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Thieves' World #1-3
Sanctuary
The first three short story collections from the Thieves' World shared universe series. Includes all 22 stories
Thieves' World
Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn
Shadows of Sanctuary
Thieves' World
Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn
Shadows of Sanctuary
600 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
10 people are currently reading
332 people want to read
About the author
Robert Lynn Asprin
224 books1,067 followersRobert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he wrote some stand alone novels such as The Cold Cash War, Tambu, and The Bug Wars and also the Duncan & Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series fantasy, such as the Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, the Phule's Company novels, and the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves' World anthology series with Lynn Abbey. Other collaborations include License Invoked (set in the French Quarter of New Orleans) and several Myth Adventures novels, all written with Jody Lynn Nye.
Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.
Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.
Bob's final solo work was a contemporary fantasy series called Dragons, again set in New Orleans.
Bob passed away suddenly on May 22, 2008. He is survived by his daughter and son, his mother and his sister.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 20, 2022
4,5 stars - English Ebook
Reviews follows later.
Reviews follows later.
August 6, 2025
This collects three gritty shared world anthologies, with many deaths, sorcerers, and some thieves also. There are some really good stories here and some that fumble forward. Characters that are favorites share pages with characters I'd prefer to skip. Overall rating for me, around three stars.
Like many anthologies, I had some favorites. Lynn Abbey's The Face of Chaos, Philip José Farmer's The Spiders of the Purple Mage, and Diana L Paxson's The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn were among them. Some of the stories read like a role playing adventure - Vonda N McIntyre's Looking for Satan is a great example of those.
I purchased this collected edition from the Science Fiction Book Club as a youth and have carried it around with me for more than 40 years unread. I'm glad I read it, I don't own the other collections but have seen them at used book stores, and may tackle another in the future.
Like many anthologies, I had some favorites. Lynn Abbey's The Face of Chaos, Philip José Farmer's The Spiders of the Purple Mage, and Diana L Paxson's The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn were among them. Some of the stories read like a role playing adventure - Vonda N McIntyre's Looking for Satan is a great example of those.
I purchased this collected edition from the Science Fiction Book Club as a youth and have carried it around with me for more than 40 years unread. I'm glad I read it, I don't own the other collections but have seen them at used book stores, and may tackle another in the future.
May 3, 2019
The "Thieves' World" fantasy anthologies were some of my favorites when I was growing up, both the actual anthologies and the spin-off publications set in the same world. They are very hard to find now - I'm guessing that part of the problem is that the rights to the work are complicated, especially now as some of the authors are passing away. The series was first dreamt up in 1978, first volume published in 1979 - just a little too late to make Gygax's Appendix N, but I've always thought these books would have been on the list had they been just a little earlier. Anyway, this particular edition collects the first 3 anthologies. The quality is necessarily quite varied, from author to author and story to story, but overall, I love the stories - some of the best "grimdark" sword & sorcery short fiction (predating the use of the term "grimdark" of course). Highly recommended. I'm in the process of re-reading, as I now have a more complete collection (February 2019, I found volumes 2-12 in a used bookstore in Montreal, for $1 - Canadian - each! Score!). So I'm re-reading the ones I know to prepare for the ones I never got to read before!
December 30, 2021
Loved this..especially for the ideas for dungeon and dragons!
August 26, 2023
My personal history with this is reading the SFBC Omnibus' for the first 6 books. I have individual reviews available under their separate titles.
The stories are dark and gritty. The overlying arc is a bit muddled, especially in the first book before further tales help color in the details. The feel is visceral hopelessness; the imagery more Frazetta than Larry Elmore. It works, especially if you realize that Sword & Sorcery respects no trigger warnings.
SENTENCES OF DEATH John Brunner
THE FACE OF CHAOS Lynn Abbey
THE GATE OF THE FLYING KNIVES Poul Anderson
SHADOWSPAWN Andrew Offutt
THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS Robert Lynn Asprin
BLOOD BROTHERS Joe Haldeman
MYRTIS Christine DeWees
THE SECRET OF THE BLUE STAR Marion Zimmer Bradley
SPIDERS OF THE PURPLE MAGE Philip Jose Farmer
GODDESS David Drake
THE FRUIT OF ENLIBAR Lynn Abbey
VASHANKA’S MINION Janet Morris
SHADOW’S PAWN Andrew Offutt
TO GUARD THE GUARDIANS Robert Lynn Asprin
SHADOWS OF SANCTUARY
LOOKING FOR SATAN Vonda N. McIntyre
ISCHADE C. J. Cherryh
A GIFT IN PARTING Robert L. Asprin
THE VIVISECTIONIST Andrew J. Offutt
THE RHINOCEROS AND THE UNICORN Diana L. Paxson
THEN AZYUNA DANCED Lynn Abbey
A MAN AND HIS GOD Janet Morris
The stories are dark and gritty. The overlying arc is a bit muddled, especially in the first book before further tales help color in the details. The feel is visceral hopelessness; the imagery more Frazetta than Larry Elmore. It works, especially if you realize that Sword & Sorcery respects no trigger warnings.
SENTENCES OF DEATH John Brunner
THE FACE OF CHAOS Lynn Abbey
THE GATE OF THE FLYING KNIVES Poul Anderson
SHADOWSPAWN Andrew Offutt
THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS Robert Lynn Asprin
BLOOD BROTHERS Joe Haldeman
MYRTIS Christine DeWees
THE SECRET OF THE BLUE STAR Marion Zimmer Bradley
SPIDERS OF THE PURPLE MAGE Philip Jose Farmer
GODDESS David Drake
THE FRUIT OF ENLIBAR Lynn Abbey
VASHANKA’S MINION Janet Morris
SHADOW’S PAWN Andrew Offutt
TO GUARD THE GUARDIANS Robert Lynn Asprin
SHADOWS OF SANCTUARY
LOOKING FOR SATAN Vonda N. McIntyre
ISCHADE C. J. Cherryh
A GIFT IN PARTING Robert L. Asprin
THE VIVISECTIONIST Andrew J. Offutt
THE RHINOCEROS AND THE UNICORN Diana L. Paxson
THEN AZYUNA DANCED Lynn Abbey
A MAN AND HIS GOD Janet Morris
June 26, 2015
While the concept is interesting - a fantasy author’s colony inhabited by a writer’s who's who in a franchised city with its Gods, culture and main characters - it falls flat in execution to the jarring cacophony of the many voices of its concept. Here we have purple prose writers who enjoy describing the falling rain droplets alongside writers who write with the snicker snack of a knife fight. And the stories themselves meander within the confines of a franchise, draining all the drama because all the fragile pieces have to be whole again for the next installment, stripping the talent down to the level of soap operatic television writing – or bad comic books where the Superman dies but returns.
By placing the setting in a fictional Middle Eastern land I found the names preposterous to internally pronounce and remember except when the names fell into Latinized (Romans?) or English nick names (One-Thumbs). And the culture was too foreign to me, adding to the noise of the many voices within that barred my entry. I would often finish my 20 pages/2 hours and remember nothing – not even the themes.
There were two stars amid the 600 pages of confused constellations. One was a new writer at the time, Christine DeWees (pgs. 148 - 165) with her first published work, and the other was a burgeoning author, Diana L. Paxson.(pgs 520 - 541) Their stories stand out as fresh and refreshing because there were no confused sentence structures in their lean text to blot out the ideas they were communicating. And, more to the point, their stories did not make as big a production of world building as the others, more accomplished writers: they focused their work on telling a good story.
And they brought to life some of the characters in Sanctuary as a consequence.
I completed reading this collected anthology as a way to procrastinate from my own writing, educating myself as to what has gone before and what was popular when I was seriously writing fantasy fiction that others wanted to read. I fought with it page by page and would not have completed it for its own enjoyment.
2 stars for DeWees, Paxton and for Joe Halderman’s Blood Brothers the only other story I can recall in its entirety. Your Mileage May Vary.
By placing the setting in a fictional Middle Eastern land I found the names preposterous to internally pronounce and remember except when the names fell into Latinized (Romans?) or English nick names (One-Thumbs). And the culture was too foreign to me, adding to the noise of the many voices within that barred my entry. I would often finish my 20 pages/2 hours and remember nothing – not even the themes.
There were two stars amid the 600 pages of confused constellations. One was a new writer at the time, Christine DeWees (pgs. 148 - 165) with her first published work, and the other was a burgeoning author, Diana L. Paxson.(pgs 520 - 541) Their stories stand out as fresh and refreshing because there were no confused sentence structures in their lean text to blot out the ideas they were communicating. And, more to the point, their stories did not make as big a production of world building as the others, more accomplished writers: they focused their work on telling a good story.
And they brought to life some of the characters in Sanctuary as a consequence.
I completed reading this collected anthology as a way to procrastinate from my own writing, educating myself as to what has gone before and what was popular when I was seriously writing fantasy fiction that others wanted to read. I fought with it page by page and would not have completed it for its own enjoyment.
2 stars for DeWees, Paxton and for Joe Halderman’s Blood Brothers the only other story I can recall in its entirety. Your Mileage May Vary.
June 22, 2012
Three books in one - - three anthologies
Take some on the best authors in the science fiction and fantasy fields in the late 1970's and early 1980's- give them the basic outlines of a new world in which magic does work - give them some basic common characters - and let their imaginations run wild - -you have Thieves' World - the seedist town in the Rankan Empire
I had read this 30 years ago - and just re-read it this month -
Great - still holds up after 30 years -
Take some on the best authors in the science fiction and fantasy fields in the late 1970's and early 1980's- give them the basic outlines of a new world in which magic does work - give them some basic common characters - and let their imaginations run wild - -you have Thieves' World - the seedist town in the Rankan Empire
I had read this 30 years ago - and just re-read it this month -
Great - still holds up after 30 years -
August 12, 2021
Reread of a childhood favorite of mine. Definitely second tier fantasy but more solid and enjoyable than that phrasing implies. Apparently considered dark for the time, I didn't see that reading these at 8-9 and I don't really now, but compared to a fair amount of contemporary adult (or even older YA) fiction, this is a cakewalk. For all the men writing, the stories seem mostly driven by the women, definitely in the series favor, at least in this volume.
July 2, 2011
I read this book back in the '83. It has become a favorite of mine ever since. I loved the concept of the anthology and how each story or chapter written in the book by the various authors fit together neatly.
In fact, all the authors featured in this book were soon after added to my favorite author list.
In fact, all the authors featured in this book were soon after added to my favorite author list.
October 26, 2011
This is the second book in a Trilogy. The stories are written by different authors but the location and major cast of characters is the same. Even though it is part of a trilogy,it seems to have gone over very well with readers and therefore there are actually 12 books in the series. I found the second books almost as good as the first and hope it will hit its stride in the third volume.
April 11, 2013
One of my favorite books.
April 27, 2013
see book 1
September 24, 2013
I read this collection of stories many (many) years ago, and it remains a favorite of mine. Every story was a page turner, with memorable characters and an ever present darkness to the tales...
April 27, 2017
Excellent find at a going out of business Book store giveaway. Multiple authors, one theme, nicely done.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews