Thieves’ World, Book 10: Aftermath

Thieves’ World, Book 10: Aftermath (1987) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey

And now the series is back to where I enjoyed it–more petty arguments and thievery rather than war ranging on the physical and etheral plains.

Dramatis Personae – Lynn Abbey
Introduction – Robert Lynn Asprin
Cade – Mark C. Perry
Wake of the Riddler – Janet Morris
Inheritor – David Drake
Mercy Worse Than None – John Brunner
Seeing is Believing (But Love is Blind) – Lynn Abbey
Homecoming – Andrew Offutt

We open with Introduction by Robert Lynn Asprin, with Hakiem and Hort watching the Stepsons leave town.

Good riddance.

Cade by Mark C. Perry, introduces us to Cade, a character who appears only in this single story, but whose tale fits perfectly into what I love most about Thieves’ World. Cade is a scary, somewhat horrible, man. An assassin who is more of a serial killer, who has come to Sanctuary to revenge the murder of his brother.

He has the same opinion I do of Chenaya.

Take that madwoman Chenaya, building an army of gladiators. He smiled at the thought. Gladiators! Gladiators made poor soldiers, and were hardly equipped for the streets of Sanctuary. Everybody was insane here…

Well, yes.

Wake of the Riddler by Janet Morris has Strat and Crit and Kama remaining behind and trying to bring peace to the streets of Sanctuary. Sadly, what they have to work with is Zip.

It wasn’t being co-opted by the enemy that bothered him the most. What bothered him the most was that his bad boys and girls were doing exactly what they’d done before–extort, blackmail, roust and roughhouse, burn and plunder–and doing it now with the protection and for the benefit of the state.

Inheritor by David Drake brings Samlor and his niece Star back to Sanctuary, to retrieve an inheritance Samlane had left for Star.

I really like Samlor.

Samlor restrained his impulse to do something pointlessly violent.

I know that feeling.

This story also contains a bit that caught my imagination and stuck with me.

Star had set swimming through the air a trio of miniature octopuses made of light. A blue one drifted beneath the ceiling frescoed with scenes of anthropomorphic deities; a yellow one prowled beneath the legs of a writing table sumptuous with mother-of-pear inlays.

The third miniature octopus was of an indigo so pale that it barely showed up against the carven door against which it bobbed feebly.

I love the picture that makes.

Mercy Worse Than None by John Brunner brings back Jarveena (Enas Yorl never left). This is another fascinating story, centered on justice, and I love how by not describing something, but describing only the reaction to it, it becomes far more horrible than anything the writer could have come up with.

But I am also amused by Melilot.

:If perchance you fear I may trespass on some right of intimacy the lady has, for the time being, granted to yourself, I pray you consider the–ah–visible signs of my incompetence in the regard.

I just adore that sentence.

Seeing is Believing (But Love is Blind) by Lynn Abbey sees Illyra being healed from her damage. I also love the glimpses of Dubro.

“Had we rich relations or a hidden villa surrounded by lakes and trees, I’d send you away. It’s Sanctuary herself who’s hurt you,” Dubro said with an eloquence few others knew he possessed.

And then we close with Homecoming by Andrew Offutt. Hanse returns to Sanctuary a changed man.

Hanse shrugged. “I’ve got my reputation to think of.”

“But young ma–Hanse, it is a bad reputation!”

Hanse nodded. “It’s mine, Termagant.”

Two more books left.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Ace Books

 
 

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