Thieves' World: Turning Points Book Review

Growing up, I always enjoyed reading Thieves' World books- unlike other fantasy series, Thieves' World is about what it is really like to live in a fantasy medieval world inhabited by thieves, assassins, priests, sorcerers, and barbarians- it is about the daily life of a beggar, the training of a thief, the political maneuvering of barbarian lords, the hard work involved in being a sorcerer, the grime and grit of being a mercenary for hire, or even the wanderings of a confused shopkeeper. There were a dozen or so books written in this series back in the 1980's before the series died off, but apparently there was an attempt to revive it recently, and one day in Walmart I saw a Thieves' World novel that I hadn't read before so picked it up and was glad I did.

Turning Points, a Thieves' World novel, edited by Lynn Abbey, is a series of short stories written by different authors that is set in the city of Sanctuary. The stories center around the time period of a lunar and solar eclipse that attracts a whole host of characters to the lawless city, characters including necromancers, assassins, street urchins, knaves, reformed priests, disgraced nobles, and thieves. The book introduces a whole host of new characters- retired or on the way out is the older generation of Jubal, Tempus, Shadowspawn, Molin Torchholder, Jake the Rat, and they are being replaced by new characters who have their own stories to tell. The city itself is more lawless than ever- the Age of Ranken, the occupation of the Bysid, and even the evil reign of the Bloody Hand of Dyareela are now in the past, and the ruling power is now only a barbarian lord named Arizak.

The stories are written by some pretty good authors- I particularly enjoyed 'Duel' by Dennis L. McKiernan (The Iron Tower Omnibus (Mithgar) or Dragondoom (Mithgar)) and 'Apocalypse Noun' by Jeff Grubb (The Brothers' War: Artifacts Cycle, Book I or Azure Bonds). Other notable authors include Lynn Abbey, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Andrew Offutt, Selina Rosen, and Raymond E. Feist. Each author wrote one story for the book, all loosely centered around the same time, with plots that very loosely collaborated.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read and worth a couple hours of pulp joy. My only criticism was that rather than building towards a conclusion and building on some of the better characters who were introduced, the last couple stories instead were weaker and introduced new characters who were not as good as those that we'd already met. Perhaps a little better job of editing might have improved the content even further, but I do suggest that you check it out sometime, if only to get in touch with your pulply, D&D childhood.

Check out the book by clicking here! Thieves' World: Turning Points (Thieves' World Anthology)!