Rating: 
Summary: Great set of short stories!
Review: Although the cover and title are deceptive (hey, she's an author, trying to SELL books, and freely admits it), this is a set of short stories, and only one of them falls into the Bardic Voices series. But the stories are great! As I noticed somebody else mention in another review, "Enemy of My Enemy" was also my favorite. It is a story set in the world of Robert Adams' "Horseclans" series, and originally appeared in a "Friends of the Horseclans" anthology. I also have to say that the drawl in "Aliens Ate My Pickup" was not distressing to me. When you're telling a story from the 1st person point of view of an Oklahoma farmer, it just isn't going to be RIGHT without the drawl. Even Mark Twain used that tactic to put people IN the story.
Rating: 
Summary: An Eccletic Collection
Review: Both the title and the cover of the book are misleading. It is a collection of 12 short stories, only one of which is about the free bards. The others range from the humorous ("Aliens Ate My Pickup") to the somewhat dark ("Dumb Feast). Two of the stories are about the mage Martis ("Balance" and "Dragon's Teeth"). Not everyone will like all the stories, but most readers will like some of them. I personally liked "Once and Future" which points out that some people will not touch fame with a stick. Overall, it is a good collection.
Rating:
Summary: A good collection of short stories
Review: Both the title and the cover of the book are misleading. It is a collection of 12 short stories, only one of which is about the free bards. The others range from the humorous ("Aliens Ate My Pickup") to the somewhat dark ("Dumb Feast). Two of the stories are about the mage Martis ("Balance" and "Dragon's Teeth"). Not everyone will like all the stories, but most readers will like some of them. I personally liked "Once and Future" which points out that some people will not touch fame with a stick. Overall, it is a good collection.
Rating: 
Summary: A waste of money
Review: Even though not every story is absolutely up to Misty's usual standards, her commentary on them is fascinating. The stories are wonderful, and anyone who's read the Bardic Voices novels should definitely read this, if only for the original version of Rune's story. Worth the money! :)
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful Misty collection!
Review: Even though not every story is absolutely up to Misty's usual standards, her commentary on them is fascinating. The stories are wonderful, and anyone who's read the Bardic Voices novels should definitely read this, if only for the original version of Rune's story. Worth the money! :)
Rating:
Summary: An Eccletic Collection
Review: I think that this series of short stories is great. It contains everything from some beautiful straight sci-fi stories to hitorical ghost stories to alternate histories. It was a great collection with a wide range. This is the frist book I read by Mercedes Lackey, but I liked it so much that it won't be the last.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of money
Review: It was obvious that Mercedes Lackey just threw together a pile of previous works. I am a big fan, but was sorely disappointed with this. Usually her work is full of adventure and relationships with so much more to make it an enjoyable release from reality. Sorry- this was not worth it.
Rating:
Summary: 12 stories (SF, F, and alternate history) + 1 essay
Review: The stories herein don't overlap OATHBLOOD or WEREHUNTER. Only the title story concerns the Free Bards (see below). For each story I've noted the anthology in which it originally appeared.
"Aliens Ate My Pickup" (didn't appear in Esther Friesner's ALIEN PREGNANT BY ELVIS, so is the only story "original" to this collection). Written in 1st-person dialect by an Oklahoma native, we only see his responses to his questioner, not the questions themselves, and he continually strays off topic, talking about stocking his bass pond, and how his hayfield's been messed up by the crop circle. :)
"Balance" and "Dragon's Teeth" (SPELL SINGERS; these two stories have no connection with Lackey's Free Bards to date). They're designed to be read back-to-back, concerning the developing relationship between middle-aged Masterclass sorceress Martis and her newly assigned bodyguard Lyran, and opening with a reversal of the usual pattern: *she* makes an insulting snap judgement of *his* professional ability, since he looks and dresses more like a dancer than a swordsman. (Martis, however, isn't at her best, having been assigned to deal with a much-loved student gone bad, and generally being hard to please anyway.) The first story explores Lyran's Way of Balance as Martis gets to know him. In their second outing, the two have evolved a partnership rather than a mage/bodyguard relationship.
"The Cup and the Caldron" [sic] (GRAILS OF LIGHT). In Arthur's reign, a young nun and a healer of the Old Religion are called to the same quest, although one sees the Grail and the other Cerridwen's Cauldron.
"Dance Track" (Mike Resnick's ALTERNATE HEROES) combines Dixon's passion for cars and Lackey's for dance. One point of departure is that James Dean, surviving a car wreck and given the choice of tearing up his contract or quitting his hobby of racing, stuffed the pieces into a studio exec's pipe and signed on with Bugatti's Grand Prix team as a driver. Another (making for a nice story, but going beyond the pale historically) is that the dancer Isadora Duncan has been made a generation younger. (Her involvement with the Bugatti team - as their previous driver, WWII having left them short a few years ago - is OK by me, though, given her history as I know it.)
"Dumb Feast" (Mike Resnick's CHRISTMAS GHOSTS). Wealthy Victorian lawyer Aaron Brubaker initially seems very sympathetic; he misses his late wife so much that he's casting the spell of a "dumb feast" to summon Elizabeth's spirit on Christmas Eve. But Elizabeth, in death, no longer has to fit the mold he forced her into during their marriage...
"The Enemy of My Enemy" (Robert Adams' anthology FRIENDS OF THE HORSECLANS). Set in the post-holocaust Horseclans world, wherein the survivors were far from major cities, e.g. the people of the western reservations in the U.S. Lackey chose to focus on another group: the Rom (gypsies). The viewpoint alternates between the town smith and the horse-trading Lowara, who at present are being mannerly visitors, but didn't see fit to enlighten the Gaje about *all* Rom customs. Their devotion to their horses' wellbeing reminds me of Mayhar's HOW THE GODS WOVE IN KYRANNON.
"Fiddler Fair" was written for MAGIC IN ITHKAR 3, and when that shared world anthology series died (a shame, I thought), Lackey reycled the story to drop the incident into a world of her own making, revising the Ithkar-specific references to geography, religion, and so on. ("Fiddler Fair" corresponds to chapter 13 of THE LARK AND THE WREN, which shifted the scene to the Midsummer Faire at Kingsford, even the Ithkar tagline that all the world comes there.)
"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" An original essay addressing some FAQs about Lackey's career.
"Jihad" (Mike Resnick's ALTERNATE WARRIORS) picks up with Lawrence of Arabia just as his captors at Deraa heave him out to die after torturing him. (WARNING: Lackey doesn't gloss over it the way the excellent 1960s film adaptation had to.) Lawrence in our timeline never completely got over Deraa; in "Jihad", he copes differently, turning history into another track. [I admit I had a qualm at one point, wondering if Lackey were about to give him a Companion.]
"Last Rights" (Greenberg's DINOSAUR FANTASTIC). See Lackey's introduction to WEREHUNTER for details of her adventures in rehabilitating raptors - from teaching fledglings to hunt to avoiding injury. Consequently, in this story of a Jurassic-Park-type reconstructed dinosaurs lab, you just *know* the 3 yoyos breaking in to "liberate" the dinosaurs are going to pay for not doing their research, in their unshakeable belief that there's no such thing as a dangerous animal. After all, brontosaurs are vegetarians, right? :>
"Once and Future" (Greenberg's EXCALIBUR) Michael O'Murphy, waking with an awful hangover, vaguely remembers getting drunk in the woods with his friends, but he thought seeing an arm come out of the lake was just a dream - until he realizes that really *is* a talking sword in his bed this morning.
"Small Print" (Mike Resnick's DEALS WITH THE DEVIL). Lester Parker, a small-time "preacher", rescues a televangelist who takes sick while patronizing the same brothel. Brother Lee, in exchange, offers Lester a referral to "Mr. Lightman". Lester, of course, thinks he can take care of himself even in *that* kind of contract, and seems to have a foolproof plan.
IRRELEVANT NOTE: I think Clyde Caldwell missed the point in his cover painting; his Rune *couldn't* pass for a boy, and Sweet did a better job with the Skull Hill Ghost for the cover of THE FREE BARDS, although the figures are posed similarly in both paintings.
Rating:
Summary: 12 stories (SF, F, and alternate history) + 1 essay
Review: The stories herein don't overlap _Oathblood_ or _Werehunter_. Only the title story concerns the Free Bards (see below). For each story I've noted the anthology in which it originally appeared."Aliens Ate My Pickup" (didn't appear in Esther Friesner's _Alien Pregnant by Elvis_ anthology, so is the only story "original" to this collection). Written in 1st-person dialect by an Oklahoma native, we only see his responses to his questioner, not the questions themselves, and he continually strays off topic, talking about stocking his bass pond, and how his hayfield's been messed up by the crop circle. :) "Balance" and "Dragon's Teeth" (_Spell Singers_, but these two stories have no connection with Lackey's Free Bards to date). They're designed to be read back-to-back, concerning the developing relationship between middle-aged Masterclass sorceress Martis and her newly assigned bodyguard Lyran, and opening with a reversal of the usual pattern: *she* makes an insulting snap judgement of *his* professional ability, since he looks and dresses more like a dancer than a swordsman. (Martis, however, isn't at her best, having been assigned to deal with a much-loved student gone bad, and generally being hard to please anyway.) The first story explores Lyran's Way of Balance as Martis gets to know him. In their second outing, the two have evolved a partnership rather than a mage/bodyguard relationship. "The Cup and the Caldron" [sic] (_Grails of Light_). In Arthur's reign, a young nun and a healer of the Old Religion are called to the same quest, although one sees the Grail and the other Cerridwen's Cauldron. "Dance Track" (Mike Resnick's _Alternate Heroes_) combines Dixon's passion for cars and Lackey's for dance. One point of departure is that James Dean, surviving a car wreck and given the choice of tearing up his contract or quitting his hobby of racing, stuffed the pieces into a studio exec's pipe and signed on with Bugatti's Grand Prix team as a driver. Another (making for a nice story, but going beyond the pale historically) is that the dancer Isadora Duncan has been made a generation younger. (Her involvement with the Bugatti team - as their previous driver, WWII having left them short a few years ago - is OK by me, though, given her history as I know it.) "Dumb Feast" (Mike Resnick's _Christmas Ghosts_). Wealthy Victorian lawyer Aaron Brubaker initially seems very sympathetic; he misses his late wife so much that he's casting the spell of a "dumb feast" to summon Elizabeth's spirit on Christmas Eve. But Elizabeth, in death, no longer has to fit the mold he forced her into during their marriage... "The Enemy of My Enemy" (Robert Adams' anthology _Friends of the Horseclans_). Set in the post-holocaust Horseclans world, wherein the survivors were far from major cities, e.g. the people of the western reservations in the U.S. Lackey chose to focus on another group: the Rom (gypsies). The viewpoint alternates between the town smith and the horse-trading Lowara, who at present are being mannerly visitors, but didn't see fit to enlighten the Gaje about *all* Rom customs. Their devotion to their horses' wellbeing reminds me of Mayhar's _How the Gods Wove in Kyrannon_. "Fiddler Fair" was written for _Magic in Ithkar 3_, and when that shared world anthology series died (a shame, I thought), Lackey reycled the story to drop the incident into a world of her own making, revising the Ithkar-specific references to geography, religion, and so on. ("Fiddler Fair" corresponds to chapter 13 of _The Lark and the Wren_, which shifted the scene to the Midsummer Faire at Kingsford, even the Ithkar tagline that all the world comes there.) "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" An original essay addressing some FAQs about her career. "Jihad" (Mike Resnick's _Alternate Warriors_) picks up with Lawrence of Arabia just as his captors at Deraa heave him out to die after torturing him. (WARNING: Lackey doesn't gloss over it the way the excellent 1960s film adaptation had to.) Lawrence in our timeline never completely got over Deraa; in "Jihad", he copes differently, turning history into another track. [I admit I had a qualm at one point, wondering if Lackey were about to give him a Companion.] "Last Rights" (Greenberg's _Dinosaur Fantastic_). See Lackey's introduction to _Werehunter_ for details of her adventures in rehabilitating raptors - from teaching fledglings to hunt to avoiding injury. Consequently, in this story of a Jurassic-Park-type reconstructed dinosaurs lab, you just *know* the 3 yoyos breaking in to "liberate" the dinosaurs are going to pay for not doing their research, in their unshakeable belief that there's no such thing as a dangerous animal. After all, brontosaurs are vegetarians, right? :> "Once and Future" (Greenberg's _Excalibur_) Michael O'Murphy, waking with an awful hangover, vaguely remembers getting drunk in the woods with his friends, but he thought seeing an arm come out of the lake was just a dream - until he realizes that really *is* a talking sword in his bed this morning. "Small Print" (Mike Resnick's _Deals with the Devil_). Lester Parker, a small-time "preacher", rescues a televangelist who takes sick while patronizing the same brothel. Brother Lee, in exchange, offers Lester a referral to "Mr. Lightman". Lester, of course, thinks he can take care of himself even in *that* kind of contract, and seems to have a foolproof plan. IRRELEVANT NOTE: I think Clyde Caldwell missed the point in his cover painting; his Rune *couldn't* pass for a boy, and Sweet did a better job with the Skull Hill Ghost for the cover of _The Free Bards_, although the figures are posed similarly in both paintings.
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer beware . . .
Review: The title and cover art is deceptive- it is not another work in Bardic Voices, but a collection of all kinds of Mercedes Lackey's short stories (previously published). If you like all of her series, then you will probably enjoy this book. You may want to check it out of the library before deciding to add it to your personal collection.
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