I've managed to restore my peace of mind. Because even if it was hard on me it was brilliantly written and Adenine (the MC) deserves it.

[Sarah]

I'm not marking this anthology as read or giving it a star rating until I've read all of the stories it contains. I've currently only read one story but I'll update the review as I work my way through the rest.

Forged in Blood by K.F. Breene
4 stars
Read - 11th May 2016
Forged in Blood is a short story prequel to K.F. Breene's Warrior Chronicles that can only be found in the Legends: Fifteen Tales of Sword and Sorcery anthology. The whole anthology is currently available to download to your kindle for free on Amazon.co.uk (& probably from other ebook vendors but I've not actually checked) and I don't know if this is a permanent offer or a temporary discount so you might want to grab it now just in case! Anthologies like this are a brilliant way of trying new authors and new series - you never know you might discover a few new favourites.

I've been a huge fan of this series since I read Chosen last year so although I plan to read the rest of the anthology at some point Forged in Blood is the main reason I grabbed a copy. Although the story is technically a prequel and I do think you'll enjoy it even if you're new to the series I definitely think it will have a lot more meaning for you if you've read at least the first book.

For people who are already familiar with the series this story gives you a chance to step back in time and see what Shanti was like as a seven year old child. Already knowing about the prophecy has put a huge weight on her shoulders for someone so young and it really shows how it is starting to shape her personality. She is constantly being monitored and is expected to pick things up much faster than other children her age so if she doesn't excel in her lessons everyone is very hard on her.

I loved getting to see a different side to Shanti, someone who is less confident in their abilities and who just wants to be a normal child. What made this story even better was getting to see a young Rohnan too, we've seen in later books what a close bond he and Shanti have and Forged by Blood let's you see that bond start to form. They may not share the same blood but these two are closer than most brothers and sisters will ever be and they will always have each others backs.

Fans of this series are going to love this little glimpse into the past and while I'd probably recommend anyone new to the series start with Chosen I do think this story will give you a good taste of the author's writing style. This series is absolutely fantastic, Shanti is a fierce and powerful warrior, the author doesn't hold back on the violence but she still infuses the world with plenty of humour, a wonderful cast of characters and there is a nice touch of romance too (without a single hint of a dreaded love triangle I'd like to add!).

[Heather Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's fifteen tales in here, I just finished reading the first one and had to stop and talk about what a great book this is. You are totally immersed into another world here with expertly drawn characterizations and plot. There's a lot of plot, but it makes sense and is extremely compelling. Once I started I wanted to read it in one go. There's some nice descriptive touches to help you visualize people and places without stopping the story. These characters were complex, felt very real to me and acted in believable and often heartbreaking ways. If the rest of the rest of the stories are anywhere as good as this first one, this will be collection worth re-reading and I might even search out other fans to talk about it with, which is something I haven't done in years. While I got this at a free or discounted rate in exchange for my honest review, this author is now leaping up my must-read list and once I finish the other tales, I expect to be searching for more of the author's work.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good.

Found a number of new authors to read. Please note : these are all the first books for different series. Some I liked so much, I bought the next book. Some the stories were good, but I only wanted that first book. Five stars because in one way or another I enjoyed each story.

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories all of the 15. I hope to read the rest of the series on them all. Great job done by all the authors. I will read more of a

See above. I will read all of the rest of each series. I really like the sorcery and dragon books. Each a different story and style.. Thanks to all the authors for a great job well done!!!

[Connie Fogg-Bouchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic collection

this was certainly a carefully chosen collection of books. each is well crafted and they fit together as a whole. I do not have a favorite but if you are a lover of series, these will give you such marvelous stepping stones to climb into your imagination with fifteen new ones

[Harris Guilmette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waaaaay too slow for the first 20 chapters or so. 2nd half of Colt's novel was far superior. However, by the time I got to the rape in the second novel, which had been VERY good until then, I gave up on the whole book.

[M Beal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of novels. I will be looking into books by some of these authors in the future.

[Richard Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful !

Each of these first books was enough for me to want to read more about the characters and what was going to happen to then.

[John Mchale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working my way through by dipping in then reading something else, then back again. Handy for this. Stories good but somewhat lightweight and rushing the endings

[Shirley Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read


interesting book. looking forward to next one in series. easy to follow author. flows easily and keeps my interest. five star rating for this one.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthology of good books.

Some of the the books are better crafted than others, like most anthologies. I'd read more books and stories by each of these authors.

[Craig Norborg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not all the stories were great, but most of them were very entertaining. This anthology is well worth it!

[Tristan]

I have separately read and reviewed:

* “Magic of Thieves” by C Greenwood
* “Hidden” by Megg Jensen
* “Witch Hunt” by Annie Bellet
* “The Sorcery Code” by Dima Zales

[Logan Mendivil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely wonderful collection of books from various little known authors across the genre. Being able to have the taste of different people's work and worlds have opened new doors and opportunities to enjoy other books or continue the different series thanks to this collection of wonderful creators.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these anthologies but it takes forever to finish them because after each story i have to read the next one in the series for each author! I've found a lot of great authors by reading anthologies.

[Maureen Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorcery

If you love the world of sorcery this is the book for you. Sorcery has entertained us forever and the books of Harry Potter really got our attention to sorcery. These tales are no different and they keep your interest through all tales. A great collection in one book.

[Cody Griffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a mix.

Some good, some okay, others are not so good. You will get a mix of authors. Three of the stories inspired me to buy the next books for their series.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mixture of books for many hours reading

The quality of the writing & editing varies from book to book but these are mostly full length novels & not just samples or short stories.

Great value for money & even if you don't like every book it is well worth skipping through & maybe discover a new favourite author.

[Patrick Harrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

very long, didnt have a ending! but I enjoyed it!