Uneasy Alliances

Thieves' World #11

by C.J. Cherryh, John DeCles, Chris Morris

Welcome to Sanctuary, a city of outlaws and adventurers in a world of war and wizardry, peopled with colorful characters created by today's top fantasy adventure talents, including:

Robert Lynn Asprin
Robin W. Bailey
C.J. Cherryh
John DeCles
Chris Morris
Diana L. Paxson

In this brilliant eleventh volume, the citizens of Sanctuary face the awesome task of putting their lives back together after the war. As some try to salvage order from the chaos, others see their opportunity to settle old debts at the point of a sword.

Contents:
* Dramatis Personae - Lynn Abbey
* Introduction - Lynn Abbey
* Slave Trade - Robert Lynn Asprin
* The Best of Friends - C.J. Cherryh
* The Power of Kings - Jon DeCles
* Red Light, Love Light - Chris Morris
* A Sticky Business - C.S. Williams
* The Promise of Heaven - Robin Wayne Bailey
* The Vision of Lalo - Diana L. Paxson

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 1988

About the author

Currently resident in Spokane, Washington, C.J. Cherryh has won four Hugos and is one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed authors in the science fiction and fantasy field. She is the author of more than forty novels. Her hobbies include travel, photography, reef culture, Mariners baseball, and, a late passion, figure skating: she intends to compete in the adult USFSA track. She began with the modest ambition to learn to skate backwards and now is working on jumps. She sketches, occasionally, cooks fairly well, and hates house work; she loves the outdoors, animals wild and tame, is a hobbyist geologist, adores dinosaurs, and has academic specialties in Roman constitutional law and bronze age Greek ethnography. She has written science fiction since she was ten, spent ten years of her life teaching Latin and Ancient History on the high school level, before retiring to full time writing, and now does not have enough hours in the day to pursue all her interests. Her studies include planetary geology, weather systems, and natural and man-made catastrophes, civilizations, and cosmology…in fact, there's very little that doesn't interest her. A loom is gathering dust and needs rethreading, a wooden ship model awaits construction, and the cats demand their own time much more urgently. She works constantly, researches mostly on the internet, and has books stacked up and waiting to be written.

Reviews

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best volume of Thieves' World in quite some while. That's in large part because the interminable witch wars and civil wars are finally over, and instead people are able to write about characters and even start pushing on new plot threads. The result is very quiet, without a lot happening in the big picture, but it still pays off in several of the stories.

Introduction (Abbey). This intro has a lot more depth than the ones in the previous books, and it shows: we get a more insightful look into the beysib here than in the last several books combined [8/10].

Slave Trade (Asprin). More a scene than a story, but it's nice to see Hanse and Jubal here, and Asprin writes them both well [6/10].

The Best of Friends (Cherryh). Over the years, Cherryh's stories have become a soap opera: they're about the continuing lives of a handful of characters, and those stories rarely have beginnings or endings. Worse, I've never warmed to half of her cast: I like Strat and Crit (though I always find their similar names troublesome), I'm indifferent to Ischade and Stilcho, and I don't like Moria and Mor-am. So, I always approach Cherryh's stories with trepidation at this point, and am rarely enthused by the result. This, I liked better than most: its biggest focus is on Crit and Strat and it feels like the ending provides a notable turning point for them. Though we'll see if they go right back to where they were in the next book (my guess would be yes). [7/10].

The Power of Kings (DeCles). It's good to have a new cast of characters in DeCles' players. It's also amusing to see their views of Sanctuary. The story itself is a bit slow, and most of the ending is obvious from early on. Still, it's an interesting read [6/10]

Red Light, Love Light (Chris Morris). More new characters and a story that's intriguing for its mysteriousness. I feel like we didn't get an ending, but I want to know what comes next ... presumably in the next and last book [6+/10].

A Sticky Business (Williams). Cholly the Gluemaker is yet another fun new character, though much as the players' troupe in "The Power of Kings" I don't feel that he has the depth of some of Sanctuary's classic characters. Overall, this is a fun story that drags a bit, but has a terrific ending [6+/10].

The Promise of Heaven (Bailey). I liked Bailey from the moment she introduced Chenaya, but this story impressed me even more, because she managed to tell a good story using her larger cast, even without Chenaya there. One of the best aspects of this story is that Bailey definitively makes a character out of Daphne, someone who received almost no attention before Bailey showed up. Overall, an enjoyable read [7+/10].

The Visions of Lalo (Paxson). And finally a Lalo story that starts off slow, but gains interest toward the end and has a terrific ending. It's really nice to see a big turning point for Lalo -- one that would also be an appropriate ending point for him if he's not in the next (and last) book [7/10].

[Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The eleventh Thieves’ World anthology, published in 1988, is the fifth I have read consecutively and although the stories might feel underwhelming compared to the “fireworks” of earlier volumes, I am enjoying these slighter tales, as we know the end is nigh for these anthologies of loosely connected stories based in Sanctuary.
Lynn Abbey’s introduction is a story featuring Hakeim and Shupansea, the Beysa, illustrating their changed circumstances since their beginning in the storyline.
Robert Lynn Asprin’s story surprisingly reintroduces Hanse, also known as Shadowspawn, a character of Andrew Offutt who we saw being taken by slavers at the end of the previous anthology. At that time I mused whether we would see Hanse again before the end of the series, but I needn’t have worried. We also learn that Jubal wishes to meet with Kadakithis, the nominal Prince-Governor of Sanctuary, which potentially indicates storylines being drawn together.
C J Cherryh gives us a story with Straton and Critias as objects of another’s vengeance, and Moria, Stilcho and Ischade being drawn into the story, with Ischade showing more compassion than expected. This is a happy story for Sanctuary.
Jon DeCles, a new author for Thieves’s World, provides an amusing interlude introducing theatrical protagonists into Sanctuary, who unrealistically (I know it’s fictional) haunt The Vulgar Unicorn to study the patrons’ characters, without harm befalling them. The actors are building a theatre and performing a play for Prince Kadakithis.
Chris Morris (husband of Janet) tells a story concerning a couple of new characters, one in the Mageguild and the other in Aphrodisia House on the Street of Red Lanterns, which also involves earlier characters Randal, the Stepsons’ only mage, and the Shepherd, an Ilsigi character (god?). One cannot but feel that this is a filler, linking up to existing storylines (and that it is now politically incorrect in its portrayal of prostitution).
C S Williams, another one-off author in the Thieves’ World anthologies, tells a good story of Chollandur and his glue shop in the Maze, but there are small roles for Markmor (degrading his powers), Ahdio and Strick. It’s a rather simple but pleasant humorous tale.
Robin Wayne Bailey treats us to a gruesome story set in the Promise of Heaven, which has sentimental characters for Sanctuary, including Dayrne, one of Chenaya’s gladiators, with cameo roles for Chenaya, Kadakithis, Shupansea and Molin Torchholder.
Finally, Diana L Paxson gives us a further story of Lalo the Limner.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another great collection of gritty sword-and-sorcery stories set in the "Thieves' World" of Sanctuary. I remain convinced that these stories would have made it to the "Appendix N" of Gary Gygax had they been published just a few years earlier, and they were certainly formative of my early love of fantasy and sword-and-sorcery fiction. I read only the earlier volumes as a child, but recently (February 2019) acquired a complete collection, and I'm slowly working my way through the later volumes that I missed back when they were current and I was a child.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t believe I ever read the last two volumes of this series, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover these are solid and interesting. I always especially enjoy Robin Wayne Bailey’s stories because he leans hard into the unreliable narrators—from Chenaya or Daphne’s points of view, well-known characters look quite different (in part because it’s clear Chenaya and Daphne are more than a bit insane.) It destabilizes the whole enterprise just enough to give it an edge. As always, Diana Paxson’s tale of Lalo and Gilla is one of the most enjoyable in the volume.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most enjoyable of this series in quite awhile.

[Des · Rating 4 out of 5]

An upswing in quality for the series. The latter stories in this volume are especially strong.

[Kendal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series has returned to it's Original Promise, but there is the beige malaise of franchise fatigue. The small clique of writers give us a focus, but also a limitation to the series.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good one. So glad this series is redeeming itself in its last few books. I just hope the finale keeps up this focus on personal stories.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readability 8. Rating 6. Date estimated. One of the Thieves' World series of books, which collect short stories from a range of science-fiction and fantasy writers. The interesting aspect of these stories is the common setting (the City of Sanctuary) and the overlapping of characters and events. At it's best, the series provides multiple viewpoints in very different styles of events that impact each character's life to varying extents. The series also does an excellent job of maintaining a historical flow throughout the series. At this point (I am writing this well after the time I read the books), I cannot differentiate among the early books in this series. Note also, that this is the second reading for the first eight in the series.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The decline continues in this anthology, as though the stories and writers knew the end was near. It was as interesting as always, but as a reader the dread of the end came with it. We all know a series has to end, and it sucks. Sometimes we curse the authors for taking too long to finish a book or a series, not being understanding of the feat it has taken to write this medium in which we indulge in. By the time you have enjoyed eleven sets of short stories with a connected theme and characters, it is like thinking about the loss of an old friend, but it happens. Still there were some pretty good stories in this book and I just couldn't stop yet.

Danny

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Aftermath (#10), this one is showing a much calmer (albeit still dangerous) Sanctuary than in previous books where the city is being torn apart by gods, mages and witches, mercenaries and death squads. None of the tales are strictly stand-alone, even the ones that introduce new characters, although some have satisfying endings (even C.J. Cherryh's - well, in that case, ending-ish). Overall a good collection of short stories, but not fantastic. You can feel that the series is winding down at this point.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an attempt to keep the series going and to introduce new themes. There were quite a few new writers. But I really missed Janet Morris and Lynn Abbey's writing. There are some good stories, though.

[Kurt Vosper · Rating 3 out of 5]

see book 1

[Dave Peticolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Patrick Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last and maybe least. There is a reason the series faded away...

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good shared world book series. The variety of writers keeps the stories fresh. Recommended

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great!

[Raymond Rugg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t say what it felt like to read Uneasy Alliances when it came out. From today’s viewpoint, some two and a half decades later, I can’t help but see it as the anthology that is just one shy of the big finale to the Thieves’ World series. It’s a collection to be raced through, to see what will happen. And it’s a collection to drag one’s feet through, lest the end come too soon. Alliances has two fresh writers, with fresh characters: Jon DeCles introduces an acting company that takes up residence in Sanctuary, while C.S. Williams treats us to a day or two in the life of the local proprietor of the Glue Shop. And also of note, this is the first collection since Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn (TW #2) that doesn’t include a story by Janet Morris (although it does have a tale by Chris Morris, one with the Shepard, a character who seems to have taken on the role of ‘mysterious warrior’ so recently played by Tempus).