Lammas Night

Rating:
Summary: Stupid Concept
Review: I bought the book expecting to enjoy a new book by Mercedes Lackey. After about the third version of the story, I put it down never to open it again. It was traded in the next time I went to the used book store.

Rating:
Summary: Good Enough
Review: I have no real complaints about the BOOK... But 1). Holly Lisle DID NOT contribute. (The book says she did) 2). TWO days after I had purchased LAMMAS NIGHT the cover fell off! In conclususion: This book was a waste of money. Get it from your local library if you want to read it that much! :^(

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad book, but sloppily put together...
Review: I have no real complaints about the BOOK... But 1). Holly Lisle DID NOT contribute. (The book says she did) 2). TWO days after I had purchased LAMMAS NIGHT the cover fell off! In conclususion: This book was a waste of money. Get it from your local library if you want to read it that much! :^(

Rating:
Summary: Good Enough
Review: I liked this book, I really did... And I understand that, as they're all based on the same song/poem, the stories are all going to have some things in common. However, while the stories were all enjoyable, they did get a bit repetitive after a while. I'd recommend buying this used, or taking it out of the library.

Rating:
Summary: Give a bunch of authors a seed & see what they come up with
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It is a bunch of short stories, with a twist. Josepha Sherman took a song written by Mercedes Lackey, and has several authors use it as the basis for a short story. The result is several short stories with similar plots. But, few of the stories are actually similar. The various authors came up with some interesting plot twists.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable! If you celebrate seasons, you need this book!
Review: I think that as a short story, Lackey could have done this very,very well. The story of Lammas Night is interesting, but an entire BOOK based simply on retellings of the original story with so-called "twists"? No, thank you. A wiser idea would have been to write a book of short stories of the "and-THEN-what-happened" of other ballads.

Rating:
Summary: Well...
Review: I think that as a short story, Lackey could have done this very,very well. The story of Lammas Night is interesting, but an entire BOOK based simply on retellings of the original story with so-called "twists"? No, thank you. A wiser idea would have been to write a book of short stories of the "and-THEN-what-happened" of other ballads.

Rating:
Summary: Short Stories themed by Lammas Night
Review: Interesting set of short stories based around the Lammas Night premise. Anchored by Mercedes Lackey and with contributions from many people

Rating:
Summary: Short Stories themed by Lammas Night
Review: Interesting set of short stories based around the Lammas Night premise. Anchored by Mercedes Lackey and with contributions from many people

Rating:
Summary: An idea that failed.
Review: Mercedes Lackey wrote a poem (a not-very-good one) about a wizard who settles in a village where the previous wizard has died. She begins to sense his presence in the house where he lived (and she lives now). In the end, she is faced with a choice of laying his soul, or bringing him back to life.

The conceit of this book is to have several authors use this theme as a jumping off point for their stories. It's an intriguing idea, but it doesn't work. The primary reason for this is, I think, that rather than use the story as inspiration, the authors simply put flesh on its bones. They don't use their own creative powers (assuming they have any) to make something unique and different of it. As a result, it's all much of a muchness and ultimately boring.

The other difficulty I had with it is the same difficulty that I have with much current fantasy writing. Many writers of this kind think that putting together a hash of various mythologies along with invented names that have no linguistic similarities are all you need. It's all very unsatisfying.

Having been introduced to fantasy via masters such as Lord Dunsany and Arthur Machen, I have no patience for this sort of thing.