Lammas Night

by Doranna Durgin, Laura Anne Gilman, Jason Henderson, et al.

Book Overview

Protecting a small village while visiting the house of her predecessor, a young spell weaver accidentally breaks the spell that held her predecessor's spirit and finds herself being courted by a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671877135
• ISBN13: 9780671877132
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Unbelievable! If you celebrate seasons, you need this book!

This book is amazing. The reviewer above who was disappointed in an anthology obviously never looked at the contents to see what she was buying. This is one of the best pieces of fantasy I have ever read. Each author puts their own spin on a basic premise designed by Mercedes Lackey. Some of the authors I recognized, some I didn't. A brief introduction of each author would have been helpful, but didn't detract from the story. If anyone figures out why the pig story is in there, please let me know. Also,the last entry could have been left out and the book would have had a better ending. I hope this comes out in a collector's edition someday because it's going on the shelf next to Shakespear, Homer, and Chaucer as a commentary on the human condition. This is a must-have for anyone who likes to read through the ancient seasons of the year!

amazing

this was one of the best books i have read!!!! the difference in the stories were interesting and enjoyable. i have read this book several times always picking it up again and again! i've read many many different kinds of fantasy novels and this book has some of the more interesting collections of stories that are based on the same theme

Loved it, interesting concept

This was a very interesting collection of stories. It's neat to see how different authors interpreted the song and provided their own little twists. To the people who say that the story is repetitive...You have no idea what you were talking about. Each story was different from the one before it; though the main points were the same (ghost, spell, Lammas night), that was the only thing that was. I found myself enjoying the stories and wondering how each author would make each one new and interesting. I especially loved Miranda and Lady of the Rock. If you find the stories repetitive, read them one at a time whenever you feel bored.

Give a bunch of authors a seed & see what they come up with

I really enjoyed this book. It is a bunch of short stories, with a twist. Josepha Sherman took a song written by Mercedes Lackey, and has several authors use it as the basis for a short story. The result is several short stories with similar plots. But, few of the stories are actually similar. The various authors came up with some interesting plot twists.

A variety of writers expand upon Lackey's story premise

This book is based upon a fascinating premise: take a poem, written by Mercedes Lackey, and use its basic outline to create a story. The basic outline remains the same: wandering female mage settles into the house of the village's former (male) mage, and finds herself courted by a phantom, who she realizes she can bring to life on Lammas Eve.The interesting thing is to see how these elements are used by the different writers to bring their characters to life. Each of the main characters is imbued by her author with a different background, abilities and vulnerabilities, just as each phantom is given different reasons and tone (save for the constant element of the floral offering found by her plate which reappears in each story).The ending varies as well, according to the authors' whim (the original poem was open ended). Is it sometimes repetitious, as cited in another review? Yes. But rarely has an anthology illustrated so well the difference an author's "voice" makes in a story. In addition to providing some interesting sci fi short stories, this collection provides readers with insight into the creative process that is fiction writing as well.