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A review by mattlefevers
Unfettered by Shawn Speakman
4.0
I'm assuredly not the only person who bought this anthology just for the Wheel of Time story, "River of Souls". I've had this release on my calendar ever since Brandon Sanderson revealed that this story would be in it, and having spent fourteen-plus Wheel of Time books wondering about the mysterious country off the edge of the map, it was worth it just for a glimpse of the fabled Shara.
Having satisfied my curiosity by jumping straight to the Wheel of Time entry, I then backtracked and read the entire book start-to-finish. Reading any anthology of different authors front-to-back is a mixed bag, but I'm happy to say there was nothing in here I really disliked, and quite a few that I loved.
Patrick Rothfuss's story was the other main selling point for me, and while it's a bit left of the center, I can't say I was let down. It reads more like a song or a children's rhyme than a narrative, but Rothfuss is a master craftsman of words and always, always worth reading.
Because this is fantasy, nearly all of these stories are tiny offshoots of larger universes, but the fact that I haven't read most of these authors' trilogies or series didn't blunt my enjoyment. There is a range of tone here, from the slightly silly dragon-comedy of "The Old Scale Game" by Tad Williams to Todd Lockwood's very haunting "Keeper of Memory". "Heaven in a Wild Flower" by Blake Charlton feels like magical realism in a beautiful, surreal way, and "The Unfettered Knight" (by the book's own editor, Shawn Speakman) is a clever Dan Brown-esque mashup of Celtic myth, Catholicism, and vampires.
My favorite entry in the entire thing is by an author I have never heard of, Peter Orullian. "The Sound of Broken Absolutes" is a novella about a magic system based on music theory, with notes that can heal a broken body and a song that will tear a man apart. The writing is spectacular, rich with grief and regret, and I was completely absorbed and haunted by it.
I didn't hate any of the stories, but a couple were slightly frustrating. "The Chapel Perilous" had a little too much -- for lack of a better word -- smug-hero-coolness for me, and Lev Grossman's "The Duel" is written so informally and with so much slang that it feels like a high school kid watched a great fantasy movie and then tried to describe it to you. The Naomi Novik story was bewildering because I actually have read some of her Temeraire series, and this dragons-on-Mars sci-fi story apparently has nothing at all to do with it except for sharing character names (odd). Even the weaker stories are worthwhile, though... I didn't get to the end of any of them and wish for my time back or anything.
I would recommend the entire book based solely on the Orullian story, though.
Having satisfied my curiosity by jumping straight to the Wheel of Time entry, I then backtracked and read the entire book start-to-finish. Reading any anthology of different authors front-to-back is a mixed bag, but I'm happy to say there was nothing in here I really disliked, and quite a few that I loved.
Patrick Rothfuss's story was the other main selling point for me, and while it's a bit left of the center, I can't say I was let down. It reads more like a song or a children's rhyme than a narrative, but Rothfuss is a master craftsman of words and always, always worth reading.
Because this is fantasy, nearly all of these stories are tiny offshoots of larger universes, but the fact that I haven't read most of these authors' trilogies or series didn't blunt my enjoyment. There is a range of tone here, from the slightly silly dragon-comedy of "The Old Scale Game" by Tad Williams to Todd Lockwood's very haunting "Keeper of Memory". "Heaven in a Wild Flower" by Blake Charlton feels like magical realism in a beautiful, surreal way, and "The Unfettered Knight" (by the book's own editor, Shawn Speakman) is a clever Dan Brown-esque mashup of Celtic myth, Catholicism, and vampires.
My favorite entry in the entire thing is by an author I have never heard of, Peter Orullian. "The Sound of Broken Absolutes" is a novella about a magic system based on music theory, with notes that can heal a broken body and a song that will tear a man apart. The writing is spectacular, rich with grief and regret, and I was completely absorbed and haunted by it.
I didn't hate any of the stories, but a couple were slightly frustrating. "The Chapel Perilous" had a little too much -- for lack of a better word -- smug-hero-coolness for me, and Lev Grossman's "The Duel" is written so informally and with so much slang that it feels like a high school kid watched a great fantasy movie and then tried to describe it to you. The Naomi Novik story was bewildering because I actually have read some of her Temeraire series, and this dragons-on-Mars sci-fi story apparently has nothing at all to do with it except for sharing character names (odd). Even the weaker stories are worthwhile, though... I didn't get to the end of any of them and wish for my time back or anything.
I would recommend the entire book based solely on the Orullian story, though.