Product Description

A Fantasy Medley features the superlative storytelling abilities of four diverse authors:

In Zen and the Art of Vampirism, Zoe Takano, the only vampire in Toronto, a city filled with supernatural creatures of Kelley Armstrong s Otherworld, finds her place in the hierarchy threatened by two interlopers.

Riding the Shore of the River of Death returns us to the world of Kate Elliott s Crown of Stars. Kareka, daughter of the begh of the Kirshat, hunts to take a man s head. It is her last opportunity to prove herself as a man or else she will find herself restricted to the role of woman and wife in the clan forever.

Robin Hobb revisits her Farseer world in Words Like Coins. Mirrifen, a failed hedge-witch s apprentice who has married to find security finds that threatened by a severe drought and the appearance of a pregnant female pecksie.

C.E. Murphy takes us to frozen Moscow in From Russia, with Love. Baba Yaga s daughter is a barmaid at a dive when Janx and Eliseo Daisani walk in. They discover, as they compete for the girl s affections, that Baba Yaga has plans for Janx and that her beautiful daughter had merely been the bait.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #779808 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Four fantasy heavyweights contribute original tales featuring intriguing female protagonists to this enthralling anthology. Kelley Armstrong expands her Women of the Otherworld series to include spunky Toronto vampire Zoe Takano, who proves herself a master of Zen and the Art of Vampirism as she fends off dimwitted trespassers. Centuries after the events of The Crown of Stars, Quman hunter Kereka struggles against her tribe's misogyny in Kate Elliott's strong but staccato Riding the Shore of the River of Death. Baba Yaga's daughter, the beautiful and quixotic narrator of C.E. Murphy's tightly crafted From Russia, with Love, turns the tables on Janx and Eliseo Daisani (familiar from Hands of Flame). Only the setting ties Robin Hobb's Words Like Coins to her Farseer trilogy, but its multilayered discussion of the power of words easily stands alone. Fans and new readers alike will find plenty to love. (Mar.)
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Customer Reviews

A Fantasy Medley edited by Yanni Kuznia
I liked three of the four stories contained in "A Fantasy Medley", edited by Yanni Kuznia and with stories by Robin Hobb, Kelley Armstrong, C.E. Murphy, and Kate Elliott. What I didn't like was the hardback price for less than 150 pages of reading! Tsk, tsk.

Kelley Armstrong provides "Zen and the Art of Vampirism" which was quite a darkly humorous tale of a pacifist vampire and her non-violent battle to defend her city against two interlopers. 23 pages.

"Riding the Shore of the River of Death" by Kate Elliott is apparently set in her 'Crown of Stars' world. I confess that I haven't read Elliott's series and that may be why I found this story the darkest, and most disappointing. A tale of a woman who risks everything to escape an unwanted life. 39 pages.

A cold and witchy tale about friendship and betrayal, "From Russia, with Love" by C.E. Murphy gives a different look at the Baba Yaga myths. 25 pages.

Robin Hobb completes the foursome with "Words Like Coins". For me, the best of the bunch and a wickedly tight tale that almost reads like a current Aesop offering. Right and wrong, and influence vs reality. 34 pages.

I'm not sorry I read "A Fantasy Medley". It's certainly quite different from the 'normal' offerings by the authors I'm familiar with. It is, however, darker fantasy than I'm used to reading. It's also, as I said before, irritatingly short for the cost.

Short but superb
What a great group of authors to come together in one book. Two stories of high fantasy and two urban fantasy authors weave their tales in this short little appetizer of a book.

I have to agree with the previous reviewer that Robin Hobb's "Words Like Coins" was the strongest story of the 4 - probably why it was last in the book. C.E. Murphy's "From Russia with Love" re-introduces Daisani and Janx from her Negotiator series and pits them against the great Baba Yaga and her daughter. Kelley Armstrong's "Zen and the Art of Vampirism" is true KA style with a strong female lead, and a dash of humor to temper the macabre. Last but not least is Kate Elliot's "Riding the Shore of the River of Death" - the longest story in the book. I think I would have ranked this story higher if I had read more of her other works and was more familiar with her world. Still, an engrossing read.

All in all, the only thing keeping me from rating this 5 stars is the fact that it is so short!