ENEMIES OF FORTUNE

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

All Thieves World anthologies appear to begin with a brief introduction by the editor which is a short vignette which sets the scene for the stories to follow.  In Enemies of Fortune, Abbey looks at the difficulties Cauvin, the protagonist of the novel Sanctuary is having with his duel role as an individual and a holder of the late Molin Torchholder s memories.  The real introduction, however, appears to follow Abbey s initial outing.

C.J. Cherryh & Jane Fancher collaborated to write "Widowmaker," which seems more an introduction than anything else.  The shipwreck of the titular vessel figures into several of the other stories, whether directly, as in Lynn Abbey s Good Neighbors or merely in a passing reference.  However, the story doesn t really come to a conclusion.  Following on the heels of Abbey s introduction to this volume of Thieves World stories, "Widowmaker" feels like a second introduction.  Its importance, however, comes later in the volume in the story "Legacies," by the same authors.

"Deadly Ritual" sees the first character to return from the Turning Points.  Mickey Zucker Reichert s Dysan, a short in stature refugee from the Dyareelan slave/torture pits.  In this story, Dysan appears to become slightly more trusting of the women who have taken him in and also begins to explore a sense of community which leads him to try to avert a deadly ritual by Dyareelans.  His adventures place him into close proximity to many of the other characters, such as Pel and Lone, which helps provide reminders to the reader of the characters who populated the earlier volume.

One of the most memorable characters from the earlier book was Dennis L. McKiernan s Rogi, the stunted man with an inordinate fondness for his Dragon.  Rogi reappears in "Pricks and Afflictions," along with his mathter, H lott.  While the main story deals with Rogi s discovery of a chest from the wreck of the "Widowmaker," McKiernan includes a subplot in the story focusing on an assassination which clearly has set in place a larger, more ongoing plot in Sanctuary.

While Dysan is a refugee from the Dyareelan slave pits, Jody Lynn Nye s healer Pel Garwood is also a refugee from the Dyareelans, although Pel appears to have been more of a priest than a slave.  In "Consequences," when Pel isn t dealing with Dysan or his other typical clients, Pel finds himself attending the current ruler of Sanctuary, Arizak.  Although Pel has always demonstrated admirable loyalty to his new trade, he quickly finds himself in a dilemma contemplating the consequences of his actions when each of Arizak s sons approach him with dire warnings if their father s fate does not take the specific turn each one wants.  Pel is one of the more intriguing character so far introduced into the new generation of Thieves World and one hopes that Nye elects to reveal more of his background, reasons for joining the Bloody Hand, and the cause of his conversion, in future episodes.

While Lynn Abbey introduced Cauvin in Sanctaury, her stories in the anthologies have been following Bezulshash, the changer, and his family.  In "Good Neighbors," she focuses on the most recent addition to Bezul s clan, Dace, a crippled Nighter who was rescued by the family and who repays their kindness by becoming the family cook.  When Dace becomes involved in running messages for family darksheep Perrez and the low-rent whore Geddie, his personality takes a major turn as Abbey introduces opah, a new drug into Sanctuary.  She also includes more of the remnants of the shipwreck and  reveals more about the mysterious Lord Night who appears to be running much of Sanctuary s underworld, much as Jubal did in the original series.

Selina Rosen introduced one of the more annoying Sanctuarians in "Ritual Evolution" in Turning Points.  Although Kaytin still has the annoying tendency of referring to himself in the third person in Gathering Strength, he is no longer longing after the swordswoman Kadasah.  Instead, he has caught her, or vice versa, and now the bloom is off the rose and he half wishes he could free himself from her, while realizing that he really doesn t have any skills of his own.

The plot of Andrew Offutt's "Dark of the Moon" builds slowly, giving the impression that the story is more about building the character of Lone, which it does, as he searches for a mysterious girl, Janithe. Offutt builds both characters and their setting with wit before he gets down to the secret which ties "Dark of the Moon" to a much older fantasy tradition. At the same time, Offutt provides information about the current Sanctuary power structure with the Sharda, apparently a version of latter day Hellhounds from the first series. If the story disappoints in any way, it is that once Offutt telegraphed its direction, he remained on that course.

Regan Vigeles (a.k.a. Lord Spyder) returns in Robin Wayne Bailey's "Protection."  With its dark plots and colorful characters, Sanctuary is the perfect place to attempt to run a protection racket.  The mistake made by Topo, the head of the racket that targets Vigeles, is one of a rank newcomer to Sanctuary who expects that everything in the city is exactly what it appears to be.  Bailey's tale is a reminder to the reader that nothing in Sanctuary should be taken for granted.

Jane Fancher & C.J. Cherryh continue the story that began in " Widowmaker" with "Legacies."  The two authors, however, seem much more intent on continuing to build the mystery of Kadithe Mur of Sanctuary and Captain Camargen, of the Widowmaker.  While some aspects of their stories are completed, most of them lead to more convolutions.  Fancher and Cherryh clearly have plans for their characters and their stories to carry into future Thieves World novels.  While from a story telling point of view this is wonderful and lets them take their time in the telling, it leaves the reader of Enemies of Fortune hanging.

Words have power and Jeff Grubb began examining those powerful words in Sanctuary with his character Heliz Yunz in the story "Apocalypse Noun" in Turning Points.  Yunz is back in  "Malediction" wherein Grubb reveals that for all the Hellishness of Sanctuary, there is truly a Hell which is worse.  In addition to giving other authors a tremendous fuel for puns, Grubb allows his sense of humor to show through in "Malediction" as his linguist fallen on hard times tries not only to make ends meet, but to meet the obligations he picked up in the earlier book.  Yunz shows himself, once again, to be among the crop of stand-out characters from Thieves World.

Just as Andrew Offutt has been following his character from the earlier series through his successor, Diana L. Paxson has been following the descendant of Lalo the Limner in her stories.  In Enemies of Fortune, she is joined by Ian Grey to tell of "The Ghost in the Phoenix," about a mysterious presence in the inn run by Lalo's family.  The authors use multiple viewpoint characters, notably Latilla and Sula, Lalo's daughter and granddaughter. They are joined by Sula's long-absent twin brother, Taran, and his intriguing friend G'han.  As with many of the stories in Enemies of Fortune, this one revolves around the shipwreck off the coast.

The volume ends with a newcomer to Sanctuary and Thieves World.  Given his Vlad Taltos stories and his previous work in the Liavek shared world, Steven Brust would seem a natural to populate the streets and alleys of Sanctuary.  "The Man from Shemhaza" is a good Thieves World story which takes heartily the lesson which Topo should have learned in Bailey's "Protection," but it lacks the edginess one has come to expect from Steven Brust.  Told in the first person, it may be the first Thieves World story not told in the third person, which does set it apart and the twist Brust provides, makes for a good ending for the book, but, let us hope, not for the series.

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