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Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword And Sorcery (2010)

by Lou Anders(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0061723819 (ISBN13: 9780061723810)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Harper Voyager

review 1: Let me preface something. I didn't read every short story in the book.I read Scott Lynch's "In the Stacks" and only read that. I don't feel bad about it at all. I'm going to read more at a later date but at this point I just needed to get some unread Scott Lynch into my system (that and I needed a quick story after my last book took way too long).This shouldn't come as any surprise but Scott Lynch is good. Whether it's in novel form with the Gentleman Bastard, science fiction with the Queen of the Iron Sands, or in the short story found in this collection, he's good. Real good.I didn't know if the story was going to be an offshoot of the GB stories and while it wasn't, I'm not sad about it all.The short story is about an aspiring wizard who has to pass his fifth year ... moreexams before he can worry about his continuing education. The test is simple: bring back a book. Where it gets funky is when you learn that the book is a grimoire and it's going to be put back into a living library of grimoires that know when someone's messing with the libraries sensitivities.It's a fun ride and it's always good to read a little Scott Lynch. Makes me happy.
review 2: A mixed bag, as any short story collection is naturally going to be. Some contributors (Joe Abercrombie, K. J. Parker, Scott Lynch, Steven Erikson) provide the succintly written, character driven stories that make modern sword and sorcery fun. By contrast, the contributions of the old masters who've been included - Glen Cook and Michael Moorcock, for whom I've never really managed to develop a soft spot - just reminded me how far this sub genre has come from the days of purple prose and cliched, half finished characters. less

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