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Author Topic: Sanctuary Fantasy anthology series, anyone here familiar?  (Read 1453 times)

oggsmash

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Sanctuary Fantasy anthology series, anyone here familiar?
« on: July 08, 2021, 05:54:27 PM »
  I started re reading this series a few months ago.   I first got the book (the form I got was simply titled Sanctuary, the first compendium of the three initial anthologies) when I was young (I think 11) in a big box of science fiction/fantasy books that had belonged to my uncle (who died of cancer).   The series is straddling Sword and Sorcery with some elements of higher fantasy, epic magic does exist, but most of the characters are street level and are suitably terrified by magic, monsters, and the supernatural.   I snagged two more of the compendiums as well as a "new" copy of Sanctuary.   I wondered how many on here have ever read these stories. 

Pat
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Re: Sanctuary Fantasy anthology series, anyone here familiar?
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2021, 06:16:29 PM »
Are these the Thieves' World stories, that came out as a series of more than a dozen anthologies and several standalone books, in the 1980s? It was the start of the shared world craze, and while it was organized by Robert Lynn Aspirin, there were dozens of authors. The main city was called Sanctuary, and that was in the title of several of the books. They were definitely sword & sorcery and street level, with some epic stuff.

oggsmash

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Re: Sanctuary Fantasy anthology series, anyone here familiar?
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2021, 05:19:28 AM »
Are these the Thieves' World stories, that came out as a series of more than a dozen anthologies and several standalone books, in the 1980s? It was the start of the shared world craze, and while it was organized by Robert Lynn Aspirin, there were dozens of authors. The main city was called Sanctuary, and that was in the title of several of the books. They were definitely sword & sorcery and street level, with some epic stuff.

  Yes, thieves world was the first anthology, and Sanctuary was the name of the compendium of the first three books (thieves world, tales from the vulgar unicorn, and one I dont remember).

Pat
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Re: Sanctuary Fantasy anthology series, anyone here familiar?
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2021, 09:19:58 AM »
It's been a while, but I read almost all of them. I think I missed the last anthology or two; it felt like the series was getting tired, especially the endless Tempus stuff. I also read at least half a dozen of the novels, which generally weren't as good.

Ghostmaker

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Re: Sanctuary Fantasy anthology series, anyone here familiar?
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2021, 11:32:06 AM »
Yeah, this was Robert Asprin's 'shared universe' setting. Which was pretty neat, though it started to suffer from sequel fatigue near the end.


oggsmash

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Re: Sanctuary Fantasy anthology series, anyone here familiar?
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2021, 02:21:42 PM »
It's been a while, but I read almost all of them. I think I missed the last anthology or two; it felt like the series was getting tired, especially the endless Tempus stuff. I also read at least half a dozen of the novels, which generally weren't as good.

  I agree here I think it sort of started to be a whole lot about Tempus, who is IMO not street level, not S&S and it seemed like a lot of the short stories became a means of attempting to create a protagonist for novels.