This is an anthology of short stories taking place in well-knows fantasy series. I will update my review as I read more stories, but for now this is only a partial one. River of Souls. Series: Wheel of Time, Author: Brandon Sanderson. I admit this was the main attraction for me. The whole story is a big spoiler for something which is revealed in the last book of the huge series, so even the slightest hint on the plot would contain some. I will try to at least minimize them and just mention that

Searching for some references related to Wheel of Time universe, I came across upon this anthology and I have found to be a very admirably initiative in creating it - around 20 well-known writers contributed with a story to help the editor, Shawn Speakman, to cover his expenses related to cancer treatment. However, with the tales themselves, it is another story... Half of them are built upon a tragic disease, or a death, or something alike. Maybe it's just me, but, given the circumstances this a...

I admit it.I'm biased.I think Unfettered is more badass than Patrick Rothfuss's beard.That said, I am a fantasy fan first. I always will be. And I am perhaps even more judgmental of projects that I am working on than those I'm not. So when I say Unfettered is a solid fantasy anthology and deserves to be read, I mean it.There are several short stories in here that should be nominated for Hugo Awards. No joke. And the rest are solid entries. There are two I'd love to see grown into full length nov...

Yes, I have a story in this anthology so my rating comes from all stories except "The Jester" - I'll leave it to others to say how well I did on that particular piece. I am going to provide the brief intro to my piece, though, in the hopes that finding out what my story is about will help others take a look.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------The characters of Royce and Hadrian came to me during my self-imposed ten-year hiatus from writing. After crafti...

★Meta: ISFDB, edited by Shawn SpeakmanDozois praised this anthology to be one of the year's best. The author list is impressing as well, any hard core fan of Brooks, Rothfuss, Williams etc. would probably order it instantly. Especially knowing that it is a kind of charity where authors donated stories to help the editor out of financial debts imposed by his medical situation, treating cancer. This alone is a curiosity for my cultural background: Here in Germany, everyone has health insurance, no...

I'm assuredly not the only person who bought this anthology just for the Wheel of Time story, "River of Souls". I've had this release on my calendar ever since Brandon Sanderson revealed that this story would be in it, and having spent fourteen-plus Wheel of Time books wondering about the mysterious country off the edge of the map, it was worth it just for a glimpse of the fabled Shara.Having satisfied my curiosity by jumping straight to the Wheel of Time entry, I then backtracked and read the e...

This was a rather enjoyable anthology. I read some stories, skimmed others and skipped some. I might go back and read/re-read some of these in the future, but for now, here are individual ratings of the ones I did read.Imaginary Friends by Terry Brooks: 3 starsHow Old Holly Came To Be by Patrick Rothfuss: 2 starsThe Old Scale Game by Tad Williams: 2 starsThe Martyr of the Roses by Jacqueline Carey: 4 starsMudboy by Peter V. Brett: 3 starsSelect Mode by Mark Lawrence: 4 starsRiver of Souls by Rob...

The editor of this Anthology, Shawn Speakman, was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. Because he had no health insurance, Terry Brooks offered to give him a short story to help defray the medical costs. He also told Shawn that he should ask other authors to contribute to as well. This book is what came of that. Most of the stories are very good, with a few that are outstanding, and only 1 or 2 were duds. Here is a list of the stories, and what I thought about them. Imaginary Friends by Terry Brooks

I'm of mixed opinions. I'd buy the book just to help out Shawn, so the money is well spent.Many stories were great (Tad Williams, Peter Brett, Todd Lockwood, Kevin Hearne, Eldon Thompson, Michael Sullivan, and Shawn Speakman).Two I had high hopes for but wasn't impressed (Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson). Both lacked enough substance for me. A few more weren't even fantasy (!!!) for whatever reason, so those sucked (RA Salvatore, Daniel Abraham, David Durham). I was also really unimpressed w...

Over the last couple weeks, people have been asking me about this anthology, where my first-ever short story published. But I can't write an honest review of it yet, as I haven't had a chance to read it all the way through. I can say that what I've read so far, I've really liked. In addition to that, I did write the introduction to the book, and since that explains what the anthology is all about, I'm going to put that up here so people can see it. * * *Can I be honest here? I don't read forewor...

Well I've yet to read any of the stories except mine ... but mine's off the hook :D go buy this!http://grimoakpress.com/2012/08/unfet...Apparently the leather-bound + signed by all the author copies went in a hurry but you can still snag a fine trade edition.I expect some of those other guys are ok too...

I've started reading this short story collection, and so far I'm definitely enjoying it. I'll keep updating my review as I progress through it. - Imaginary Friends by Terry Brooks => I really enjoyed this story, it's very well written and I liked the combination of the two worlds, with how each fantastical adventure was preceded by a hit on the head. It made for an interesting story, where you could view it as all in the kid's imagination, or that it was real. The whole brain cancer (or whatev...

What a wonderful anthology! I have fallen off on reading collections lately, but I am such a total Kevin Hearne fangirl that I started looking for this one as soon as he mentioned it on Facebook. I bought it as soon as I heard of its release, and womanfully resisted skipping straight to the Iron Druid story.I truly enjoyed most of the stories included. I did just stop reading the baseball story when I realized that it was horror, and skipped over "Dogs" for the same reason. Terry Brooks' piece d...

This is an Anthology put together by Shawn Speakman in order to help to pay off his medical bills which came after getting cancer for the second time. Due to being a cancer survivor before he was unable to get insurance and is now very much in need of financial help. All of the stories were donated by various authors and there were no restraints put on what they could include and write about.It's hard to rate the book as a whole because there are such a mix of authors, stories, lengths and genre...

All in all, I found the quality of the stories I read to be excellent and would definitely highly recommend this anthology. The stories I read from this collection are: 'Imaginary Friends' by Terry Brooks This story about a boy defeating a mythical manifestation of his own cancer functions not only as a good opening story, introducing the anthology and hinting at the kind of material it features, but also as a nod to the purpose behind it, as the stories in this anthology were all donated by the...

As with another anthology I did recently, I will(have to) grade each story separately and use the average to give the book the overall score; seeing as how the book isn't all by one author taking place in the same universe.The average rating is 2.4 Star out of 22 stories(didn't finish one of the stories)"Imaginary Friends" by Terry BrooksIt's good that Terry put his life on hold and placed time and effort into helping out a friend without looking for any compensation in return.... doesn't change...

Originally posted on The ArchedDoorwayNormally in my reviews I’ll take a step back, and try to remove all bias. They’re formulaic: a description, the good, the bad, something else good, a general summary, and the release date of the novel, or the sequel, if there is one. That’s not something I did here. Be warned, this is a long one.Unfettered is a fantasy anthology, containing stories from many of the biggest names in fantasy out there right now. It’s a wonderful amalgamation of talent, put tog...

This collection was selected as the group read in one of my groups, as we like to try to do a collection to start off the year. Kind of easing into things, you know. Lots of little stories, generally a lot of discussion going on... nothing too crazy. But the last two years have been a bust for me. I did actually finish last year's selection, but it was not enjoyable. This year... I'm abandoning ship. It's not that the stories aren't good, or the writing is crap... It's just that I really have lo...

Perhaps the best anthology of fantasy stories I've read. Some better than others, but no real duds.As an added bonus, several authors contributed tales related to their greater corpus, which for one reason or another haven't or couldn't previously be published. The reader gets a sampler of the the best current fantasy writers unfettered by commercial, logical or continuity demands.Patrick Rothfuss is correct: the introductory remarks--his, Shawn's and the authors--are largely a waste of time.A v...

Shawn Speakman delivers a powerful and wonderful anthology. This is a must read for any fantasy fan. Go now and get yourself a copy. This is the TLDR ( too long didn't read) version of the review.Now for those interested in the why's and why not's then reader further. Imaginary Friends - Terry Brooks A master of fantasy writing, Terry Brooks gives us this wonderful story of magic in the real world. Told through the eyes of a child that experiences a fantastic world of elves and dragons. Do you...