Many years ago (maybe even 25 years ago) I bought a paperback edition of Legends, an anthology edited by Robert Silverberg. This book contained four novellas from noted writers: Stephen King, Robert Silverberg, Orson Scott Card, and Raymond E. Feist. By chance I looked through this book a week or two ago, and saw it was listed as Volume I. The cover is tan-colored, almost golden. Maybe when I bought it I saw the Volume I (though it only appears inside the book, not on the cover), but I never looked for another volume. Or, maybe not, as at the time I think I read maybe one of those four stories. But, I kept the book…
When I hit up some bookstores this weekend, I checked out the SF paperback anthology section. Usually there’s just Star Trek novels or other tie-in books. On the other hand, I’m only on the lookout for older anthologies, especially DAW editions of SF, fantasy, horror. However, in this one instance I came across a green cover with the word “Legends,” and it turned out to be Volume 2 of that series. There were actually two copies, and one was in great shape. When I picked up this book, I thought to myself, “Aha, now I have them both!” That was not the case… I do find it funny that the “New Novels” text has the word, “short” in tiny font, almost tricking the reading into buying the books.
In a funny twist of fate, at the next bookstore I found a hardcover copy of Legends, which contained even more stories, so my two copies were’t the full set. I debated whether or not to try to wait for what I thought would be a paperback copy of volume 3, but bought the hardback anyway. Strangely enough, the next day I came across a battered copy of Volume 3, this one in all black, which I held off buying. Both my two paperback volumes were published in late 1999, so finding a pristine paperback copy of the third edition might be like winning a small lottery, as until this weekend I don’t think I’ve come across any copies anywhere.
The hardback collects 11 novellas: the paperback splits these among three books. At over 700 pages, the hardback is a massive tome, but then the authors all are major names in the field: Terry Pratchett, King, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, and many others. Each story takes place in familiar fantastical world, unique to the author. What a treasure!
Legends originally appeared in 1998. Martin’s contribution is the first in a series of stories (I think), that now has been made into an HBO series, featuring a pair of characters with the strange names, Dunk and Egg. The story takes place in his Game of Thrones world (aka the novel that started with, A Song of Fire and Ice). I’ve never ready any of those novels, but Game of Thrones has taken on a life of its own since Martin first wrote about that world many years ago. King’s novella takes place in his Dark Tower world, Pratchett’s in Discworld, Le Guin’s in Earthsea, and so on. These writers all truly are “legends” when it comes to fantasy fiction, and I’m thrilled to finally have all the stories in one volume. The question now, is what to do with those two paperback books…?
