Legends
                Edited by Robert Silverberg
              Harper Collins paperback, œ5.99

This is another book which was loaned to me by my dog-walking
friend Jean. It is described as 'new works by the Masters of
Modern Fantasy' and consists of five stories; one each by Terry
Pratchett, Anne McCaffrey, George R R Martin, Tad Williams and
Robert Jordan. Each tale is prefaced by a couple of pages
describing the background to the story and listing other related
works by the author.

Each of the stories is set in an existing fantasy world -
Discworld, Pern, The Seven Kingdoms, Osten Ard and Tar Valon, on
the Earth of the far future. Terry Pratchett and Anne McCaffrey
are both familiar authors to me and their stories were excellent.
Terry's is about Nanny, Granny and the Witch Trials - a
competition for witches which Granny always wins - and Anne's is
about one of the runners of Pern who carries messages from one
hold to another.

George Martin's tale is part of his A Song of Ice and Fire series
and is very moving in its depiction of the sometimes brutal life
of a hedge knight, one not sworn to any lord. Tad Williams' story
The Burning Man was so-so, with unsympathetic characters and a
story line which didn't especially grab me. I gave up on the final
piece, part of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, as I just couldn't
get into it.

Maybe the problem with a collection like this, where the stories
are part of an existing world, is that if you aren't familiar with
it, it's a bit like coming in to the middle of a film. You're not
sure who anyone is and you've got a feeling that there's something
going on which you're missing. It was worth reading for the first
two stories though!

                                                       Sue


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