Rating: 
Summary: Why the hype? He's not that good
Review: This collection is perhaps a cut above some of what can be found in fantasy, I'm not qualified to say, but there's something a little annoying about his stories that it's tricky to put my finger on. They're easy to read, full of magic and colour and imagination, he has a good vocabulary which he uses well. But his plots seem to constantly take the easy, predictable way out. Reave the Just is an example; a dolt in love with a woman beyond his capacity to snare gets a charlatan to make him a phoney love potion. The charlatan says: "say you are related to Reave the Just." You can see the coming 'point' of the story and how it will turn out from a mile off; he's going to get respectful treatment from everyone (who unquestioningly swallow the lie, even though they've known him for years and have never heard him say this before) and viola, the 'magic' will work thanks to the confidence the dolt receives from his reverential treatment. It's a little silly and pointless. I figure fantasy writers can say more about the world than this, or more even about their make-believe worlds. I suppose it's only ever meant to be light escapism, but it's too light for my liking. Light, fluffy and rots your teeth, like cotton candy.
There were a couple of worthy reads in this lot; The Dijinn who watches over the accursed was interesting, although it too finished a little weakly, kind of trailing off like a song that doesn't quite know where to finish. (I could be wrong but it smacks of a writer who's gone a long time without questioning his standards, which you might call the Anne Rice syndrome.) 'The Kings of Tarish shall bring gifts' was probably my favourite, in which a spoilt young prince becomes a tyrant, believing himself special because he can remember all his dreams with clarity. Again, though, the ending was mediocre; the prince gets poisoned by the advisor who narrates the tale. Not a particularly spectacular way to finish. The Killing Stroke was a little bit of a chore to get through, with sub-par philosophical musings by the martial arts masters straining things a little too much. Donaldson tries to tack on a disclaimer to these, with his narrator saying: "this sounded like hogwash, but he said ..." Sometimes that can get you out of jail- letting the reader know you're onto your own shortcomings and hoping they don't mind- but I don't think it worked in this case. By any other name annoyed me to the point of setting the book down; the narrator refused to grasp what was an obvious fact, that the stranger assuming his name was going on a mission of revenge for his benefit. If he'd just shut up and followed the guy, watched what transpired, my curiosity may have been sustainable. The constant dithering added many unnecessary pages to this book, and it happened in several stories. Surely he wasn't deliberately padding it out to make it longer?
The 3 comparisons to Tolkien on the back cover are pure hype with no justification at all. Tolkien's story packed an emotional wallop, he never overdid his magic and wrote a plot that had you wondering how the hell the hobbits were going to get out of it alive. This collection is the sort of book you might read when there's nothing else around; as in, good enough to pick up and sit through when you're bored with the internet or TV. But if an old favourite catches your eye from the book shelf, or your latest order from Amazon arrives in the mail, you'll set Reave the Just down and forget all about it pretty quickly.
Rating: 
Summary: A little treasure...
Review: ...this is a little treasure, because it holds some great stories told in short stories and they hits right into the heart. There is one about a wizard who have been turned into a pig and a pig that has been turned into a man, and one about a necromancer that buys souls and my alltime favorite, the one about a land where martial artists fight on the same side as the Black Wizard to save evil from being destroyed by goodness...It really makes you think... Enjoy it greatly!
Rating: 
Summary: He's baaacccckkkk.....
Review: All I can say is that you should not pass up anything by Stephen R. Donaldson!!!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding! Read this book!
Review: Donaldson again demonstrates that he is the best fantasy writer today. He makes the others in the genre--Goodkind, Brooks, Jordan--look like hack writers. Although I prefer the longer books and series, the short story format is satisfying in a way in which multiple volume works are not--each story has a beginning, middle and end. The most frustrating thing about other authors is their tendency to wallow in unnecessary prose and character development. Here, Donaldson's writing is taut and sharp--a pleasure for fans of the genre to read. I highly recommend it. To Donaldson, I would say: Go back to fantasy novels! Your fans miss you!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Work.
Review: Donaldson creates some wonderful imagery and characters in this delightful collection of short stories. For someone with a demonstrated talent for telling epic sagas, his ability to craft compelling short stories is remarkable. Despite the anticipation of waiting for over a decade since his last collection 'Daughter of Regals,' I was not disappointed with this work. If you like short stories, these are tops and well worth the time reading them. I would comment that comparisons made to the Covenant series invariably find 'Reave the Just and Other Tales' lacking. Such judgments are inappropriate given the different scope of these works.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, but SRD shines brightest with long fiction
Review: Donaldson truly is a master of the written word. It was true in both Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Gap Series, the Mordant Series and Daughter of Regals. And Reave The Just is no different. Whereas Donaldson is a competent short story writer, however, his gift is with longer fiction. Posterity will compare Covenant against Lord of the Rings, and that comparison will explore issues well beyond the similarity of rings. His short stories, while good, will remain footnotes. This doesn't diminish the value of his short stories--they are enjoyable to read and surely help him refine his craft. But if his gift truly is in long fiction, there is an opportunity cost associated with writing them instead of longer fiction--at least this reader (always impatient for new works from Donaldson) thinks so. At a book signing for Mirror of her Dreams some years back, Donaldson mentioned that he has the story for a "Third Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" in his head. He just wasn't sure if he would ever write it. This is one avid fan who hopes he does.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, But Not Worth The Money
Review: Even in the inexpensive paperback edition, I would seek this one out from the library, read part, and return it forever. The title story was fun, had some meaning, and held my interest. The rest went down hill all the way. I was thrilled to have found new work from this author, and disappointed in the overall quality and more importantly the very violent tone of the stories. I don't understand who he was trying to reach through these extremely dark and nasty tales, but I found very little depth to justify the awful depths to which he went. I think I am getting turned off to modern fantasy as I read more of these things, as the fantasy is disappearing in favor of evil and despair. Snap out of it,writers, and write something with style now!
Rating:
Summary: To My Mind Donaldson's Best Work Since Covenant
Review: For those of you unfamiliar with Stephen Donaldson (and you should be), he is perhaps best known for "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant," written in the late 70' and early 80's, and widely regarded as a classic of fantasy fiction. Since then he has written "Mordant's Need," and "Daughter of Regals," both fantasy, the latter also a collection of short stories, though neither work possesses the strength or import of the earlier "Chronicles." His more recent work, the dark scifi quintet "Gap" series, remains problematic, and I found myself abandoning the series midway through due to a plot that seemed uncertain as to its heading and a bevy of essentially unsympathetic characters who were unable to capture either my interest or much sense of identification. I was therefore very pleased to read this collection of tales, as once again they amply display the author's talent at using fantasy as a means to explore larger and more existential issues, without the spiraling downward into depravity and cynicism that seemed to dominate the "Gap" series. This collection of stories is as much a literary effort as an expression of fantasy, the latter used as a backdrop to explore themes of morality and redemption common to all Donaldson's work, as well as what it means to be human. Many of these explorations take place at a metaphoric and symbolic level, demanding close attention and probably benefiting from more than one reading. Unlike the simple storytelling that dominates most fantasy, Donaldson's plots and characters more often than not serve as a vehicle to question and explore larger, at times less obvious issues regarding identity and personal responsibility, the crisis, when it comes, most often a confrontation that tests the character's acceptance or assumptions of his or her personal reality, rather than overcoming some dire or portentous obstacle so usual to most fantasy. These tales are quests of the self, the rewards most often ones of insight rather than treasure or ennobling conquests. For this reason it is doubtful that those seeking ordinary entertainment, the more common fare of swords and sorcery, will find this to their delight. Here Donaldson once again shows himself in mastery of both language and his prose. Except for the odd inclusion of the solitary science fiction entry, "What Makes Us Human," odd not only because of its differing format but also because of the relative weakness and direct simplicity of the tale, all eight stories or novellas included here use fantasy as the setting for meditations upon existence not normally expected in the genre. At times moral and perverse parables, the author displays his ability to stretch his style, "The Kings of Tarshish Shall Bring Gifts," unlike his usual, more formal approach, lyrical in a way entirely appropriate to the expression of his tale, a twist upon dreams and the nighttime stories of Scheherazade. "Reave the Just" seems the most typical and traditional, its setting and characters familiar to all who read fantasy, and yet the actions and instructions of its hero are well outside the realm of normal fantasy, driven by a message more contemporary than medieval. In "The Killing Stroke" borrows elements from oriental martial arts in a way at once familiar yet original to explore the nature of truth and self, and elsewhere the author blends and reworks vampirism in "Penance" to explore redemption. Without doubt my favorite tale in this collection is "The Woman Who Loved Pigs," capturing both the tone and admonishment of the traditional fairy tale, yet taking it places the Brothers Grimm have never gone. Even though many of Donaldson's characters are fatally flawed, even at the end they retain a very human if tarnished dignity. The author is to be applauded in these tales for taking fantasy where it rarely goes, and exploring themes well beyond the ordinary hero or quest attained. Along with Patricia McKillip, and maybe certain earlier authors such as Mervin Peake, I can think of no other author currently writing that so stimulates one's thoughts. Highly recommended and, without the unfortunate inclusion of "What Makes Us Human," easily one of the best collections of short stories fantasy has ever had published.
Rating:
Summary: To My Mind Donaldson's Best Work Since Covenant
Review: For those of you unfamiliar with Stephen Donaldson (and you should be), he is perhaps best known for "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant," written in the late 70' and early 80's, and widely regarded as a classic of fantasy fiction. Since then he has written "Mordant's Need," and "Daughter of Regals," both fantasy, the latter also a collection of short stories, though neither work possesses the strength or import of the earlier "Chronicles." His more recent work, the dark scifi quintet "Gap" series, remains problematic, and I found myself abandoning the series midway through due to a plot that seemed uncertain as to its heading and a bevy of essentially unsympathetic characters who were unable to capture either my interest or much sense of identification. I was therefore very pleased to read this collection of tales, as once again they amply display the author's talent at using fantasy as a means to explore larger and more existential issues, without the spiraling downward into depravity and cynicism that seemed to dominate the "Gap" series. This collection of stories is as much a literary effort as an expression of fantasy, the latter used as a backdrop to explore themes of morality and redemption common to all Donaldson's work, as well as what it means to be human. Many of these explorations take place at a metaphoric and symbolic level, demanding close attention and probably benefiting from more than one reading. Unlike the simple storytelling that dominates most fantasy, Donaldson's plots and characters more often than not serve as a vehicle to question and explore larger, at times less obvious issues regarding identity and personal responsibility, the crisis, when it comes, most often a confrontation that tests the character's acceptance or assumptions of his or her personal reality, rather than overcoming some dire or portentous obstacle so usual to most fantasy. These tales are quests of the self, the rewards most often ones of insight rather than treasure or ennobling conquests. For this reason it is doubtful that those seeking ordinary entertainment, the more common fare of swords and sorcery, will find this to their delight. Here Donaldson once again shows himself in mastery of both language and his prose. Except for the odd inclusion of the solitary science fiction entry, "What Makes Us Human," odd not only because of its differing format but also because of the relative weakness and direct simplicity of the tale, all eight stories or novellas included here use fantasy as the setting for meditations upon existence not normally expected in the genre. At times moral and perverse parables, the author displays his ability to stretch his style, "The Kings of Tarshish Shall Bring Gifts," unlike his usual, more formal approach, lyrical in a way entirely appropriate to the expression of his tale, a twist upon dreams and the nighttime stories of Scheherazade. "Reave the Just" seems the most typical and traditional, its setting and characters familiar to all who read fantasy, and yet the actions and instructions of its hero are well outside the realm of normal fantasy, driven by a message more contemporary than medieval. In "The Killing Stroke" borrows elements from oriental martial arts in a way at once familiar yet original to explore the nature of truth and self, and elsewhere the author blends and reworks vampirism in "Penance" to explore redemption. Without doubt my favorite tale in this collection is "The Woman Who Loved Pigs," capturing both the tone and admonishment of the traditional fairy tale, yet taking it places the Brothers Grimm have never gone. Even though many of Donaldson's characters are fatally flawed, even at the end they retain a very human if tarnished dignity. The author is to be applauded in these tales for taking fantasy where it rarely goes, and exploring themes well beyond the ordinary hero or quest attained. Along with Patricia McKillip, and maybe certain earlier authors such as Mervin Peake, I can think of no other author currently writing that so stimulates one's thoughts. Highly recommended and, without the unfortunate inclusion of "What Makes Us Human," easily one of the best collections of short stories fantasy has ever had published.
Rating:
Summary: Donalson at his best
Review: Having read every book that he has written to date this one was no suprise. A wonderful collection of short stories, long enough and thrilling enough to make you want to read the next one without delay. Like most of his books I find that there is no padding, no areas of text that goes into long boring drawn out detail, that you just want to skip over. With his work you want to read every word!!! Favourite story was most definately "The killing stroke" where he tells a tale of oriental style fighting, that is so removed from the typical martial arts style stories, that you forget that it really is based on martial arts. "Penance" was right up there too..... a vampire story that was so touching, so full of emotion and stirring that I had tears in my eyes several times while reading this tale. Great book well worth the reading.
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