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UK Authors - Sci-fi & fantasy |
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Legends |
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| Legends Editor: Robert Silverberg Harper Collins (Voyager) 380 pages, 1999 ISBN 0005483933 Reviewed by our UK Editor Rachel A. Hyde In this book are six novellas by some of fantasy’s best names. Rather to its detriment, the book mentions in various places that there are ten novellas, but apparently this is half of a previously published volume - are we going to see a paperback Legends II? In the introduction, Silverberg reminds us that fantasy, instead of being the newcomer that it is usually regarded as, is in fact the oldest of all genres. The epic of Gilgamesh was a sword and sorcery yarn. When cave dwellers sat around their fires, they didn’t tell tales of ordinary cave folk, soap-opera style, but epics of supernatural beings and mighty deeds. Well, we suppose they did anyway. Usually, these books of short stories (Robinson’s Mammoth series for example) serve as good tasters to those wishing to start reading a certain type of fiction but unsure where to begin. Silverberg gives a highly useful passage before each story, giving the author’s works in order, complete with publication dates and a bit about their created world. The stories themselves are really aimed at people who already know and love the work of the authors. All six authors tend to be at their peak when writing full-length novels rather than short stories, but it was interesting for an established fan like this reviewer, to read of events prior to the start of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth cycle and Ursula Le Guin’s feminist tale of a witch who wants to train to be a wizard (shades of Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites!) although this story had a weak end. Robert Silverberg’s own tale was a murder mystery but it lacked the sense of marvel that his work usually has, and Raymond E Feist’s story was rather too brief; a snapshot rather than a story. The less standard sword and sorcery worlds of Orson Scott Card and Stephen King tended to lend themselves better to short story form – but then these authors’ novels are shorter and different in style to the usual vast canvas of a typical fantasy epic. If you are a fan of all or any of these authors, this is well worth reading. And if you wonder why people love their works, read the books that made these authors famous. |
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