David A. Riley

Lately, I’ve been in the mood for some good old-fashioned sword and sorcery, and this anthology caught my eye. Unlike some anthologies I’ve recently read, each of the 10 pieces in this volume feels complete, rather than an outtake of a larger story.

The collection was decently edited, and I only noticed a couple of typos. Of course the writing style varied. My own preference is for spare prose, so I tended to prefer the shorter or faster-paced pieces such as “A Thousand Words for Death.” For my tastes, the more descriptive ones such as “The Essence of Dust” and “The Amulet and the Shadow” felt a touch overwritten.

I liked seeing the variety of challenges that faced our sometimes-but-not-always heroes. Most of them were of the supernatural or magical variety, including various eldritch oddities as well as gods, spirits, demons and so on.

My favourite work was Tais Teng’s “Highjacking the Lord of Light”, where the main character had some personal as well as adventure challenges to deal with. Other than that, it was a nice break from heavier works to go off on adventures without feeling the need to invest too much in the characters or their worlds.… (more)