The fourth Thieves’ World anthology of fantasy short stories set in Sanctuary, a conquered city in decline at the edge of the Rankan empire. This is a reread and I am enjoying the different points of view as much as 38 years ago, accepting a certain unevenness of tone with each story written by a different author, but marvelling at the depth of back story with recurring characters.
This is a transitional book, after the significant events in Shadows of Sanctuary, but interestingly takes forward the stories of Tempus (a Rankan soldier, blessed/cursed by their gods), Shadowspawn (a native Ilsigi thief) and Jubal (a slave merchant and unofficial power in Sanctuary), as well as them having meaningful cameo roles in the other stories. The final stories, Wizard Weather and Godson, brings the stories of Tempus and Shadowspawn to a conclusion of sorts, whilst the epilogue serves as notice of the changes to come in the next anthology. ( )

The fourth book in the Thieves World shared world series, and for me, this one was the beginning of the end. Some of the story lines are starting to diverge and get a bit strange. Still quality fantasy from some of the best names in the business at the time, and the setting is interesting. ( )

Stories by Robert Lynn Asprin; C J Cherryh; Diana L Paxson; Lynn Abbey; Janet Morris and Andrew J Offutt. They're interesting but not really my kind of reads. None of them really stood out for me, this is not to say that they weren't readable just not my kind of thing.

Thieves World is a dark world, nasty things happen to people and in places and all is not well in this world, that is to be expected but I think I had read a fair number of dark books recently and really what I'm looking for is something a bit more up-beat.

Re-read in ebook from Borrowbox, didn't remember most of the stories, still grim, still cynical, still shows some sparks of good writing. ( )

F/SF