Shadows of Sanctuary

In this third Thieves’ World anthology, the stories really complement each other and those from the earlier anthologies to bring to life a wonderful fantasy setting, the decadent, decaying town of Sanctuary.
Because the stories are written by different authors, there is unevenness in style, but this is more than compensated by the detail created by multiple narrators who are the leading characters in their stories, but also appear as minor characters or references in other stories.
Although lacking the humour of Lankhmar or Discworld, they are otherwise my favourite “swords and sorcery” books. And this anthology includes more of Andrew J Offutt’s Shadowspawn and Janet Morris’ A Man and his God, which is a satisfying closing show more story, bursting with further tales to be told, in Storm Season.

Another reread from nearly 40 years ago. show less

I read the first 5 of the Sactuary shared world anthologies of which I believe this is the third. I kept this one and gave it 5 stars because one story had a profound effect on me when I first read it in my mid-20s. "Looking for Satan" touched on a number of aspects of my life at that time and I read this as I was making plans for what to do when I grew up. The story helped me focus on a number of elements in my life that I needed to fix and made me realize what living in New York City was doing to me. (Of course the city has changed considerably since the mid 1980s when I lived there - no insult to New Yorkers intended).

Aside from the profound effect that one story had on me, the book and the series are great, enjoyable and well worth show more reading. show less

A group of authors develop a world that's dark and nasty and set their imaginations free and oh man do they do nasty things to their characters. As an exploration of a dark world it's interesting but in some ways I really didn't engage with any of the characters.

Now that I'm older I'm seeing more of the character flaws, it's interesting to see what people do in a shared world, I re-read this from a Borrowbox copy.

The Thieves World ongoing shared world series continues with #3. Some new authors this time, Vonda McIntyre, Paxson and Cherryh join the regulars. This is still high quality fantasy with a coherent story line, though by this point it is starting to wander off at times.

Brilliant fantasy writing.. Funny, believable characters, action just left of centre keeps you guessing. Recommended read in my humble opinion.

Book 3 -SHADOWS OF SANCTUARY
The third and final of this volume seems to bring in the rest of the characters and authors that will be involved over the next several books. At this point, you may have noticed inconsistencies that the authors bring to the same characters. That’s okay, go with it.

Contributions:
LOOKING FOR SATAN Vonda N. McIntyre The four travelers left the mountains at the end of the day, tired, cold, and hungry, and they entered Sanctuary.

ISCHADE C. J. Cherryh Shadows slipped along the cobbles in this deepest sink of the Maze, in that small light of the moon which wended its way among the overhangs and glistened wetly off noisome moistures. A well-dressed woman had no place here, even shadow-clad in black, robed and show more hooded

A GIFT IN PARTING Robert L. Asprin The sun was a full two handspans above the horizon when Hort appeared on the Sanctuary docks; early in the day but late by fishermen’s standards. The youth’s eyes squinted painfully at the unaccustomed brightness of the morning sun.

THE VIVISECTIONIST Andrew J. Offutt A minaret topped the Governor’s Palace, naturally. The narrow, eventually pointed dome resembled an elongated onion. Its needle-like spire thrust up to pierce the sky.

THE RHINOCEROS AND THE UNICORN Diana L. Paxson “So why did you come back?” Gilla’s shrill retort interrupted Lalo’s attempts to explain why he had not been home the night before. “Has every tavern in Sanctuary shown you the door?”

THEN AZYUNA DANCED Lynn Abbey He was a handsome man, somewhat less than middle-aged, with a physique that bespoke a soldier, not a priest. He entered the bazaar-stall of Kul the Silkseller with an authority that sent the other patrons back into the dusty afternoon and brought bright-eyed Kul out from behind his bolts of cloth.

A MAN AND HIS GOD Janet Morris Solstice storms and heat lightning beat upon Sanctuary, washing the dust from the gutters and from the faces of the mercenaries drifting through town on their way north where (seers proclaimed and rumor corroborated) the Rankan Empire would soon be hiring multitudes, readying for war. show less

The 3rd in the series. I was right, I enjoyed the 3rd more than the 2nd, because I was familiar with the characters. Must look for the first one.