Rating: 
Summary: Useful introduction to fanstasy authors; uneven quality
Review: Legends is a collection of short stories written by established authors of modern fantasy writing in their own "worlds." This book is an excellent introduction to the writing style and talent of each of these writers."The Little Sisters of Eluria" by Stephen King fleshes out who and what the "Little Sisters" from King's Dark Tower series are; if you are not a Dark Tower fan, neither this story nor its characters will mean much to you. "Runner of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey is certainly the weakest link in this book--unless the reader is looking for a light (very light) romance in a fantasy setting. Characterization is weak and plot is nearly non-existent. Although die-hard fans of the Pern series may not care. Also uninspired is Robert Jordan's entry "New Spring," which is a prequal to his Wheel of Time series. Like the Wheel books, the writing is tired and the plot plodding. The strongest entry is The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin. It is a stand-alone story set in the world of Song of Ice and Fire. Following the death of his mentor, Dunk, 17 finds himself knighted (a "Hedge Knight"--a knight unattached to a lord who sleeps among the hedges) and alone. He travels to the city to join a contest for Hedge Knights and make a name for himself. He is joined by 9-year-old Egg, a boy who insists on squiring for him. Dunk soon finds himself involved over his head with royalty, and about to lose his life. The writing is sharp and witty and the characters are compelling. A close second is "The Burning Man" by Tad Williams, the story of certain pivotal events in a young woman's life--her first love and her stepfather's obsessive quest for the answer to a question that haunts him and nearly drives him to madness. Other entries are by Terry Pratchett, Terry Goodkind, Orson Scott Card, Robert Silverberg, Ursula LeGuin, Tad Williams, and Raymond E. Feist. With few exceptions, the stories are will written and entertaining, representing the wide variety of voices, styles, and themes in modern fantasy.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant! Just what an Anthology should be!
Review: An Anthology must do three things: have a clear focus; select the best representative authors in the genre and, most important of all, grip both veterans as well as newbies in the genre. Legends easily scores high on all three. The focus on fantasy and short novels is crisp. The choice of authors is inspired. Anne McCaffrey, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, Ursula LeGuin, George Martin and Silverberg himself are easily top draws in the fantasy business and the others are no slouches either. Silverberg has written short but invaluable background pieces that beautifully set the context of each individual story. So a new reader does not need to know the individual milieu of each story but can plunge in head-first. To Silverberg's and his authors' credit, many of the stories have been so set that they do not spoil the suspense or give away any secrets of the main books. Thus Jordan's story is set prior to The Eye of the World, Goodkind's prior to Wizard's First Rule and Martin's prior to Game of Thrones and they each set the stage for the respective series. No doubt, LeGuin's Earthsea story is in the middle, as are the King and Silverberg stories but they still do not reveal the twists to an unwary reader. I do not propose to review each individual story except to say that Martin, LeGuin, Silverberg and Goodkind are first class, Jordan and McCaffrey not far behind. The others, I am less happy with but that may be my bias. For any reader who loves fantasy, this is a "must-have" book. And for a reader wishing to learn what this "fantasy stuff" is all about, there can be no better starter volume. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Amazon misled me
Review: I, like another, thought I was purchasing a book with 11 short stories with some of my favorite authors. I was disappointed to find ONLY 4 of the stories in this version. I went awry with the description in the Editorial Review, Amazon.com by Craig Engler, printed in conjunction with this text. Please include more accurate information!
Rating: 
Summary: Kinda of a Let Down
Review: I'm a huge fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, and had not read anything by Tad Williams and Terry Pratchett before. NEW SPRING by Jordan didn't add anything to the Wheel of Time series, and wouldn't have made me want to become a Jordan fan if I wasn't already. DRAGONFLY by Le Guin was better, but not anywhere near as good as the Earthsea novels, whose world it uses. THE BURNING MAN by Williams annoyed me by jumping about in sequence in events all over the place in short bursts of "minichapters". And the story itself wasn't appealing. Terry Pratchett's THE SEA AND THE LITTLE FISHES, telling a short tale of the witch Granny Weatherwax was the true gem of this collection. It was funny and satirical, and I will be looking into the rest of Pratchett's books about Granny. I don't think that Pratchett's gem can make up for the failings of the others, but if you're a huge fan of any of these authors it might still be worth the read. Hope this was useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Make sure you get the full version paperback!
Review: There are 2 versions of this book in paperback. One has 4 stories (which unfortunately I bought by mistake) and the other has all 11 stories. I did enjoy 3 out of the 4 stories in the version I bought especially Stephen Kings and Raymond Feist.
Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag
Review: This is a good across the board serious start to short stories. These types of collections are good because they expose people to various authors that they would not have read normally. Thinking back on some of these stories still brings a smile to my face in some instances and a very loud goanb in some others, The strongest short stories in this colllection are "The Hedge Knight" by George RR Martian-Its a good story and its nice to read a story by this author where the point of view is not shifting every 5 secounds "GRINNING MAN" by Orson Scot Card-I probably wouldn't think it was so great if I didn't like "The Tales of Alvin Maker" so much. This tale is also fun too because it centers on Alvin and the antics of one David Crocket King of the Wild Frontier. These are the two front runers I'll give an honorable mention to the "Gunslinger" short story because it was a good in me keeping my sanity in the long years between "Wizard in Glass" and "Wolves of Challa" Terry Goodkind's "Debt of Bones" does its job but remember that with all of Goodkind's works it is very discriptive. Just speaking for myselgf wheneever i read one of his works I want to cheer and vomit at the same time. The only "bad" story in the bunch is Anne McCaffrey's "Runners of Pern" who can you have a Pern story and not even throw in a dragon to keep us interested Mrs. McCaffrey? Overall-solid and well rounded don't expect the unexpexcted where these authors are concerned.
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: When i bought this book i thought it would be teriffic. I was not disssopointed. Being fairly new to fantsy books this gave me many new seris to read
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff.
Review: I have to admit I bought this book for "The Hedge Knight". I enjoyed the other stories too, but I can't get enough of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. The Hedge Knight gives us a little history of a few of the families from the other stories. I especially like how it makes the Targaryens more tangible. They seem almost like a family of crazy, yet mystical people in the other books, but here we see them as your typical royal family with troubles like every one else. I eagerly await the next installment of the Dunk and Egg novellas.
Rating:
Summary: Some advice that may be helpful
Review: This version of legends is divided into three parts, if you search for Robert Silverberg you can find it in one volume for about the same price, so that you get all three parts together for about a third of the price
As to the book,I can only review the second part (I made the mistake of ordering legends 2 thinking that it was all 11 stories, but it was really just three.) The three stories that were in it were:Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind
The Hedge Knight by George R.R. Martin
and Runner of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey
Of the three I read, The Hedge Knight was definitely the best, it has alot of action and the grimly real, but exciting story that only Martin can provide. It is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Martin's excellent series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
Debt of Bones was good, and it showed me what type of a writer Goodkind is,(I haven't read anything by him but that, but it got me interested and I bought the first book in his series, The Sword Of Truth.
Runner of Pern was probably the one I least liked, I knew nothing about Anne McCaffrey, and it was okay, but not nearly as good as The Hedge Knight.
Be sure to buy the edition with all 11 stories, I have just ordered the full edition, Most all of the writers in the 11 stories, I have read before and it is interesting to have a short work to read by them, about a different part of their world. This will also help you get aquainted with writers you havn't read before, see their writing style, and decide if you want to read more of them.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: This was a pretty good book. I have the complete version of it though. I liked most of the stories but I think the author's should of written more about, well, their main characters. Most of the stories had nothing to do with the book except that it's in that particular world. I don't know, I don't find that too interesting. It's kind of pointless really. Anyways, I enjoyed the stories anyways because the authors are great writers.
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