Sword and Sorceress XV (Sword and Sorceress)

Rating:
Summary: 1st of the bradley anthology series
Review: An anthology can be ruined by one or two stories. Bradley has a knack for picking the finest. She sets a standard for this anthology which she keeps throught the whole series. This series has led me to sample further works by the authors inside. I discovered Jennifer Roberson, Dianne Paxson, Robin Bailey, and many others through their stories in the series and the intros by MZB. I only which the amazing Charles Saunders was more prolific. Buy it, sit back and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: 1st of the bradley anthology series
Review: An anthology can be ruined by one or two stories. Bradley has a knack for picking the finest. She sets a standard for this anthology which she keeps throught the whole series. This series has led me to sample further works by the authors inside. I discovered Jennifer Roberson, Dianne Paxson, Robin Bailey, and many others through their stories in the series and the intros by MZB. I only which the amazing Charles Saunders was more prolific. Buy it, sit back and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Good reading, but needs to tell where to find full book.
Review: I really liked the book, but was a little surprized when I tried to find the whole book of one stories and couldn't. I even searched here, on Amazon, and couldn't find it. I thought you could find the book and read the rest but there was nothing that said these were only stories and not clips of full length books. If you can help me I'd really appreciate it. The clip I wanted to read more of was "Gate of the Damned" by Janet Fox.

Rating:
Summary: A very good collection, possibly the best of a fine series.
Review: The Sword And Sorceress series is a series of collections of short stories, of traditional "sword and sorcery" style, but with women as main protagonists. Marion Zimmer Bradley always explains in her introductions that she began the series because in traditional sword and sorcery, what female characters are to be found are invariably "bad conduct prizes" for the (male) main characters.

It's a fine series, and this volume may just be the best; there was not a bad story in the lot, although I wasn't really taken with "Shimmering Scythe", by Vera Nazarian, and had serious doubts about the ending of "A Matter Of Names", by Cynthia Ward. But I WAS very taken by "Oaths", by Lynn Morgan Rosser, perhaps the best of a very good lot, and there were also a number of stories that continued the exploits of characters found in previous volumes, all of which were a pleasure, a renewal of old friendships: "The Sick Rose", by Dorothy Heydt, continues the adventures of Cynthia, the witch of Syracuse; "Skin Deep" by Heather Rose Jones, continues the stories of Laaki, Asholi, and Eysla the skin-changers; "Spring Snow", by Diana Paxson, the adventures of Bera, apprentice Norse wisewoman; and "The Dragon's Horde", by Elisabeth Waters and Raul S. Reyes, the adventures of Princess Rowena and the dragon. If you've enjoyed any of the other collections in this series, you are more than very likely to enjoy this one; if you're not familiar with the series, this is as good an introduction as any.

Rating:
Summary: A very good collection, possibly the best of a fine series.
Review: The Sword And Sorceress series is a series of collections of short stories, of traditional "sword and sorcery" style, but with women as main protagonists. Marion Zimmer Bradley always explains in her introductions that she began the series because in traditional sword and sorcery, what female characters are to be found are invariably "bad conduct prizes" for the (male) main characters.

It's a fine series, and this volume may just be the best; there was not a bad story in the lot, although I wasn't really taken with "Shimmering Scythe", by Vera Nazarian, and had serious doubts about the ending of "A Matter Of Names", by Cynthia Ward. But I WAS very taken by "Oaths", by Lynn Morgan Rosser, perhaps the best of a very good lot, and there were also a number of stories that continued the exploits of characters found in previous volumes, all of which were a pleasure, a renewal of old friendships: "The Sick Rose", by Dorothy Heydt, continues the adventures of Cynthia, the witch of Syracuse; "Skin Deep" by Heather Rose Jones, continues the stories of Laaki, Asholi, and Eysla the skin-changers; "Spring Snow", by Diana Paxson, the adventures of Bera, apprentice Norse wisewoman; and "The Dragon's Horde", by Elisabeth Waters and Raul S. Reyes, the adventures of Princess Rowena and the dragon. If you've enjoyed any of the other collections in this series, you are more than very likely to enjoy this one; if you're not familiar with the series, this is as good an introduction as any.