Irresistible Forces [Anthology 6-in-1]
by Catherine Asaro (Editor)
The Guardian ("Alchemical Marriage", # 2.5), Sherwood {Jennifer Roberson} (Collections and Selections — includes 'Shadows in the Woods' (sequel)), Skolian Empire Chronological Order ("Stained Glass Heart" 2223)
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Description
New York Times bestselling authors Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverley, and Lois McMaster Bujold join forces with award-winning authors Catherine Asaro, Jennifer Roberson, and Deb Stover in this all-new anthology of original stories proving that love can conquer all...even the boundaries of time and space. From sixteenth-century Britain to the farthest reaches of outer space, from medieval adventures to tales of inter-galactic love, here is a compilation that explores the wonderfully kinetic forces show more that lovers share--forces too great to resist... show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Like many other readers, I bought this book for 'Winterfair Gifts'. It was worth it for that alone. The other stories were a mixed bag. There were two that I was unable to finish, one that I managed to read all the way (by Jo Beverley), but still found immensely irritating for that dated/cliched use of English English that exists only among American writers.
Jennifer Roberson (another American writer) did a much better job of setting a story with English characters and I quite enjoyed her Robin Hood/Marian story.
Catherine Asaro's story was enjoyably as well, in spite of feeling as though it was set in 'My Little Pony' land.
Looking at the writer blurbs after completing the book, I concluded that the stories I liked were written by the show more three fantasy writers who also enjoy romance, and the three I didn't care for were written by romance writers who were attempting fantasy stories. show less
Jennifer Roberson (another American writer) did a much better job of setting a story with English characters and I quite enjoyed her Robin Hood/Marian story.
Catherine Asaro's story was enjoyably as well, in spite of feeling as though it was set in 'My Little Pony' land.
Looking at the writer blurbs after completing the book, I concluded that the stories I liked were written by the show more three fantasy writers who also enjoy romance, and the three I didn't care for were written by romance writers who were attempting fantasy stories. show less
http://nhw.livejournal.com/110771.html
I bought this because it contains the latest installment of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga, the short story "Winterfair Gifts", about Miles Vorkosigan's wedding, so set a few months before the most recent novel of the series, Diplomatic Immunity. The book is worth it for this story alone; I've seen several reviews along the lines of "I haven't read anything else by Bujold but this was very good". Even if you have read everything else by Bujold, as I have, the story is very good.
It's just as well, because most of the other stories are crap. This is an attempt at a cross-genre anthology linking sf and romance, and I think I'll stay off the romance for now. "Skin Deep", by Deb Stover, was so show more dire, and the plot resolution signalled so very very far in advance, that I couldn't finish it. The only other one I felt was worthwhile was "The Trouble with Heroes" by Jo Beverly; perhaps not coincidentally, the story with the least "romance" in it. I'll look out for Beverly's work in future. show less
I bought this because it contains the latest installment of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga, the short story "Winterfair Gifts", about Miles Vorkosigan's wedding, so set a few months before the most recent novel of the series, Diplomatic Immunity. The book is worth it for this story alone; I've seen several reviews along the lines of "I haven't read anything else by Bujold but this was very good". Even if you have read everything else by Bujold, as I have, the story is very good.
It's just as well, because most of the other stories are crap. This is an attempt at a cross-genre anthology linking sf and romance, and I think I'll stay off the romance for now. "Skin Deep", by Deb Stover, was so show more dire, and the plot resolution signalled so very very far in advance, that I couldn't finish it. The only other one I felt was worthwhile was "The Trouble with Heroes" by Jo Beverly; perhaps not coincidentally, the story with the least "romance" in it. I'll look out for Beverly's work in future. show less
I read this book for the Lois McMaster Bujold story, which was excellent. It brought back characters I loved from previous books, involved them in a mystery, gave Armsman Roic a love story of his own, and showed happily ever after for Miles and Ekaterin. Lois gift for characters and how they drive the story really shines through.
Winterfair Gifts: A description of Miles and Ekaterin's marriage from the perspective of armsman Roic - that nice young man who still hasn't got over the unfortunate naked-covered_in_bug_butter incident in A Civil Campaign.
Charming and funny with a dash of intrigue and attempted murder.
Charming and funny with a dash of intrigue and attempted murder.
This book contains:
"Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold. The reason I read this book. I always love returning to Bujold's Vorkosigan series, but this, like the last several novels, felt a bit slack to me. Miles's marriage is the background to Armsman Roic's love affair with Taura. Despite poison and intrigue, the plot never had the sense of urgency that used to make me tear through these books. Instead, it kinda felt like Bujold was wrapping up her time with the series by pairing the last spare characters off.
"The Alchemical Marriage" by Mary Jo Putney. Two mages have to work together to prevent the Spanish Armada from invading England. In so doing they join their hearts, their magic, and their ~bodies~. Purple prose, silly show more plot.
"Stained Glass Heart" by Catherine Asaro. Yet more purple prose and silly plot, but at least it's a twist on that old tune, the arranged marriage: to ensure his family's success, would-be dancer Vyrl is engaged to the Matriarch of Majda, but loves a simple farm girl he grew up with. The Matriarch is an experienced woman, older and wiser than Vyrl; although it's an arranged match, she hopes they'll grow to like each other in time. Which woman will Vyrl choose? Not that I gave a crap, but he chooses the girl described as having "waist-length curls flying in the wind, streaming around her, shiny and red-bronze, touched with gold sun-streaks." (She also has violet eyes, naturally.) He and his luvah experience no hardships for dissing a powerful leader of a planet, and instead get an epilogue about all their babies. Blegh.
"Skin Deep" by Deb Stover. A ghost is given one last chance to get into heaven: get his ex-wife to fall in love with her old boyfriend.Apparently the ghost had framed the boyfriend as a cheater, thus getting the girl. In the guise of a hot lady, the ghost pushes his ex-wife into the path of the boyfriend she should have stayed with. There's a subplot about the boyfriend being a DEA agent, but it feels pretty unnecessary. I don't really know what I was supposed to think about this story: was I supposed to care about the selfish ghost character? The bland ex-wife or blander boyfriend? Another slog.
"The Trouble with Heroes" by Jo Beverly. On an alien planet, people with extra powers are named "Fixers" and tasked with everything from healing to preventing alien incursions. Then a lady falls in love with a Fixer and finds out that a lot of people have a tiny amount of Fixing power, and that they can all work together to make the world a better place. I guess? I started skimming this about 10 pages in; it felt very scattered.
"Shadows in the Wood" by Jennifer Roberson. Merlin emerges from a tree and asks Marion and Robin Hood to help him return Excalibur to its rightful place. Fans of the Mists of Avalon and that kind of pagan fantasy would undoubtedly appreciate this a good deal more than I did. I thought it clunky and artless.
A surprisingly uninspired, uninspiring collection, overall. show less
"Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold. The reason I read this book. I always love returning to Bujold's Vorkosigan series, but this, like the last several novels, felt a bit slack to me. Miles's marriage is the background to Armsman Roic's love affair with Taura. Despite poison and intrigue, the plot never had the sense of urgency that used to make me tear through these books. Instead, it kinda felt like Bujold was wrapping up her time with the series by pairing the last spare characters off.
"The Alchemical Marriage" by Mary Jo Putney. Two mages have to work together to prevent the Spanish Armada from invading England. In so doing they join their hearts, their magic, and their ~bodies~. Purple prose, silly show more plot.
"Stained Glass Heart" by Catherine Asaro. Yet more purple prose and silly plot, but at least it's a twist on that old tune, the arranged marriage: to ensure his family's success, would-be dancer Vyrl is engaged to the Matriarch of Majda, but loves a simple farm girl he grew up with. The Matriarch is an experienced woman, older and wiser than Vyrl; although it's an arranged match, she hopes they'll grow to like each other in time. Which woman will Vyrl choose? Not that I gave a crap, but he chooses
"Skin Deep" by Deb Stover. A ghost is given one last chance to get into heaven: get his ex-wife to fall in love with her old boyfriend.
"The Trouble with Heroes" by Jo Beverly. On an alien planet, people with extra powers are named "Fixers" and tasked with everything from healing to preventing alien incursions. Then a lady falls in love with a Fixer and finds out that a lot of people have a tiny amount of Fixing power, and that they can all work together to make the world a better place. I guess? I started skimming this about 10 pages in; it felt very scattered.
"Shadows in the Wood" by Jennifer Roberson. Merlin emerges from a tree and asks Marion and Robin Hood to help him return Excalibur to its rightful place. Fans of the Mists of Avalon and that kind of pagan fantasy would undoubtedly appreciate this a good deal more than I did. I thought it clunky and artless.
A surprisingly uninspired, uninspiring collection, overall. show less
The Bujold story is my favorite in this anthology, but I did enjoy this book enough to give it as a gift to a friend who likes the romance genre. She loved it.
The first story in this series overshadowed all the rest for me but then again I'm a Lois McMaster Bujold fan and any extra story in Miles' world is a good thing. This is a story of Taura who attends Miles' wedding and Roic who learns that appearance isn't everything.
The Alchemical Marriage by Mary Jo Putney is an interesting story of two magicians who have to work together to save England from the Spanish Armada. Pretty predictable but not a bad story and I really did care for the characters.
Catherine Asaro's Stained Glass Heart is set in her Skolian Empire world and is a story of one of the sons of Kurj and Roca and his choice between the Empire and love.
Skin Deep by Deb Stover is a fun story of the afterlife and an angel who gets show more something he didn't expect when he goes to help his ex-girlfriend find love.
The Trouble with Heroes by Jo Beverly is a story that just didn't resonate with me. It's a story of human contact with a people they really don't understand and how that mis-understanding causes serious trouble.
Shadows in the Wood by Jennifer Roberson is a very interesting Robin Hood story. Concentrating more on Marian than Robin and including Merlin it sounds at first like it could be overdone but it's well handled.
Overall it's not a bad set of stories but really didn't gel as a set of stories like many other sets of stories like this. A book to dip into between other books. show less
The Alchemical Marriage by Mary Jo Putney is an interesting story of two magicians who have to work together to save England from the Spanish Armada. Pretty predictable but not a bad story and I really did care for the characters.
Catherine Asaro's Stained Glass Heart is set in her Skolian Empire world and is a story of one of the sons of Kurj and Roca and his choice between the Empire and love.
Skin Deep by Deb Stover is a fun story of the afterlife and an angel who gets show more something he didn't expect when he goes to help his ex-girlfriend find love.
The Trouble with Heroes by Jo Beverly is a story that just didn't resonate with me. It's a story of human contact with a people they really don't understand and how that mis-understanding causes serious trouble.
Shadows in the Wood by Jennifer Roberson is a very interesting Robin Hood story. Concentrating more on Marian than Robin and including Merlin it sounds at first like it could be overdone but it's well handled.
Overall it's not a bad set of stories but really didn't gel as a set of stories like many other sets of stories like this. A book to dip into between other books. show less
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Author Information
Oakland, California native Catherine Asaro received a doctorate in physics from Harvard University. She has published a number of papers on theoretical physics and was a physics professor until 1990, when she established Molecudyne Research, which she currently runs. A former ballerina, she has performed with ballets and in musicals on both show more coasts, and founded the Mainly Jazz Dance program at Harvard. She now teaches at the Caryl Maxwell Classical Ballet. Her husband is John Kendall Cannizzo, an astrophysicist at NASA show less
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Awards and Honors
Series
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Irresistible Forces [Anthology 6-in-1]
- Original title
- Irresistible Forces
- Alternate titles
- Winterfair Gifts (by Lois Master Bujold) (by Lois Master Bujold); Alchemical Marriage (by Mary Jo Putney) (by Mary Jo Putney); Stained Glass Heart (by Catherine Asaro) (by Catherine Asaro); Skin Deep (by Deb Stover) (by Deb Stover); The Trouble With Heroes (by Jo Beverly) (by Jo Beverly); Shadows in the Wood (by Jennifer Roberson) (by Jennifer Roberson)
- Original publication date
- 2004
- People/Characters
- Miles Vorkosigan ("Winterfair Gifts" / Bujold); Ekaterin Vorsoisson ("Winterfair Gifts" / Bujold); Armsman Roic ("Winterfair Gifts" / Bujold); Taura ("Winterfair Gifts" / Bujold); Sgt. Pym ("Winterfair Gifts" / Bujold); Alys Vorpatril ("Winterfair Gifts" / Bujold)
- Important places
- Vorbarr Sultana, Barrayar ("Winterfair Gifts" / Bujold)
- Dedication
- To the dancers and teachers of The Ballet Theatre of Maryland for their expertise, kindness, insights and most of all for helping a starry-eyed young girl reach for her dreams.
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Stories in anthology:
Winterfair Gifts by Lois Master Bujold
Alchemical Marriage by Mary Jo Putney
Stained Glass Heart by Catherine Asaro
Skin Deep by Deb Stover
The Trouble w... (show all)ith Heroes by Jo Beverly
Shadows in the Wood by Jennifer Roberson
Please do not combine the single-title books
Winterfair Gifts OR The Trouble with Heroes with this anthology.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Romance, Science Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.08508 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English By type Genre fiction Romance fiction Collections
- LCC
- PS648 .L6 .I77 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Collections of American literature Prose (General)
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 620
- Popularity
- 46,737
- Reviews
- 14
- Rating
- (3.22)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 3
