Return to Avalon

7/10
This collection of short stories, loosely connected to the sagas of Avalon and Camelot, is a tribute of sorts to Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of The Mists of Avalon. Several of the authors are familiar favorites of mine and several of the stories are enjoyable. A few seemed did not seem to fit the overall theme of the book and some were just plain boring to me.
I am not a fan of short stories; if they are well-executed, they just make me want a fuller and more expansive story, and if they are not, then I am disappointed and dissatisfied. So it is difficult for me to review this book other than to say, if you like short stories and the tales of Avalon and Camelot, you would probably enjoy many of the stories in this collection.

Return to Avalon edited by Jennifer Roberson is an anthology of Arthurian short stories. With the exception of Lady of Avalon(not to be confused with the novel by the same name), none of these stories have anything to do with Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon. Lady of Avalon is set some time after the events of The Mists of Avalon and tells the story of the current high priestess being captured and turned into a slave by a Saxon king. It was a pretty good story and I enjoyed reading it. Most of the other stories I'd rate as three stars with some four star ones scattered throughout the book. Of the other stories there weren't any that stood out as particularly good or particularly bad. One thing that was curious is that a lot of the stories show more in the book I would hesitate to classify as Arthurian fiction. There were many that had more the feel of fairy tales to them and didn't seem to have anything to do with Arthurian legends as far as I could tell. There was also one Shakespearian short story that seemed really out of place. I thought it was a good story and I did enjoy it, but it just really didn't seem like it belonged in this collection. Overall I'd say this book was an ok read and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Arthurian and medieval fiction, though I think I liked the Out of Avalon anthology better. To anyone wanting to read this book just for the Lady of Avalon story, it's probably only worth it if you can borrow the book or get it for a low price unless you are a really big fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon series. show less