Thieves' World Book Club! The Face of Chaos!

 All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

For a few years I have been the admin/moderator of the Thieves' World Facebook discussion group. I started a "book club" last year, hoping to spark more discussion about the series. It has been a mixed success. I think in some ways my posts starting the discussion of each anthology have been a bit too big. I also realized, these posts were disappearing into ether after a short short while. In order to give the posts more permanence and so I can more easily refer folks to them, I decided to start putting the "opening" post for each anthology here on my blog. 

Now we are on to the fifth anthology, published in 1983.

The Valdez cover.

Contents

Introduction by Robert Lynn Asprin

"High Moon" by Janet Morris

"Necromant" by C. J. Cherryh

"The Art of Alliance" by Robert Lynn Asprin

"The Corners of Memory" by Lynn Abbey

"Votary" by David Drake

"Mirror Image" by Diana L. Paxson

All seven of the authors in this volume are Thieves' World veterans, and all of these tales continue stories from previous tales. This marked a shift in the shape of the anthologies, as the over all plot came to dominate the tales and the stories became very connected - it was difficult for a reader to enjoy "The Art of Alliance" if they hadn't read the Cherryh and Morris stories in the previous volumes. 

The Ruddell cover.

This the shortest of the original 12 anthologies, and that is a shame because it feels like their are a lot of stories to tell about this period of Sanctuiary's history. It is also a volume that covers over a great deal of ground; three of the "official" Theives' World novels (Beyond Sanctuary (1985), Beyond the Veil (1985), and Beyond Wizardwall (1986)) are all set after the first story in The Face of Chaos and before Wings of Omen. So this volume covers roughly two years of time, yet again, it is the shortest of the anthologies. The previous volume, Storm Season, covers months of time, but this is the first volume that presumably covers over a year of life in Sanctuary. 

The Valdez cover depicts the three standard warriors outside the Vulgar Unicorn. One is mounted and all appear to be preparing for a trip, fitting given the events of "High Moon" by Janet Morris. The brunnette is less obviously female, unless you look closely at her face. The Ruddell cover is captioned: "A Beysib execution." At least two such executions occur in the anthology, but this doesn't quite look like either. The Beysib executioner's breasts are covered, contrary to textual descriptions but understandably given the realities of the American book market. 

The Pennington cover.

Science Fiction Book Club edition

The third cover appears to depict a pair of hawkmasks. I discovered a bit more about these third covers, they were for Penguin books, and appear to be for editions sold in the UK, Canada, and Australia. And they were painted, apparently, by Bruce Pennington. I've also included the Valdez cover from the Book Club edition, a compilation titled Cross-Currents including Storm Season, The Face of Chaos, and Wings of Omen.

There was a distinct lack of a Shadowspawn tale in this volume, and based on later comments from Offutt (in The Dead of Winter afterword) the absence was unexpected. There was also a fascinating tonal shift, from Asprin's Introduction where townsfolk are enjoying unexpected prosperity from the arrival of the Beysib to the grim executions and street warfare later in the volume. 

You can find this volume in many used book stores online. Also, it is available for Kindle on Amazon here. 

An audiobook of this work is available here on Audible. 

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.