Of the stories in this collection, I found only two I really, really liked: that by King and Pratchett. Everything else, including Martin's The Hedge Knight (surprising because I like his Ice & Fire series), was rather...blah.

The concept behind this weighty 1998 tome was the publication of new short novels and stories by “legendary” creators of popular fantasy worlds – original adventures of their heroes, sequels, or prequels foreshadowing the events chronicled in their classic series. I’ve never been a big fan of fantasy fiction – my usually broad interests encompass hard sci-fi among other forms of popular and classic literature.George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire has been a major deviation for me. I’ve beco...

My main reason for buying this book initially was the new Robert Jordan story "New Spring," which sheds light on certain events in the Wheel of Time series. That it also had stories by some of my other favorite authors, Tad Williams and Anne McCaffrey was a bonus. I didn't read all the stories included (I wasn't interested in the King or Silverberg ones at all), but I found most of them quite enjoyable. Marketing genius here: I started reading the Alvin Maker (Card), Discworld (Pratchett), Riftw...

Based on the quality of the writing this is mostly 4 stars at least, these are experienced writers who all know their business. However there are a couple of other things to consider.Firstly there are only 11 tales in this very thick book, so these are quite long short stories, longer than i prefer.But the more substantial issue is that, while all anthologies are to some degree, advertising for an authors work, this collection goes a step further. Each tale is set in a particular world, so LeGui...

An incredible array of talent in this book is amply displayed with quality short stories and novellas.It's impossible to list and recap them all as there are 11 tales included.Suffice it to say the editor has done a sterling job of bringing some of the biggest and best names of fantasy together and putting them all in one book.Fans will love returning to the mythical worlds these fantasy novelists have created and all give a little more insight into the books involved in each series.Bought this

I requested this book in order to read the first of the Dunk and Egg tales by George R. R. Martin. Typically I'm not very enthusiastic about anthologies, because they tend to be huge (meaning they take forever to read) and uneven (meaning I have to slog through boring stories in order to get to the ones I enjoy). Although this clocks in at 715 pages and therefore fills the first downfall, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the stories contained herein. Most of them are actually pretty

I really enjoyed reading this compilation of short stories in the fantasy genre. I've read a few of the big name fantasy series, but still not a ton, and this was a good way to get introduced to some other fictional worlds. I'd only read work by three of the 11 authors in the book, two of which I've read the series the short story is meant to be companion to. Hands down my favorite was Terry Pratchett's short story about Granny Weatherwax. I'd never read any of his work before, but own ebook cop...

Epic fantasy was big in the nineties. Both commercially, and physically. It made sense, therefore, for someone to provide a little (or, in fact, quite big) roadmap: eleven little introductions to eleven very big authors. The genius, and great virtue, of Legends is that it gathers in one place works by, and in the most popular settings of, most of the most iconic fantasy writers of the age, making this a wonderful entrance point for writers you might otherwise not have read (perhaps intimidated b...

Released twenty-odd years ago, Legends could be easily construed as a 600-page ad for a bunch of sprawling fantasy series, many of which were far from complete at the time, some of which are roughly equally far from complete now... As one would expect, the quality of the individual stories is somewhat varied; most manage to tell reasonably entertaining self-contained stories, though several were definitely not my cup of tea. As an anthology, I think it suffers from having no unifying theme beyon...

The book was an excellent showcase for some of the most famous fantasy series out there. Perfect for me to get a glimpse and decide a ”to read next” list, since many have not been translated into my language and I knew only their names. The average would be 3/5, but it gets an extra star for that great idea and for the enthusiasm with which I read through them like opening mysterious Christmas presents.Stephen King tells a tale of Roland, the Gunslinger, in the world of The Dark Tower, in "The L...

Excellent short story collection. I really loved almost all off them .The Dark Tower: The Little Sisters of Eluria: 5/5Discworld: The Sea and Little Fishes - 5/5The Sword of Truth: Debt of Bones - 4/5Tales of Alvin Maker: Grinning Man - 1/5Majipoor: The Seventh Shrine - 4/5Earthsea: Dragonfly -4/5Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: The Burning Man - 5/5A Song of Ice and Fire: The Hedge Knight - 4/5Pern: Runner of Pern - 3/5The Riftwar Saga: The Wood Boy - 3/5The Wheel of Time: New Spring - 3,5/5

I'm not going to spend a lot of time grading every story, but will say the book overall was a good read. I really enjoyed Jordan's contribution and thought Martin's tale was the best of the book. I really did not care for Card's story... an oddity since I have liked his other works. But no other clunkers to be found, and that makes this a solid compilation. A 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounding up for high caliber authors inside.

A good overview of some of the best fantasy authors there is. Personally I only thouroghly enjoyed a few of the stories, mostly Ursula. K. Le Guinn's and Silverberg's, but none the less it was worthwhile to get a sample from each.

Since this is an anthology of short stories from a number of fantasy series writers I'll give a quick run down of my feelings about them individually. Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Little Sisters of Eluria. I love the Dark Tower series, and I remember searching this anthology out just to read Little Sisters when I was reading The Dark Tower books. It remaninds one of my favorite King short stories, but that may just be because I love Roland so much. :) Terry Prachett: Discworld: The Sea and...

I remember back when this first came out, and it was a Big Deal -- not just an anthology, but an original fantasy anthology (no reprints here!), and eleven Big Name fantasy authors writing all-new novellas set in their famous fantasy worlds. (And yes, I did read it back when it first came out, but this is my first return to it in, oh god, help me, 23 years.)And it was a pretty huge success, and spawned effectively a whole series of successors -- Legends II, most obviously, but also such later vo...

This is really a brilliant idea for a collection, and the execution is fantastic. If you follow long-form fantasy at all, you'll probably at least recognize all of these authors, and each story is a pretty good capsule of the author's style and world. I've found that my reaction to the story maps pretty closely to my reaction to the series as a whole, and so this was a great way to encounter authors I hadn't yet read (Terry Pratchett, most notably - the Granny Weatherwax story is perfect and a p...

The stories I read from this collection are:'The Hedge Night' by George R.R. MartinWhat a phenomenal story. I'm glad I was introduced to Dunk and Egg in the Warriors anthology, even if it meant reading these characters' stories out of order.'Grinning Man' by Orson Scott CardAn interesting story set in a unique alternative America. I was particularly fond of the "knack" magic system. This story makes me want to read other Alvin Maker tales, despite my reservations that the character is based on T...

The eleven stories with in this first "Legends" anthology are by some of the best writers of fantasy and science fiction, both in prose and sales. Edited by Robert Silverberg, who also contributed as well, the stories range within their established fictional worlds from stand alone either connect with the main series or in-between main series books or prequels with mixed results.The best stories whether, stand alone or prequel, had the same things in common. First the reader did not need to know...

The Dark Tower: The Little Sisters of Eluria: 3/5Decent, but I gave up on this series after the fourth book. So no real connection or investment in the short story for the series.Discworld: The Sea and Little Fishes - 4/5I always enjoy a visit to Pratchett's Discworld and Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are big favorites.The Sword of Truth: Debt of Bones - 1/5A short story from a series I really do not like. I can't stand the way Goodkind writes women (or antagonists, or protagonists, or humans)...

I picked this collection up primarily because it is the only place I could find online that had the first of George R. R. Martin's Dunk and Egg stories set in the Song of Ice and Fire series and wasn't priced preposterously high. As a whole, the collection was well worth it for the rest of the stories it contained. Some were bound to be better than others, of course, but there were a few gems. Since this is an anthology, I've tried to keep up with my opinions of each of the stories it contained