For some reason I got off onto quite the Shared World novel kick this winter. I think it can all be traced back to my George R.R. Martin obsession, a subject I will probably discuss at some lengths on this page. Anyway, while trolling R.R.'s web site for scraps of info on his Song of Ice and Fire series (oh so delayed... sigh) I came across his latest pitch for the latest Wild Cards novel. I had read the very first Wild Cards novel back in my teens and had not connected that the George R.R. I had been obsessing about for half of 2006 was the editor of that relatively successful series.
Huh, I said. And that led me off to the races. More on Wild Cards in a later post.
The Shared World novel in its modern, fantastic fiction form really started with the Thieves' World series, edited by Robert Asprin and his soon-to-be then later-no-longer wife Lynn Abbey, in 1979. The idea was a series of short stories written by different people all told in the same universe, which in the case of Thieve's World is the town of Sanctuary. In this shared world (hence the name) any author could develop a character, which any other author could then use. Generally the rule was no killing the character without the creator's permission, but otherwise anything went. As the books stretched their legs a little, the editors tended to impose some sort of structure or common event to tie the stories together. This could be a simple as a major event occurring in town that was mentioned in every story or it could be each story picking up where the last one left off, creating a more cohesive novel-like feel. These books really worked best when each author not only added one or two interesting characters to the world, but also each fleshed out another small piece of the imaginary world, adding music, politics, religion, architecture, history, etc. Eight people really can think up more neat stuff than one. The downside is obvious: the overall novels can only be so cohesive with so many cooks sharing a kitchen and worse, not all authors are creating equally.
When Thieves' World hit the stands in 1979 it was a minor phenomenon, outselling any previous fantasy short story anthology by at least an order of magnitude. Since each book only required a 30-40 page story from each author, the potential for really cranking these out was there and the publishers, no fools, began cranking out the books. Between 1979 and 1989 they cranked out 12 Thieve's World novels, not includng nearly a dozen one-author novel spin-offs, both officially sanctioned and not. They created a successful role playing game, published some comics, and had solid gold toilets installed throughout their palatial estates.
OK, no there is not that much money in Fantasy writing, particularly if you have to split in 8-ways.
So back to me (isn't it always). Turns out I owned and had sitting in my extensive library about 6 of the 12 Thieve's World novels, of which I had read approximately half (so, 3 books total) way back in the mid-80s, the Shared World boom-times. It was a classic example of losing interest in the work, but continuing to buy the next book "just in case" I wanted to get back into it. I never did. Until this January. As someone who has dabbled a bit in speculative fiction writing, I had a whole new outlook on the form, which has some obvious advantages in terms of rate of output. Plus, I have a little anal-retentive part of my brain which loves to "complete" things I never finished as a young man. This same brain malfunction led me to finish every Infocom game I had ever started and not finished, by buying them all together as a package over a decade later. Leather Goddesses of Phobos, anyone?
So, enough babbling, are the books any good?
On the whole I would say the answer is they are OK. They are very grim, as the premise is that Sanctuary is the absolute asshole of the world. Death is common place and theft is among the more respectable ways to make a living. This makes the books a nice antidote to the typical fantasy fare, where things may start out grim, but our hero will always rise up against all odds and win out. Oftentimes as not, it is the town of Sanctuary that wins out over the hero. Also, most of the so-called heroes are really anti-heros. They are not people you would want your children to emulate.
As one might expect, some of the characters are much more interesting than others. Enas Yorl the immortal shape-shifting wizard; Tempus, Storm God avatar who is cursed loveless and undying; Jubal, former gladiator and present spy and slave master; Lythande the Blue Star Adept with a bizarre secret source of power; are all great. Even Shadowspawn, the overly-cocky if amazing young thief also has his moments, although his author, Offutt is not the best of the writing bunch. [Funny thing is that when I was 13 he was my favorite. Go figure.] Other characters, like the Prince Kadakithus, the storyteller Hakiem, the fortune teller Ilyra, or the priest Molin Torchholder are kind of ho-hum.
One aspect that was initially a big plus (through the first 4 books) and then starts to irritate is the constant meddling of the Gods, both from the new and the old Pantheons, as their wars reflect the conquering of old empires by new ones. Eventually you get a little tired of the Deus (quite literally) Ex Machina solutions to stories this allows.
Book 1: Thieve's World -- The first book is definitely the best. Not only is the whole thing fresh, but it has some of the best writers that eventually leave the series (Marion Zimmer Bradley, Joe Haldeman, Poul Anderson, John Brunner). The first One Thumb story, "Blood Brothers", is about as dark a tale as you are likely to find. Really though, most of these stories are quite good, with perhaps the exception of "Myrtis" and "The Face of Chaos", which are rookie author works: one was a last minute emergency fill-in, the other an early Abbey the girlfriend work (she gets better when she is Abbey the wife and later Abbey the divorcee).
Book 2: Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn -- This one is also fairly good, and anecdotally was the first one I read as a 13-14 year old. I never read the original way back when. The first half is actually tales that didn't make it into the first one due to time pressure. "Vashanka's Minion" by Janet Morris introduces Tempus, a demi-god with a curse. His story grows and grows and threatens to consume the books until he forced out of them altogether into a series of stand alone novels (more on those in another post). The final three stories show the first signs of real linking, the beginings of a change from a series of unconnected short stories to real "novels".
Book 3: Shadows of Sanctuary -- This is the real second book of the series, with all the stories written after the publication of the first couple of books, and the authors really utilizing each others characters to the fullest. It introduces the sex vampire Ischade, a mysterious witch cursed to kill those whom she beds. Ranking high among the more disturbing stories of the entire series is "The Vivisectionist", which in addition to being disturbing demonstrates an excellent example of the sort of games the authors can play with each other: I didn't kill your character, but I did something horrible to him. Now what do you do? Finally it also introduces one of my favorite characters, although admittedly one that doesn't really belong in this grim, thankless world, Lalo the Limner. He doesn't belong because he actually seems to be true of spirit and kind of heart. Drunk and broken-down, perhaps, but that is really par for the course in Sanctuary.
Book 4: Storm Season -- I kind of felt this is where the series starts to come apart a little bit. There is definitely an attempt to integrate the stories together more, which tended to be more confusing and muddled than otherwise. People's motivations are rarely clear. Fewer new characters get introduced and the Gods meddling gets out of control. This is also the first book with no new authors, so it may be an example of a need for fresh blood. It might also indicate a lowest common denominator, i.e. these are the authors with the free time to still play with this experiment. I don't want to get too down on it, the Lalo story "A Fugitive Art" is quite good. I also liked the story of Jubal's rehabilition, "Exercise in Pain" and while "Godson" jumps the god-meddling shark, it is a lot of fun.
Book 5: The Face of Chaos -- Perhaps sensing a thinning of ideas, this book introduces an entirely new element to the city of Sanctuary: the Beysib invaders. While a good idea, most of the authors ignored it or referred to the Beysib only perfunctorly. The biggest problem is no author took on the task of giving us any decent background on these strange, bug-eyed, bare-breasted folk. I think you can probably blame Asprin here, who phoned in his Jubal story, clearly missing an opportunity for exploring the Beysib in a way that could better have tied this book together. Still, "High Moon" is probably the best Janet Morris of the series (so far), ending in a scene so dark that it drove me to read her mediocre stand alone novels just so I could see the evil witch Roxane get hers. David Drake's Samlor hil Samt character makes its second appearance (previously in "Goddess", Bk 2). While it takes a while to remember him, you eventually recall both who he is and wonder why he doesn't appear more often, as a bigger bad ass it would be tough to find. "Mirror Image" is a weird Lalo story, showing an excellent example of how the whole Gods thing has gotten out of control.
Book 6: Wings of Omen -- According to the jacket of another book published near in time, this was originally titled, Wings of Hell. Not sure why it changed, except maybe it was considered too edgey? More likely they thought it would interfere with another "Shared World" series that co-author Janet Morris was launching, based on adventures in Hell. Anyway, this one does a better job of exploring the Beysib and we learn a lot more about their culture, religion, etc. Some new authors are added, which I think does a lot to pump some life into the series. I particularly liked Robin W. Bailey's "Daughter of the Sun", introducing the best female swordsman since Red Sonya. And the Lalo tale "A Breath of Power" brings an actual Vulgar Unicorn to life which goes on to terrorize the town. Sweet. The on-going Tempus, Nikodemos, Ischade, & Roxane material is highly muddled, as a tremendous amount of action went on in a 3 book series of Janet Morris books (Beyond Sanctuary, Beyond The Veil, Beyond Wizardwall), the last book of which was published AFTER this book. Sigh.
So to summarize, if the idea of grim, gritty fantasy appeals, I would give the first book a read. Maybe the second as well. Past that I think the whole experiment has to interest you, as some of the energy does seem to go out of the series. I did think Book 6 picked up the pace a bit, but I will have to see if that sustains. I have taken a break from these books, six in a row is a lot, but when I get through the next bunch I'll let you know.
