Reviews – Legends II

Paul Cole reported the following on the 15 Feb Sunday Mercury:

Legends II
THE premise is simple. Invite the biggest names in science fiction and fantasy to revisit the worlds they’ve created and offer a new slant on the stories that have already made them best-sellers.

Hence the second helping of Legends finds Raymond E. Feist back in Riftwar territory, Anne McCaffrey breathing new fire into the dragons of Pern and George R. Martin singing a new song of Ice and Fire.

But surprisingly it’s the new kids on the block who rule the roost, even if the likes of Tad Williams and Neil Gaiman are hardly spring chickens when it comes to this neck of the wild woods…

…Britpacker Gaiman, meanwhile, bridges the gap between his acclaimed American Gods and forthcoming Anansi Boys, with a short story which finds protagonist Shadow in Scotland.

Ancient gods drawn from the world’s mythologies are still warring with their contemporary counterparts – the more glamorous gods of television, technology and the media.

The Monarch Of The Glen gives the exercise a tartan tint and suggests that the scope for Shadow’s continuing quest for peace could well be limitless. These two tales are worth the price of admission alone.

***

From Dorman Shindler’s review of Legends II from the January 25th Austin American Statesman:

Though Gaiman is just now completing the second novel in his American Gods series, Silverberg finds his cutting-edge fantasy work so mind-blowing that he was included here with The Monarch of the Glen, a short story about a creature known as “the Shadow” who is recruited as bodyguard for a wealthy man. It’s a dark and disturbing piece that — in some ways — is reminiscent of works by the Brothers Grimm