Legends 3 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Having said that, I'll tell you this book is excellent. Robert Silverberg, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, Ursula Le Guin, and Terry Pratchett are the authors in this volume.

Someone in another review on this page foolishly said that the writers were "selling out"; that they wrote these novellas only to make some money, and promote their older writings. How wrong! While it certainly couldn't hurt any of their careers to write these short stories, every true author has stories inside him that would not make a full-length novel. Does that mean that the stories should never be written? That the stories should never see the light of day because of some fool who can't see beyond the end of his nose, claiming "sell out!"? No, these stories were written because the authors felt the *need* to write them.

The stories are the perfect opportunity for these very famous authors to spin more tales; tales that otherwise would go unwritten and unpublished, were it not for the mythopoeic idea to collect the smaller stories of these folks into one (er... three...) volumes.

The standout novella in this collection is Tad Williams' "The Burning Man", the story of a young girl with a mad stepfather, living in a haunted castle... the SAME castle that young Seoman lives in, years later, in Williams' beloved "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" epic. This story is not to be missed! The soulful writing, punctuated by Williams' creative storytelling, make this story the very best in the collection, and well worth the read.

Robert Jordan's tale, "New Spring", is the story of Moiraine Sedai and Lan the Warder, years before Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series begins. While of interest only to those who have read Jordan's continuing series, the story is nonetheless well-written.

Robert Silverberg writes "The Seventh Shrine", a tale of Majipoor, as well as the introduction. Terry Pratchett writes a new "Discworld" novella, and Ursula Le Guin's tale, Dragonfly, is another story from her "Earthsea" series.

Altogether, this is a collection worth reading, and saving; let's hope the authors will consider compiling a new collection in the future, ignoring those who disparagingly call them 'sell-outs'...

There are four stories in Legends 3:

New Spring, by Robert Jordan, a Wheel of Time story.

Dragonfly, by Ursula K. Le Guin, an Earthsea story.

The Burning Man, by Tad Williams, a Memory, Sorrow and Thorn story.

The Sea and Little Fishes, by Terry Pratchett, a Discworld story.

This is a case where they saved the best for last :) Each story gets progressively better. I thought I would go ahead and read this book rather than return it since I am always on the lookout for new (to me) fantasy writers. After all the hype about Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I must say I was sorely dissappointed. The story was fairly interesting, and maybe the books are better than this short story, but I can't say I'm in much of a hurry to buy them now. However, I think maybe my daughter might like the children's versions.

Dragonfly was better, and the ending was the best part of all. If this was the beginning of the series, I'd be much more likely to want to buy the books, but from what I can figure out, this happens at the end of the series. Will we ever find out what happens next? I kinda doubt it. There hasn't been a new book in this series for a long time. But, I might eventually check this series out.

The Burning Man was pretty cool. It seemed to kinda stand alone though. Can't really imagine what the series is like.

The Sea and Little Fishes was the coolest. The whole Discworld thing, the world being flat and flying thru space on the backs of four elephants riding on a giant turtle was a little weird, but that hardly had anything at all to do with the story. It was about witches, not so much about magic as how they interacted with one another and with the mortals all around them. I think I'd like to read more of these.

I hope you find this helpful and don't make the same mistake that I did, thinking all of these stories are in one book, because they are actually in three. If you did find it helpful, please vote that you did. Thanks!