Warriors

To quote from George R.R. Martin's introduction "People have been telling stories about warriors for as long as they have been telling stories." I imagine that for most all who enjoy genre fiction, it's the timeless tradition of the telling of warriors' tales that is the heart of our passion. In fact, reading Martin's introduction titled "Stories of the Spinner Rack" is enough to put Warriors on any bookworm's reading list. For many of us who grew up in Small Town USA during the 70's and earlier, before the big book stores and Amazon.com, we know exactly what he was talking about. It's a very relatable trip down memory lane that primes the reader for the adventures that follow. At 736 pages, Warriors is practically a tome. It contains twenty tales, without a bad one in the bunch. I'm not going to summarize each individual story, since that information is already easily available from the publisher and from harder working reviewers than me, but the list of authors is the most impressive I've ever seen for similar books. These are great stories from most all the genres, with more than a few of them being fantasy and science fiction, but also historical fiction, a western, a war story, paranormal, and even a dog story. My experience reading Warriors was a re-acquaintance with some favorite authors that I haven't read in way too long: George R. R. Martin, David Morrell, Tad Williams, Robert Silverberg, and Lawrence Block. It was also an introduction to many authors I've had an interest in but haven't yet given a read: David Weber, Naomi Novik, and Diana Gabaldon, to name only a few. I'm one of the rare odd-balls who didn't care for Robin Hobb's FARSEER trilogy, but her story about a Roman prisoner of war, "The Triumph," was one of my favorites in the book. James Rollin's story about a pit-bull dog actually produced a lump in my throat. David Morrell's "My Name is Legion", about two comrades in the French Foreign Legion during WWII, pulled at my heart strings. George R. R. Martin returns to Westeros some centuries before A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE for another adventure of his Hedge Knight -- for fans of the series, that's all that needs saying. Warriors is an excellent sampler of genre fiction by the some of the very best. Readers won't find a better way to try new genres, revisit past favorites, and still enjoy tales the likes of which are currently on their reading lists.

Warriors is one of the best anthologies I've read. I was lucky enough to get it for a just bit over eight bucks on pre-order. The editors did a fantastic job of choosing the authors and stories, and also in ordering the stories within the volume. I loved the idea of using the warrior theme, very broadly defined, and then including so many different genres. It ended up working extremely well. The anthology includes 20 stories and almost every single one of them was a strong entry. There was only one that I flat out didn't like and thought was too weak of an offering to be included with all the rest. There were quite a few stories that were about things that don't particularly interest me, but the outstanding writing kept me absorbed anyway. I did have one major disappointment with this anthology, and it's why I gave it only 4 instead of 5 stars. That is the dearth of of women. Of the 20 stories in Warriors only 4 had a female protagonist and only 5 were written by women. Those are extremely sad statistics for such a mixed anthology in this day and age. Kindle Note: (I usually do the Kindle Note at the end, but I'll put it here for those who don't want to read through the story listing.) The ebook was excellently designed with an active TOC and markers on the progress bar for the start of each story, enabling the ability to flip between stories using the 5-way. There was one serious oddity, the word "Whatever" was capitalized every time it was used throughout the book. Looks like a search and replace that got out of hand! There were the usual assortment of typos and hyphen problems, but nothing too egregious. NO-SPOILER Story Listing: 1) The King of Norway by Cecelia Holland The story is about hairy vikings wearing skins battling each other in boats. Not really my cup of tea, but the excellent writing kept me absorbed. Holland has a really deft touch with vivid imagery and description, while being brief with it so I didn't feel like skimming. 2) Forever Bound by Joe Haldeman Fascinating look at near future warfare possibilities. The story completely sucked me in. 3) The Triumph by Robin Hobb Romans vs. Carthagians, battle scenes, and torture of a man in a cage. Normally would be a yawner for me, but throw in some great writing and a fight with a giant river snake and it kept my attention. 4) Clean Slate by Lawrence Block A dark, twisted tale of incest and murder. Intriguing story and well-written, though it lost something right near the end when it spelled things out, rather than leaving it between the lines for readers when it was easily discerned. 5) And Ministers of Grace by Tad Williams A far future tale of religious extremism and extreme rationalism. Writing seemed a bit jerky in places causing me to reread sentences, but an excellent story, one of my favorites. 6) Soldierin' by Joe R. Lansdale Historical story about ex-slaves as the buffalo soldiers in the U.S. Cavalry facing an attack by Apaches. Excellent writing, made me feel as if I was there. 7) Dirae by Peter S. Beagle One of my favorites. The beginning is quite confusing and then as the story goes along it's as if veils of darkness fall to reveal more and more. Beagle manages to work in a lot of emotion for a story that is so vague in other ways. 8) The Custom of the Army by Diana Gabaldon Long story about Lord John. Starts with an electric eel party in London and ends in Quebec in with the aftermath of battle and small pox. Very engaging story with wonderful historical detail. 9) Seven Years From Home by Naomi Novik Intriguing story of culture clash, politics, government meddling, and humans imposing on a planet vs. working with it. The story is 2700 years in future, but narrated in a formal and somewhat old fashioned manner. 10) The Eagle and the Rabbit by Steven Saylor The Punic Wars are popular in this anthology. Here's another one about Romans vs. Carthagians, this time right after the fall of Carthage. Once again excellent writing kept me interested in finding out what decision a captured boy on the brink of manhood would make when I otherwise might have been bored. 11) The Pit by James Rollins This one is a bit of a shock when you come to it because the warrior is unlike any of the others. It was the hardest to read of the bunch, though not because of bad writing. I admit to having to use up a Kleenex to get through it. 12) Out of the Dark by David Weber This is another long story, which seems like a good old-fashioned alien invasion tale, this time told from the POV of both the humans and the alien invaders. Weber's writing doesn't seem as smooth as the prior stories, but it's a very engaging tale. I have very mixed feelings about this one. I definitely enjoyed it, but the insertion of myth into what had been a straight-up SF story seemed out of place, and then the ending is pretty much a deus ex machina, which cheapened the whole thing. 13) The Girls from Avenger by Carrie Vaughn Surprising historical fiction from an urban fantasy author about Army WASPs during World War II. It's a touching tale of a pilot trying to uncover the mystery behind her friend's death in a plane crash. 14) Ancient Ways by S. M. Stirling Delightful story from Stirling's Emberverse, this one taking place 57 years after the Change in Russia. It's fun to get to see how things are going in another part of the world. I thought this one started a bit slow, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it as it progressed. 15) Ninieslando by Howard Waldrop The story takes place during World War I in the no man's land between trench lines. This was the only story that I just plain did not like. The characters were flat and uninteresting and the story was weird and didn't go anywhere. (I don't mean weird in a good way.) Additionally, the language Esperanto is used in much of the story, but rather than just stating that and trusting the reader understands, hyphens were used instead of quote marks to indicate it, making reading the dialogue extremely tiresome. 16) Recidivist by Gardner Dozois Mixed feelings about this one too. Writing not quite as smooth as it could have been. I liked the setting, character, and general theme of AI's taking over the world from humans. But it required a bit too much suspension of disbelief in that the AI's somehow managed to not only conquer humanity, but they became able to reshape the physical world. Such as moving continents around the planet on a whim. 17) My Name is Legion by David Morrell This story had great potential to be a real snooze as most of it is an American soldier in the French Foreign Legion during World War II just thinking about stuff, including historical events. But it's written in way that pulls the reader right along and in the end was quite moving. 18) Defenders of the Frontier by Robert Silverberg A bleak tale of a small company of men defending the frontier against an enemy that is no more in a fort that their distant empire has forgotten and abandoned. It's told in first person present tense so it was annoying to read at first but then I got absorbed in the story and it didn't matter anymore. 19) The Scroll by David Ball A bloody and twisted story about a French engineer in the seventeenth century (if I remember right) who is a captive slave of an emperor in Morocco who plays sadistic psychological games. 20) The Mystery Knight by George R. R. Martin This story is set in the Song of Fire and Ice world. A hedge knight and his squire attend a wedding tourney and get mixed up in a treasonous plot. Martin's typical cast of thousands sometimes make things difficult to follow, but his skill as a storyteller as usual prevails.

I was thoroughly entertained and delighted by most of the stories in Warriors, but a few of them were just not at all interesting or in good taste in my opinion. Clean Slate was probably the least "warrior" story in the book and I wasn't bothered by the pointless sex as much as just finding myself revolted that they call that psychotic woman a warrior and not just a whore. One of the stories was about some guys on the front in WW1 and after only 3 pages I skipped over to the next author. The one story about Lord John was a little too gay for my liking so once it started to get too visual I skipped that one too. Other than a few bad (or just weird) eggs though, the majority of the stories in here were amazing. Some of my favorites were the stories about Buddy/Brutus, Desolation Cain (think that was his name, if I got it wrong my apologies) and of course, the Dunk and Egg novella- the real reason I bought this book in the first place. *I also liked how they introduced the authors. Ive never read assorted short stories like this before and I found it interesting to see the different histories and careers of some of the authors.

Excellent product, easy to load on phone or tablet as files are mp3. I hope to buy many more audio books in this format. The short stories are fun to listen to while walking my dog. All around a great purchase.

Llegó en tiempo y forma. Alta calidad en el producto y muy recomendable, justo lo que esperaraba de un libro de este tipo.

Dieses Buch enthält eine interessante Mischung von Geschichten verschiedener Genres um das Thema Kampf / Krieg / Konflikt; gekauft habe ich es wegen George R. R. Martins 'The Mystery Knight' (Fortsetzung von 'The Hedgeknight' (in Legends, Hrsg. R. Silberberg, ISBN-10: 0765300354 / ISBN-13: 978-0765300355) und 'Sworn Sword' (in Legends II, Hrsg. R. Silverberg, ASIN: B000FC0Y0Y), welche den Werdegang Ser Duncans schildern). Anmerkung: 'The Mystery Knight' ist auch im Taschenbuch 'Warriors 1' (ISBN-10: 0765360268 / ISBN-13: 978-0765360267) veröffentlicht worden. Man findet viele (11) Erzählungen um fiktive Charaktere vor einem mehr oder weniger belegbaren historischen Hintergrund unserer Welt - diese sind alleine deswegen interessant. Unter den SF - Stories (5) sind die Erzählungen von Tad Williams und David Weber durch Tempo und Action sehr packend; Naomi Norvik beeindruckt mit der Beschreibung einer höchstentwickelten Öko-Kultur. Extrem spannend fand ich die Mystery-Erzählung (1) von Peter S. Beagle. Weiters gibt es 3 Fantasy-Erzählungen: 'The Mystery Knight' von George R.R. Martin steht in bewährter Westeros-Tradition und Stirlings Erzählung ist gute Standard-Fantasy; die schwach ausgearbeitete Skizze von G. Dozois ist eher zum Vergessen. Mystery: Peter S. Beagle, Dirae: Ein... Wesen erscheint, verhindert Verbrechen, rettet in letzter Minute Leben, verschwindet wieder; weiß aber selbst nicht, wer/was es ist und wo es dazwischen wäre - mit jedem "Einsatz" kommen es (und der Leser) der Antwort einen Schritt näher. Diese ist gruselig und traurig zugleich. Spielt im 20. Jahrhundert; 'Dirae' sind die Furien der römischen Mythologie. Science fiction: Joe Haldeman, Forever Bound: Menschen steuern Kampfroboter; jedes Mitglied eines Teams kann alle Gedanken und Erinnerungen jedes anderen 'sehen' - daraus ergeben sich psychologische Probleme... Tad Williams, And Ministers Of Grace: Es existieren zwei verfeindete, interplanetare menschliche Kulturen: eine extrem religiöse und eine total weltliche, gemeinsam ist ihnen jedoch die Kontrolle ihrer Bürger über ein Implantat. Ein (genetisch hochgerüsteter) Attentäter der religiösen wird auf die Präsidentin der weltlichen Kultur angesetzt, scheitert jedoch. Er entkommt, kann aber die fremde Welt nicht mehr verlassen. Dadurch entfällt die Manipulation seines Geistes durch die eigene Kultur, und er beginnt zu denken... Naomi Norvik, Seven Years from Home: Eine Agentin eines interplanetaren Machtblockes erzählt im Rückblick von einer Mission, bei der die zwei extrem unterschiedlichen Kulturen eines Planeten gegeneinander auszuspielen gewesen wären. Interessante Schilderung einer auf biologisch/genetischem Gebiet extrem entwickelten Gesellschaft, die dadurch im Einklang mit der Natur leben kann. David Weber, Out of the dark: Eine technisch weit überlegene Rasse versucht die Erde unserer Zeit zu kolonisieren. Doch wie wir auch aus diversen Kriegen der jüngsten Geschichte wissen, bedeutet Überlegenheit aus der Luft noch lange nicht Überlegenheit am Boden - und die Menschen wehren sich. In einer überraschenden, fast witzigen Wendung am Ende erhebt sich dann ein alter Schrecken, jedoch jetzt als Freund der Menschheit, und das Schicksal der Aliens ist besiegelt. Robert Silverberg, Defenders of the Frontier: Auf irgendeinem Planeten, an der längst vergessenen Grenze eines schrumpfenden Riesenreiches, langweilt sich der Rest einer überflüssigen Garnison. Dieser Zustand der Langeweile wird dem Leser sehr gut vermittelt. Ein Versuch der Soldaten, ihre Lage zu verbessern, scheitert. Fantasy: S.M. Stirling, Ancient Ways: Zwei Krieger kämpfen ihren Weg (und befreien dabei natürlich eine Prinzessin) durch die Steppen jenseits der Wolga. Spielt 2055 in einer angedeutet postapokalyptischen Welt. Gardner Dozois, Recidivist: Von Menschen geschaffene, aber inzwischen weit überlegene und ziemlich durchgeknallte KIs mit gottgleichen Fähigkeiten treiben ihr grausames Spiel mit der Menschheit. Die ganze Geschichte hat weder Hand noch Fuß und erweckt irgendwie den Eindruck eines surrealen Bildes. George R. R. Martin, The Mystery Knight: Eine weitere Geschichte aus Westeros, ca. 100 Jahre vor den Ereignissen in 'A Game of Thrones'. 'The Mystery Knight' erzählt, wie Ser Duncan the Tall und sein Knappe Egg (Prinz Aegon Targaryen inkognito) eine zweite Blackfyre-Rebellion verhindern. Historischer Hintergrund: Cecilia Holland, The King of Norway: Abenteuergeschichte aus der Zeit der Wikinger. Robin Hobb, The Triumph: Erinnerungen eines römischen Kommandanten im Angesicht des Todes als Gefangener der Karthager, vermischt mit Rückblicken seines ältesten Freundes, der ihn als entkommener Sklave noch einmal sieht. Abenteuergeschichte aus der Zeit der punischen Kriege. Lawrence Block, Clean Slate: Die Hauptperson wurde von ihrem Vater mißbraucht und hat ihn umgebracht. Jahre später sucht und tötet sie einen nach dem anderen ihrer ehemaligen Freunde / Liebhaber; 20. Jahrhundert. Joe R. Landsdale, Soldierin': Abenteuergeschichte im amerikanischen Westen, vermutlich 2. Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Erzählung eines ehemaligen Sklaven der als Soldat der Armee so seine Probleme mit Indianern hat. Diana Gabaldon, The Custom of the Army: Lord John Grey muß im Kanada des 18. Jahrhunderts, als sich dort Franzosen und Engländer bekriegen, einem alten Freund vor dem Kriegsgericht beistehen. Steven Saylor, The Eagle and the Rabbit: Sklavenjagd der Römer auf die letzten Phönizier nach dem Untergang Karthagos. Der Adler soll das Kaninchen fangen und zu seinen neuen Herren zurückbringen. Er entscheidet sich jedoch gegen diese und für wahre Freiheit. James Rollins, The Pit: Haupt"person" ist ein Hund, der in der grausamen Welt der Hundekämpfe durch die Hölle geht, am Ende jedoch zu seinem ehemaligen Herren (dem er gestohlen wurde) zurück- sowie Vergeltung und Frieden findet. Carrie Vaughn, The Girls from Avenger: Während des zweiten Weltkrieges gab es in den USA (bereits) Pilotinnen beim Militär; zwar nicht im Kampfeinsatz, aber für Überstellungsflüge zwischen verschiedenen Luftwaffenbasen. Vor diesem Hintergrund spielt die Geschichte einer Frau, die sich gegen männlichen Chauvinismus und Vertuschungsversuche von Vorgesetzten durchsetzt und das Schicksal einer Freundin aufklärt. Howard Waldrop, Ninieslando: Unter dem Niemandsland zwischen den Fronten des ersten Weltkrieges versucht eine Gesellschaft von Esperanto-Sprechenden Vorbereitungen für eine neues, friedliches Europa zu treffen. Sie werden entdeckt, scheitern - doch die Hoffnung bleibt. David Morell, My Name Is Legion: Syrien, Juni 1941: Durch politische Verwicklungen kam es dazu, daß ein Teil der französischen Fremdenlegion gegen einen anderen kämpfen mußte - Legionär gegen Legionär, und was nie passieren hätte sollen, geschieht: zwei ehemalige Kameraden stehen sich mit der Waffe in der Hand gegenüber. David Ball, The Scroll: Im Marokko des 17. Jahrhunderts kämpfen Europäer gegen Araber. Düstere Geschichte rund um die grausamen Psychospielchen eines irren Sultans mit seinen Gefangenen. In dieser Geschichte triumphiert der Böse.

very much enjoyed this one .. all the stories held my attention some were on an obvious path but because of the quality of the writing they held my attention. Some had that twist at the end that made me go ...WHAT! WELL! Well done to all the authors. Would .. and have .. recommended this book to others.

This is a very good collection of stories to find new authors to read. I recommend reading the other versions, rogues and dangerous women. However, this contains a story from the knight of the seven kingdoms which made me feel a bit cheated as I'd already read that, and the story takes up 100+ pages of this book. But that doesn't really matter because the book is worth it anyway.