Sword and Sorceress III by Marion Zimmer BradleyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A great collection of 20 short stories of women in fantasy settings (one more sci-fi than fantasy though) weither they be wielding a sword in battle or conjuring magic each has her own strength and character.
As each story is written by a different author there is a small introduction to each written by Marion, and a brief explanation as to why their story was chosen to be published in this edition.
I completed reading this over a long period of time, allowing myself to read other books in between short stories or groups of short stories.
Each story deserves its own rating as some were brilliant and some not so good, but they were all entertaining and those I didn't like were over soon enough.
If you want to know about an individual story I wrote a little about each one as I read in my status updates.
View all my reviews
Reading Progress
| 08/24 | marked as: | to-read | ||
| 09/28 | marked as: | currently-reading | ||
| 10/07 | page 35 | 12.28% | "Dragon Amber - A beautiful short story of nature magic and dragons. :-)" | |
| 10/29 | page 46 | 16.14% | "Enter the Wolf. For a very short story it certainly packs a lot in. A woman is given the rights of the wolf from the wolf mother and a quest to retrieve what was stolen from them the day the rest of the pack was murdered. Filled with magic and a bit of action. I actually loved this one." | |
| 11/18 | page 54 | 18.95% | "Valley of the Shadow, only 7 pages long but beautifully written, it could almost be a poem. A beautiful woman ennters a tavern of assassins but she might just surprise them." | |
| 12/06 | page 90 | 31.58% | "Journeytime: a story of war and religion. Ezme finds her path and herself in great battle outside of the temple wals, she learns truth and honour and becomes a woman and finds family in her new friends. This one brought a tear to the eye." | |
| 12/16 | page 96 | 33.68% | "Orpheus; a very short little story about two women paid to walk into hell itself, and why you should not try to f@ck them over" | |
| 12/31 | page 112 | 39.3% | "Scarlet Eyes Ok this one is kinda creepy. We follow the point of view of Den a sword for hire and his sister. Den was drugged by thieves last night and is having trouble getting his head to remember things straight and can't figure out why he keeps thinking of his life as family legends or why he remembers things that have not occurred yet." | |
| 05/24 | page 122 | 42.0% | "The River of Tears. A woman learning to heal learns the most important lesson when she comes face to face with the Death Crone." | |
| 05/24 | page 155 | 54.0% | "Fresh Blood For a short story written by a nun, thia story has loads of plot and two bomb shells, the last one being a doozy. 14 year old princess Naila is unhappy with the way her lands are ruled, despite being the crowned leader it's the priests of the Plumed Jaguar cult that truely rule." | |
| 05/30 | page 173 | 60.0% | "The Mist On The Moor. Based loosely on a Norse Myth this tale of discovery and emotional release gives us a beautiful story of inner strength and truth." | |
| 05/30 | page 179 | 62.0% | "Bargains. HAHAHA! This is seriously short but so funny. Karma is a bitch people." | |
| 05/30 | page 194 | 68.0% | "A Woman's Privilege: The story of a brother and sister put in a dangerous situation and having to come up with the best way out of the situation with as little death as possible." | |
| 05/30 | page 201 | 70.0% | "Talla: This one was short and fascinating. Though Marion says she finds this story gruesome I can't see how. It is an interesting look at the price of magic and what a person is willing to pay for the one they love." | |
| 05/30 | page 211 | 74.0% | "Tupilak: fascinating story written with an Innuit lore creature at its centre. Story of a Sharman, magic and revenge. Included is a short explanation about the original lore of the creature mentioned." | |
| 05/31 | page 238 | 83.0% | "Sword Sworn: WOW! Although short this story has so much happen. *Trigger warning* Though raped and beaten within an inch of her life Tarma is spared and with the help of her goddess she will avenge her slaughtered clan. The subject is beautifully dealt with and a really great story is told. A promise of more adventures for these characters is exciting." | |
| 06/05 | page 246 | 86.0% | "A Tale From Hendry's Mill - so this is a weird one. About a strange girl with no selfworth but just seems confused, who gets raped and foils the plot of the 'demon' who raped her. More weird than anything else." | |
| 06/05 | page 262 | 91.0% | "S.A.R - This one started out ok, but the ending made it sci-fi. An opening for further stories." | |
| 06/05 | page 269 | 94.0% | "More's the Pity - bitter sweet short story about an aging warriors regret." | |
| 06/05 | page 282 | 98.0% | "Marwe's Forest. - Ok, it's very sweet and well written and answers questions you may have never asked" | |
| 06/05 | page 285 | 100.0% | "The Hunters - Only 3 pages but I loved it. A quick little tale." | |
| 06/05 | marked as: | read | ||
