Heroic Visions II

by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (Editor)

Fantasy anthology including:
The Inn at the World's End - Keith Roberts
Voices - Michael Bishop
Lazarus - Ellen Kushner
La Strega - Richard A. Russo
Honor - Jody Scott
The Lingering Minstrel - Jessica Amanda Salmonson
The Head of Shemes - Avram Davidson
The Lion of Elirhom's Anger - Michael Nicholas Richard
Eammon's Banshee - Gillian FitzGerald
The Slaughter of the Gods - Manly Wade Wellman
Cohen the Clam-killer - Steven Bryan Bieler
The Word-woman of Dza - Grania Davis
Masquerade of a Dead Sword - Thomas Ligotti

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories

206 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't say I cared much for this collection of short stories in the heroic fantasy genre--and I like that subgenre. As a teen, I loved the Tomoe Gozen books by editor Jessica Amanda Salmonson, based on a historical female Samurai. And I very much loved her two Amazon anthologies, which I reread recently and felt held up well. They were groundbreaking given that pre-Buffy there weren't all that many strong action-oriented heroines in fantasy. Maybe it helped in a strange way that she might have had less to choose from and so less ability to get stories to her tastes. Although I did think there were some clunkers in the Amazon anthologies (such as "Rape Patrol") by and large the stories were colorful and very enjoyable.

But with this lot, I came to feel dread whenever Salmonson gave out high praise to a story in her introductions. Especially when she would praise a story for its literary merits and scorn "escapism." It's not that I'm not for literary quality--but not at the expense of story or an exercise in... well pretentious twaddle. I was repulsed by Kushner's "Lazarus," nonplussed by Ligotti's "Masquerade of a Dead Soul" found Jody Scott's "Honor" self-indulgent and was decidedly unamused by Bieler's "Cohen the Clam-killer." I wasn't much taken with Wellman's pulp story "The Slaughter of the Gods" either. That makes five out of the 13 I actively disliked--more than a third. Nor were there any stories I'd consider memorable, moving, outstanding stories. My favorites were Michael Bishop's "Voices" and Avram Davidson's "The Head of Shemesh the Eshurian." I rather liked Jessica Amanda Salmonson's own "The Lingering Minstrel" even if I think it's in rather poor taste to include your own story in an anthology you're editing. But were the stories I did like strong enough I intend to keep this book on my limited shelf space? No.

[Garick Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure why I picked this one up--probably for the cool cover art by Steve Hickman (which is an illustration of "The Lion of Elirhom's Anger"). There are no great stories in this collection, but there are a couple pretty good, solid ones.

"The Inn at the World's End" by Keith Roberts. 4/5 stars. The editor chose well in leading off with this one, both because Roberts was a big name and because it's a very solid, well-crafted tale.

"The Lion of Elirhom's Anger" by Michael Nicholas Richard. 4/5 stars. This one was a surprise, because I had never heard of this author. Checking isfdb.org, he turns out not to have been prolific, with only a handful of short stories and two novels to his name. Which is a shame, because I thought this one was the best story of the bunch. There's nothing groundbreaking about it--it's a simple tale of a traveling musician encountering an evil presence--but it's quite deftly executed.

Also notable were "The Word-Woman of Dza" by Grania Davis and "Masquerade of a Dead Sword" by Thomas Ligotti. I had assumed that Davis' story was included as a courtesy to Avram Davidson, who also appears herein. (Davis was Davidson's partner.) But it turns out she's a pretty fair author in her own right, no nepotism required. Ligotti's story was not really to my taste, but I have a feeling that fans of his work will eat this one up. The remaining stories ranged from egregious to merely mediocre. All in all, a very mixed bag, with a couple highlights.

PS--I've now read "The Inn at the World's End" 3X and just re-read "The Lion of Erlihom's Anger." I'm tempted to give both of them 5 stars, because they seem like the kinds of stories that get better every time I read them. At any rate, those two pieces have justified the purchase of this anthology.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collection of Heroic fantasy tales edited by Salmonson, who has a story of her own in the collection. Also contains tales by Avram Davidson, Ellen Kushner, Tom Ligotti and Manly Wade Wellman. Not as good as the original collection.