Shadows of Sanctuary

Thieves' World #3

by Robert Lynn Asprin

Each one of them has a tale to tell - thieves, harlots, godlings, and sorcerous beings living in the Shadows of Sanctuary.

Following on from Thieves' World and Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, seven top fantasy writers have written the stories of those who live and die in this infamous place.

Join Lynn Abbey, Andrew Offutt, Vonda N. McIntyre and Janet Morris - but be warned: the world of Sanctuary is a dangerous one.

Introduction
Author: Robert Asprin

Ischade
Author: C.J. Cherryh

A Gift in Parting
Author: Robert Asprin

The Vivisectionist
Author: Andrew Offutt

The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn
Author: Diana L. Paxson

Then Azyuna Danced
Author: Lynn Abbey

A Man and his God
Author: Janet Morris

Essay: Things the Editor Never Told Me
Author: Lynn Abbey

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Science Fiction

338 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1981

About the author

Robert (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.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shadows of Sanctuary was the third volume in the long-running shared-world series of anthologies, Thieves' World. It was edited by Robert Lynn Asprin; Lynn Abbey became co-editor a few volumes in, about the same time she and Asprin were married. It was one of the first shared-world projects and remains one of the best and most successful in the fantasy genre. The idea was that each of the authors wrote a story in the fantasy-world originally designed by Asprin, and made use of the other authors' characters. Events in each story affected the world as a whole, and the other characters as well. Four of the authors in this third volume returned from the previous ones with new stories, editor Asprin, Lynn Abbey, andrew j. offutt, and Janet Morris and three new authors were introduced, C.J. Cherryh, Vonda N. McIntyre, and Diana L. Paxson. My favorites in this second book were Paxson's The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn, Asprin's a Gift in Parting, and Abbey's Then Azyuna Danced. The Cherryh and the McIntyre stories were okay but maybe a little long, and the Morris was a bit confusing. My favorite story was andrew j. offutt's The Vivisectionist, the third of his many Thieves' World adventures; Hanse was one of offutt's all-time best characters. Asprin provided another interesting introduction, though he turned the concluding essay over to Abbey. Fun stuff, before fantasy became a video game!

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third anthology in the THIEVES' WORLD cycle goes a bit off the rails. I like Vonda McIntyre's work in general, but her touchy-feely opening piece barely feels congruent with the setting established in the previous two books. Andrew Offutt has the best dialogue and description in the anthology, but he doesn't seem to know when to stop; encounters that should take paragraphs take pages, and conversations trudge on endlessly long after the reader has been given the point. Janet Morris' closing piece is frustratingly over-written and puzzling. As for the rest, they range from mediocre to competent, with C.J. Cherryh's "Ischade" probably taking the prize for being the least pat and self-indulgent of the bunch.

One of the most interesting aspects of the first two THIEVES' WORLD collections was a deliberate refusal to inflict editorial homogeny on the characterizations within the tales. A given character might be described as attractive, commanding, and competent in one story, and shallow, ineffective, or comical in the next. The net effect is verisimilitude rather than contradiction, a real sense of glimpsing these lives and times from a dozen different perspectives, not all of which are always fair or accurate. Yet in Shadows of Sanctuary even a loose sense of overall editorial cohesion is missing. The alleged meta-plot, the dark mystery (someone is killing Sanctuary's wizards while they sleep) running like a thread through the tales, is almost completely ignored until the very last story, when we're simply told after the fact who did it. Nobody in the book seems to care, and neither will you.

I'm pretty sure I'll continue to the next volume in the sequence, but this one leaves me on my guard, hoping that Storm Season doesn't feel quite so random.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Storm Season
Book Three of Thieves' World
Edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Tantor Audio
Narrated by Jonathan Johns

Another fantastic collection. I am still awed by the continuity. Consequences in one story spill over into the others. To my knowledge, I have never encountered something quite like this. Coupled with the fact that this was written and compiled over 40 years ago, before all of the communication marvels we take for granted today. Wow.

Once again Jonathan Jones’ performance is perfunctory. However, I am thankful that this audiobook exists.

[Jim Kuenzli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m really enjoying these anthologies. More grim than I thought they would be, which is good. Sword and sorcery elements, fantasy elements, anything goes. What more could you ask?

[Mrwitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up eagerly looking for more of the thuggery & skulduggery I've come to slaveringly expect from Thieves' World books. I was bored and disappointed by the cavalcade of all-new characters who took up the first 75 pages with their seemingly endless touchy-feely horseshit in Vonda McIntyre's tiresome opening story. It's like I'm suddenly reading "Elfquest" or something. Since this is a collection of short stories like the other Thieves' World books, there's a chance it'll still pull it out and get great like the first two books in the series, but that first story really killed my interest and I've had to put the book down for now. Seriously, are these characters going to be here forever? I sure hope not.

Update: I had nothing to fear. After picking up the book again and pounding through the rest of that first story the rest of the crew got back to their old tricks and started cheating and stabbing each other like they're supposed to. In fact, in case you're thinking of reading the collection, I think you could even skip the first story and not suffer much continuity confusion - that story is so out of left-field it doesn't even connect with the others in any real way so you can just leave it out.

[Shaitarn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was torn as to whether to give this three stars or four, but in the end decided to be generous and round it up to four.

This is probably my favourite of the Thieves’ World books – it’s certainly the one that’s stuck in my mind the most from when I first read these books many years ago – whether that’s because I didn’t get hold of the fourth book for years I’ve no idea.

Following the now-familiar formula, there are seven stories as well as an introduction and closing essay. There are, perhaps, more ‘known’ authors in this book – C J Cherryh and Diana Paxson both make their Thieves World debut in this book.

My favourite stories from the collection were Ischade by C J Cherry about a sorceress with a deadly curse, The Vivisectionist, another of Offutt’s Shadowspawn tales, and Diana Paxson’s The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn, a surprisingly moral and thoughtful tale which probably lingered in my mind longer than the other tales. The other tales were all reasonably enjoyable; Janet Morris’ A man and His God, featuring her character Tempus was the worst of the lot in my opinion; to me it seemed long and rather tiresome, but I’m sure others loved it.

As usual, this anthology is recommended to those who’d liked to try anthologies of fantasy more on the sword and sorcery end of the scale.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

You look at the arc of the stories and wonder at lost opportunities. Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn made the setting dynamic by introducing solid events in one story with references or repercussions in other stories. Here there is the suggestion of a story arc in the 'slayer of sorcerers' first mentioned in "Ischade", referenced in "Then Azyuna Danced", and paid off (sort of) in "A Man And His God", but the situation never hangs over the setting in any useful way. Enas Yorl's mention--and motivation--raises the interest of the reader, but the whole of it is only understood in a subplot to the final story, which is entirely unsatisfactory.

The two characters of focus were Hanse Shadowspawn and Tempus, neither of which are interesting by themselves but become interesting through their use of multiple perspectives and authors, each having a take on the characters. That Hanse could be dashing and omnicompetent and fantastically dangerous in one story and unformed clay in others gives the character a texture that I don't think a single story or author could replicate.

I never cared for Tempus the first time I read this series, and don't care for him now. His presence dominates stories yet he remains a cypher and not in a particularly compelling way. "Uncontrolled Id" is part of his personality and his abilities but is not something to have in an ensemble series also featuring character-driven stories about painters and fishermen.

The thing about the Thieves' World collections that always bothered me was the Walter Velez covers--clearly European architecture, green men's clothing with metal studs on everything--with a setting that felt decidedly different.

[Kit Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third of the Thieves' World anthologies. It is a communal world with communal characters, with participating authors adding to the lore and worldbuilding with each story.

This is a good assortment of stories, and the authors have started to pull events from earlier volumes (and even other stories within this same volume) to begin an overaching plot, which is no small feat with the amount of people working on this.

I would recommend you read Thieves' World and Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn before this so you are familiar with the world of Sanctuary and what's happening there.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection improved with age (its and mine). I still think the first story is the weakest tale in the first three anthologies, and find the C. J. Cherryh story overlong and dull, but the book improves tremendously with Aspirin's Hemingway knockoff ("A Gift in Parting"). Andrew Offutt and Janet Morris were absolutely crucial to the structure and quality of the Thieves' World series as a whole, and both of them made high-quality contributions to this volume. My favorite story, though, has to be Diana Paxson's peculiarly touching and moral "The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn", which would've improved any anthology in which it appeared: it's as good as a well-translated fable from Aesop.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the volume I never read because I only found it recently, and it fills in some key stuff such as: how did Tempus escape Kurd? How did the Stepsons get started? Here's my story by story breakdown:

"Looking For Satan": Where to start with this one? The trope of the super close group that all fuck each other all the time? The demon-like creature called "Satan"? (From a mysterious doc from our world?) The insta-love between Wess and Lythande? Hard to get through this. 2/5*

"Ischade": the titular woman is a necromancer who is cursed to doom everyone she has sex with. Enas Yorl thinks maybe her curse can solve his. Hanse shows up and narrowly avoids aforementioned doom. 3/5*

"A Gift in Parting": A fisherman's son with dreams of escaping the docks gets an important lesson from his father. This is one of those stories about the "little people" of Sanctuary that I really like. It's good to take a breather from the big players and really rounds out the place. 4/5*

"The Vivisectionist": Kadakithis sends Hanse to find Tempus, and he rescues him from Kurd's house of horrors. Hanse is starting to have friends, and he likes it, but he's so conflicted about it! He's cute. 5/5

"The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn": Lalo the Limner, a poor painter, does a service for Enas Yorl and is granted the ability to paint people as they are within. 5/5*

"Then Azyuna Danced": A slave girl has to dance to help recreate the Ranken legend of the Ten-Slaying with the prince, who gets Tempus to sub in for him. Molin Torchholder is still a creep. 4/5*

"A Man and His God": A warrior-priest of Vashanka, whom Tempus rescued from slavery in childhood, comes to Sanctuary to do a bunch of stuff including trying to get Tempus to make up with Vashanka. Along the way they take down Jubal and rescue Cime from prison. Hanse shows up. We also get the genesis of the Stepsons, which I'd been missing all these years.
Janet Morris has a writing style I really like but holy shit is there nasty stuff in here. Yeesh. Tempus is a piece of work. 3/5*

"Things the Editor Never Told Me": Lynn Abbey talks about the fun and uncertainties of a bunch of writers just making this Thieves' World up as they go. I'm always here for writing shop talk. 5/5*

Storm Season is next after a break to burn through my monthly Hoopla limit and slurp up one of Cat Valente's recents.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most fantasy literature is pure escapism -- light, easy, black and white. Thieves' World instead features surprisingly complex characters (for a fantasy tale) with uncertain motivations. It's low, gritty, and not concerned with the matters of elves and men. As a mosaic novel (or linear anthology, or what-have-you), a TW book is a grab-bag of authors and stories.

In this, the third volume of the 12-book series, there's a novella-length opener that seems to subvert the low-fantasy setting by introducing non-humans and intelligent monsters. It felt out of place -- even in a fantasy world where, yes, there are sorcerers who cast spells, an erudite troll's sudden appearance can, ahem, break the spell. Worse, the climax of that story (a large carnival that's destroyed and in which men are killed) is never mentioned again by anyone in the rest of the book.

Beyond this blemish, the rest of the volume is made up of stories by what looks like the core group of authors responsible for the rest of the run of the series; some new characters pop up and some old ones continue their arcs. One other complaint is Janet Morris's pet character, Tempus, a man who evidently doesn't belong in this world and desperately wants out (I think -- he is referred to as both having come through a dimensional gate and as having been born in the TW world). She overwrites everything, too. I suspect neither of them are going anywhere, though.

Another nugget worth mentioning. In the first book of the series, Joe Haldeman had a story which featured his bartender character One-Thumb, and killed him off. This was evidently outside the spirit of cooperation among the TW writers, as editor Bob Asprin noted in the postscript of that book that it was a bit of a shock. Through the second book, many characters wondered about One-Thumb and where he might be; one shapeshifter character actually appeared as One-Thumb for some reason. Now, at the outset of the third book, One-Thumb is back (but Joe Haldeman is not), and Hakiem The Storyteller, who will buy a tale so as to spin it for profit later, calls One-Thumb's story stupid. That struck me as editorial voice, both bitchy and a little funny.

All in all, let's say 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it's really a good idea to be rereading books I loved so much at 12-14, but sometimes the lure of nostalgia is just too great, and these reviews are the results.

CW: Misogyny, murder, casual torture & rape & sexual assault.... seriously, you might want to go read something else. Even though I enjoyed parts of my reread, the level of sexual violence is so high & constant that I would never have gotten past page 2 if not for the emotional distance created by nostalgia.

The stories in this one are:


“Looking for Satan” by Vonda McIntyre — weird 70s feminist utopian lesbian fantasy stuck into Sanctuary, I always felt like I was supposed to like this but never really did, although it gets Lythande out of Sanctuary and into a happy ending which is nice I suppose?

“Ischade” by C. J. Cherryh — Ischade was one of my favourite characters in the shared universe, but I honestly preferred her when someone other than Cherryh was writing her, because Cherryh's prose style literally makes my brain hurt. I tried to analyse why using this story, and the best I could come up with is this:

“The woman cast back her hood: swords stayed undrawn, hands unmoving, numb as the patrons of the Unicorn.”

Cherryh loves sentences like this, where what is actually happening in the story is described in passive voice -- in this case, as a list of actions which are NOT happening. A woman pulls her hood back, and then some people (who? it's in a previous sentence) fail to draw swords and fail to move their hands. What IS actually happening is that our POV character (Cappen Varra) is watching the woman (Ischade) kill a bunch of guards, who are frozen (magically? in terror? both?) and thus not putting up any resistance... but that's not what the words say, the words focus on the things that aren't going on, which makes me as a reader do a lot of work while feeling very detached from what's going on. And maybe that's on purpose, since Cappen Varra is watching a woman he is terrified of do some murders, he's probably dissociating as hard as he can, but it slows me down to a glacial reading pace, which is why I have more or less given up on Cherryh's novels despite having really loved some of them in my younger days. Anyway, the story sets up some of Ischade's entire endealment, and if I *do* read further in the series, I am looking forward to reading her as written by Morris and Abbey.

"A Gift in Parting" by Robert Lynn Asprin -- A boy becomes a man and learns to appreciate the wisdom of his father. It was fine!

"The Vivisectionist" by Andrew J. Offut -- I still like Hanse and Tempus best. Of course Hanse rescues Tempus, and of course it messes with his head dramatically! I continue to maintain that these two and their entire situation is extremely fanfic-worthy; Tempus works for the oppressive ruling empire due to being the avatar of their main deity, and Hanse is a member of the population being oppressed, the characters are clearly set up by the narrative *of the actual universe* to be in opposition as pawns for various deities, and yet they both (kind of, mostly) like each other, and Hanse has to keep helping Tempus because that's the sort of person he is, even though he really would rather just let the Head Evil Cop of Conquering Evil Empire die already.

"The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn" by Diana L. Paxson -- Lalo gets a painting superpower and finds out that rich people have terrible souls and poor people have beautiful souls and remembers that he loves his wife. This was basically charming but I'm not sure it really goes anywhere in the future.

"Then Azyuna Danced" by Lynn Abbey -- Complicated Rankan religious politics with an enslaved woman whose highest purpose is to be raped at the centre, and this being the kind of book it is, she's a nonentity for the male characters to manipulate. Somehow I remembered her having a lot more agency than she did in the actual story, so... go younger me who invented the heroines she needed?

"A Man and His God" by Janet Morris -- This story does some things to at temporarily resolve the conflict between Tempus & his deity, and introduces Abarsis and sets up the future books where the focus will be increasingly on the Stepsons and the wider conflicts outside of Sanctuary, all of which were my favourite parts of these books. And -- look, I cannot justify my fondness for Tempus; he is a nightmare of a character, and within a few paragraphs of this story has already done several horrific things -- I think the best I can say for him is that Morris clearly also thought he was a nightmare, and even *Tempus* knows he's a nightmare, he's just not able to actually die, despite his daydreams of a portal that will get him out of the world of these books. All Tempus can hope for is the sort of temporary victory he has at the very end of this story, where he makes ONE choice that is slightly better than other choices he can make, and -- that's all he gets. It is bleak as hell, and it was exactly what I needed in my early teens.

"Things the Editor Never Told Me" by Lynn Abbey -- Another short funny essay that wasn't actually funny to adult me, but made me laugh a lot in middle school!

Glancing over the stories again to put together this review, it struck me how out of all the authors across the first three volumes, Morris does the best at giving the sense that there's really an entire world behind her stories. I don't know if she actually had all the cosmology and rituals and such figured out, but her characters seem like they have an actual culture which causes them to act in ways that make no sense to me but are perfectly coherent to them, which gives me a lot to think about as a reader.

Will I actually keep reading these books? Or have I truly outgrown them? Only the future knows!

[Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sanctuary, the anus of the empire. Where life is short and the points don't matter.

It's yet another collection of short stories about the Thieves' World, but unlike many other similar anthologies practically everything here is awesome.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third volume, and the beginning of the series' best run. Tales by Paxson, Abbey and Morris are outstanding.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this volume of short stories, Thieves World really begins to define itself. The major players are coming to the forefront, while other ones are fading away. Enos Yorl, the mysterious shapeshifting mage, so prominent in the first two volumes, is nearly forgotten and barely makes any appearances after this book. Additionally this is Lythande's last appearance, despite his character being prominently displayed on further covers. Tempus, the near-immortal warrior, takes center stage as many of the stories revolve around him in some way. Plus we are introduced to the cursed sorceress Ishacade, who will be very important in future volumes.

My only real complaint about this series is how may characters, seemingly important ones, just vanish. Give them an arc, an ending in some way, rather than just not mention them anymore. All it would take is one story. I know a few got their own spin-off books, but others did not and it feels incomplete to building up a character then have them vanish like they were nothing.

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

It's been something close to 30 years since I read these books. Back then, my fantasy selections were only either Sword and Sorcery or Athurian Legends. Well, I've read a whole ungodly lot of fantasy those past 3 decades, and it's made me appreciate the masterfully done Theives' World books all the more.
There's something in these books for every hard-core fantasy reader. Heroic tales of adventurers, spell-casters, and outlaws are all here told by authors who had already earned their spurs before stepping foot in the cursed city of Sanctuary. Epic, Grimdark, Dungeon & Dragons, Sword & Sorcery, medieval, Greco-Roman, or far-east; it's all here. For me, there's even a sense of nostalgia of fantasy books from the 80s without feeling dated; like if the reader didn't already know, these books were published 40 years ago they would pass as new.
Fantasy readers, do yourself a favor and read Thieves' World.

[Chris Sudall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 3 and more fantastic fantasy, point one though: the cover has a picture of something that doesn't happen in the book! YES! I know science fiction books often have random pictures of spaceships, usually by Foss in my collection, but they are COOL. This is too obviously wrong.
Anyway, there seems to be a pattern developing of each book taking from a selection well used authors along with with guest stars. This time it's C.J. Cherryh.
The first story is a story for our times with a LGBTQ+ posse of warriors hitting town to rescue a mate. It's an odd one as it introduces races unmentioned before. Still interesting though, we then go through some pleasant examination of smaller characters (with moral lessons to be had) and lots of development of Tempus's character and story. He really is a badass, but once again Janet Morris perplexes me with her opaque prose. I have only a vague idea of what Tempus did to the eunuch but I know it was bad.
Overall another good read. Will come back in a few books times!

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Thieve's World series is really hitting its stride with this title. There's an excellent group of short stories, "A Gift in Parting," "The Vivisectionist," and "The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn," that are bookended by subpar titles.

The first story is fine, but it's simply not Thieve's World, being neither grim nor meaningful. The final story, ugh, is so clumsily written. I would have stopped reading it after just a few pages if it wasn't so important to the overall story arc.

But perhaps it won't prove important after all. Thieve's World is nothing if not malleable. And like the best of anthologies, this one left me wanting to immediately read the next.

[Kendal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stories, though some are a bit confusing. The best one is "Things the Editor Never Told Me" by Lynn Abbey. There is backstory, but they are vague on some commonplace things, such as coinage, exchange rates, location in the Maze, etc. BTW, historically speaking, you'd have many forms of coinage in a city like Sanctuary, so the point is moot.

[Barry Moraller · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like reading a deranged history/mythology mashup.

I really enjoyed this volume, and the whole series so far. Some of the stories are not so great, but the whole thing evokes such a sense of place that I find myself lost in the world.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy this anthology and rated the last 2 books 5 stars. In this book the last story had a strange way about it, so it gave it a bit of bad taste at the end, which is why its getting 4 stars. It is still a good read and I will be reading more of the series.

[Komble III · Rating 3 out of 5]

დაიქოქა ნელ-ნელა

ბევრი შედოუსპანი და ტემპუსი იყო და შედარებით სასიამოვნოდ წავიდა ვიდრე წინა

საერთო ჯამში მაინც დიდი გადამრიე არაფერია მარა რა გინდა რო ქნა :|

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too dark, and too much angst, for my taste. I liked the character development, though.

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definately not PG rated and a dark setting, but I find the tales of the dark underbelly of the world very interesting. I like that even the heros of the story are flawed, often deeply.

[Ronald Calbick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent entry in the series!

[Victoria Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying the thieves world anthology.

[Chuck Ledger · Rating 2 out of 5]

As was the case when I read this book years ago, I felt the stories were very uneven and not as good as the previous two.

[Des · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the tales were thrilling; some were downright puzzling. I'm still not sure what the Morris story was all about. It might just be me.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume in the series is the one that makes you want to keep going. Gods fighting and strange newcomers are just some of the storylines.

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this anthology as well as the first two. I don't like Tempus, and he shows up in a lot of these stories.