| Title | : | After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0765302071 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780765302076 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 438 |
| Publication | : | First published November 15, 1991 |
Stephen R. Donaldson, Peter S. Beagle, Andrew Nortong, Terry Pratchett, Robert Silverberg, Judith Tarr, Gregory Benford, Jane Yolen, Poul and Karen Anderson, Mike Resnick, Emma Bull, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, John Brunner, Harrr Turtledove, Dennis L. McKiernan, Karen Haber, Barry M. Malzberg, and Charles de Lint contribute to a dazzling anthology that captures the spirit and originality of Tolkien's great work.
The millions whose lives have been touched by J.R.R. Tolkien will find the same primal storytelling magic here, undiluted and running ever on.
After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien Reviews
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Shhhh... Listen... Hear it?
That's the sound of J. R. R. Tolkien spinning in his grave over the fact that this anthology is said to be in his honor.
Please.
None of the stories in this volume are Tolkienesque in the slightest. While one does mention Hobbits and another mentions Halflings and there are Goblins and Elves and a Troll, that's where the similarity ends.
Granted, I've only read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, but I don't recall Leprechauns and Sugar Plum Fairies. And the story about time travel and zombies? And the one that took place in Normandy?
Frankly, this volume reads like a collection of stories that otherwise failed to reach publication. Their pointlessness is only surpassed by their plotlessness.
With the exception of one gem -- Terry Pratchett's "Troll Bridge." But even in this case, the story belongs to the lore of Discworld, not Middle Earth. (The presence of this short story did, however, garner an extra star for the volume overall. Without it, the rating would have been a solid "one.")
Overall, this volume was painful and, at times, offensive. -
Not a winner. I've been reading this on and off, a story here or there, for the last 6 months. Despite the stellar list of authors, many of whom are long-time favourites of mine, it just didn't work for me. None of these stories were particularly fabulous examples of any of the authors work, and the attempts to imitate Tolkien's style fell flat. Tolkien, for good or worse, remains for me eminently friendly and readable, and often deeply humorous, whereas a lot of these stories just plodded.
All in all, I'd rather just go read Tanith Lee, who does this kind of thing much better than what's here. Actually, half these authors have done exactly this kind of thing much much better than they did here.
2.5ish, because it's certainly not bad writing, it's just.. not as good as it should have been.
-
I don't think Tolkien would have a very high opinion of this collection.
-
Una muy buena recopilación de historias que sorprende puesto que siendo un homenaje a Tolkien la variedad y calidad de los relatos es muy apreciable. Con ese estilo cualquiera esperaría que los autores tiráran de refritos del señor de los anillos y nos contarán aventurillas de una comunidad viajando y luchando contra un señor oscuro o la típica historia del héroe predestinado a triunfar contra el mal. Aquí encontramos poco de eso y aunque los relatos incluyan seres mágicos como trolls, goblins o elfos todos desprenden originalidad y son originales.
La primera mitad del libro es la que a mi parecer contiene los mejores relatos pero quitando un par la verdad es que los he disfrutado casi todos. Los que más me han gustado:
Reave, el justo (****): Un chico se enamora de una viuda que vive con un hombre cruel que intenta controlarla. Pedirá ayuda a un alquimista y este le dira que diga que es pariente de Reave, un hombre temido en todo el reino. Las cosas se complicarán cuando Reave llegué al pueblo a averiguar sobre ese supuesto pariente.
El puente del troll(****): Un divertido cuento de Terry Pratchett, un caballero se dispone a cruzar el puente de un troll y lo que espera que será una aventura para él se convierte a una crítica a los avanzes de la sociedad y sus consecuencias cuando vea en las tristes condiciones en las que vive el monstruo.
El dragon de Tollin (****): Un emisario se translada volando a una tierra arrasada por un dragón. Allí encontrará al único superviviente, un enano que guarda un hevo como si fuese un preciado tesoro.
Fé(*****): Un grupo de trolls construye un palacio de roca inexpugnable y se dedica a secuestra a los niños de una aldea. Los niños les sirven como criados pero uno de ellos dará con la manera de escpar de allí. El cuento que más me ha gustado.
El pato de reclamo(****): Unos monjes llegan a una comunidad de barbaros y uno de ellos empieza a influenciar con la religión las antiguas costumbres de la aldea. El jefe de la aldea le dará la oportunidad para hacerlo, confiando en que sus habitantes se burlarán de él. Buena crítica a las relaciones de poder entre el estado y la iglesia.
La casa Halfling(****): Un variopinto grupo de personajes pequeños(mediano, duende, hada..) viven aventuras en una casa que viaja entre mundos.
Algunos relatos sobran y eso alarga un libro que hubiese sido genial con ellos pero esto suele pasar en este tipo de recopilaciones. Lo que no entiendo es las desmesuradas crítcas negativas a este libro. Supongo que como lleva Tolkien en la portada muchos esperan algo diferente. Yo reconozco que también pero me he llevado una muy buena grata sorpresa. -
I usually tend to skip books which have "Tolkien" flaunted on the cover, but are written by other authors. Terrible experiences to blame here. But this one is actually good. Not tolkienesque in the narrow sense of the term, no companies of heroes embarking on quests to defeat evil dark lords in this book. No fair haired elves walking on snow, no hobbits smoking and chatting over the freshly brewed ale, no wizards with pointy hats. Well, almost none. But certainly none of the cheep imitations which usually goes under a cover with Professors name somewhere in the corner.
I've read some of the authors before, but most were a pleasant discovery. In all flavours of fantasy - from epic to urban, from dark to cheerful. Generally entertaining and easy to read. -
I’ve taken on another short story compilation today, against my better judgement. But on to After the King, a compilation of fantasy (and kinda sci-fi, and some vaguely supernatural) short stories dedicated to the father of high fantasy, J. R. R. Tolkien. And it’s edited by my favorite editor, Martin H. Greenberg, who I swear has his fingers in everything.
Reave the Just is not a name invoked lightly. Legends tell of his prowess in dispensing of the wicked of the world. His is a name with power behind it, so when Jillet starts dropping it as part of his plan to impress a rich widow, no one is more surprised than Jillet himself when Reave actually shows up. Starting off with a bang, Stephen R. Donaldson brings us the story of a misogynistic idiot (the story actually points out what an asshole he’d being, so props for that) and his ‘kin’, a warrior who fights not with weapons, but with words. Reave was a wonderful character, and such a welcome twist on the usual barbarian sell-sword type of warrior. A great story to start off what is a great collection.
A beaten down knight approaches a Troll Bridge (by Terry Pratchett) with the intent of shaking down its guardian (there’s too few proper troll bridges now days to go around killing their proprietors). It’s a fun little story about a knight and a troll chatting about the state of the world and the break with good, wholesome, fairy tale-style traditions.
The priest Diriente suffers a crisis of faith when holy relics that contradict the scriptures he’s been raised to believe and serve are discovered buried under the temple. A Long Night’s Vigil at the Temple by Robert Silverberg is a beautiful, more sci-fi than fantasy tale following Diriente’s crisis and his decision about what he should do with this new knowledge; bury it and allow the faithful to continue in ignorance or share it and destroy their hope in the future. I was quite impressed by it, the author did a great job expressing the turmoil and hallucinations/revelations Diriente is going through.
The Dragon of Tollin by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough isn’t a story with a plot-line so much as a report on a conversation between a dragon-keeper Halfling and winged envoy of a Southern High Queen. The envoy has been sent to the Northworld to discover the reason behind its strange silence and finds it decimated and abandoned, save for a mutilated Halfling and a dragon’s egg in the capital city. The story is the explanation of what happened and why the egg is so important to both of them for very different reasons. They are an optimist and a realist, and in the end this is all that matters. It was a nice story that gave an enjoyable look at the troubles progression, and I can’t even fault the envoy for coloring the ending as he did. We all might have done the same, hopefully with less blatant racism. And it ended with me feeling smug about the envoy’s likely fate and terrible for the poor beleaguered Halfling, which is impressive for a short story that’s mostly a campfire tale.
In Faith by Poul and Karen Anderson, Runt is among a collection of children saved by goblins when he was a child and raised to serve under them with faith and gratitude, until his devotion to their tales of rescue abruptly end. You can see where this one was going because the beginning of the tale is the goblins' arrival from the point of view of the neighboring village and it’s pretty clear the goblins' story of saving the children is a load of crock. Even still, the story is a terrific tale of revelation and escape by characters who don’t speak the local language and who have a distorted understanding of the world they’re escaping to.
In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells by John Brunner, the locals of Welstock are rallying around young Ernest Peake as he pitches in during the first Dressing of the Wells they’ve had since the war put a stop to such frivolities. But his aunt, the Lady of the Manor, is in a holy rage, eager to condemn her tenants and put a stop to such pagan rituals. The town is now relying on Ernest to see that the water goddess can be appeased. It’s a lovely story that alludes heavily to a supernatural being, but whose presence is never felt (take the Gaffer’s statements at the end how you will). It focuses more on the romance of Ernest and Alice, the vicar’s daughter, and Ernest’s reintroduction to the village when he returns from the war plagued with PTSD. It’s refreshing after goblins and dragons to have a little bit of eccentric normality.
The Fellowship of the Dragon is the story I read when I stopped and ordered the book for my birthday present. I didn’t even need to look at the rest of the stories. They were great up to this point, but Patricia A. McKillip sold it. It tells of the quest of five knights/nobles/hunters/all of the above to hunt down their queen’s missing minstrel before someone else winds up removing his head from his shoulders. He’s very pretty, and the queen is very widowed, but he’s a complete ass and more than a few folk would be happy to see the end of him. The five track him through fae lands to a dragon’s den, and four are picked off one by one by the dangers they uncover, until their leader must battle the dragon alone. The great things about it are the four who get picked off don’t get killed, they branch off into other stories. One’s magiked into a bird, one’s kidnapped by mountain imps, etc. The second great (really, really great) thing is that the five are women. Their leader is Anne, the queen’s cousin, and the others aren’t referred to as knights or ladies but have some impressive hunting skills so you can make them whatever you want. But the best part is the ending, when Anne finally finds the missing harper, but I won’t spoil that bit. I’ll just say that the story doesn’t end; she simply drifts into yet another tale.
It was at this point that the stories started to turn noticeably downhill and the book was removed from my Amazon shopping cart.
The Decoy Duck (by Harry Turtledove) is the name given to a priest by the Chieftain of the barbarian tribe he has come to convert to his God, both because he succeeds at seducing away a number of the tribesman, and also because the priest was a former barbarian himself converted sometime after being sold as a slave to their enemies. What follows is a moderately amusing tale of the Chieftain who realizes too late he should have killed the priest the moment he saw him, as now his tribe and his own daughter are paying more attention to his preaching than they are to taking in what little harvest they have. It's got some pretty interesting parts, none of which involve the priest as I found him to be stubbornly wooden. But the Chieftain was a great character and our forays into his mind were far more interesting than when we dipped into the priest's. It's like a permanent, droning, preachy sermon in there. If he could be as interesting as the chief it would have made for a great story.
In Nine Threads of Gold by Andre Norton a Weaver (she who weaves together magic and heroes) is pulled to the side of a small group of children who are being attacked by demonic creatures. It's the origin story for a group of heroes - what brought them together, their first taste of the evil they were to fight, and how they came to realize that evil and stand against it. It's good, but we don't know enough of the characters for them to become fleshed out and the Weaver is annoyingly all-knowing.
The Conjure Man by Charles de Lint is a story of a magical being left behind after his story ended and who is stuck protecting the sites where the stories gather to be remembered. One such site is lost, but he finds fresh kin and a new site is created and protected. It's a cute story but not very memorable.
At The Halfling House (by Dennis L. McKiernan) all sorts of wee folk are welcomed and catered to, and on one adventure they may even be counted on for a rescue. This story wasn't particularly interesting, the characters were pretty dull, but the variety of patrons was horribly amusing. This anthology being a tribute to Tolkien the Halfling House is exactly what you'd expect: a smial (but one that travels around via the turn of a magic ring) run by a Warrow (an elvish-looking halfling) but boasting at least one proper Hobbit among its clientele. Also Brownies, Pixies, Leprechauns, Gnomes, and others that our narrator can or can't recognize. Most of the fun of reading is finding out how many kinds of wee folk the author can conjure up for us.
Moon Very Thin's teacher has gone off in search of a lost prince in Silver or Gold by Emma Bull. Deciding that searching for her would be better than running about taking care of the village chores, she sets out after her and finds resolution, confirmation, and love. Actually the love bit was a little too fairy tale-like for me. They knew each other only a few days. It was a disappointing ending for such a great story. The characters were all interesting, even the prince who only appears in the last handful of pages, and there are some really fantastic lines throughout. My personal favorite is near the end where the prince asks her name, then asks if she's waxing or waning. She replies that it depends from moment to moment. The magic feels understandable, and the characters think realistically, and it's tied with Fellowship for being the best in the collection, with the rest left far behind.
Up the Side of the Air by Karen Haber is an adorable story of a wizard in need of a new apprentice and the girl he's stuck with instead. Not that there's anything wrong with her, she's in good health and eager to work, but she's a girl. A sexist look at wizards dealing with a no nonsense little scrap who's got more good common sense than the best of them. A fun read with a healthy dose of comeuppance.
The Naga by Peter S. Beagle is an excerpt from a non-existent longer work exploring the history of nagas; specifically the brief legend of a king and his nagini queen. It's cute but not memorable, but it's refreshing to see a naga story other than the stale one about a king spying on his wife and children during their private time and discovering their serpent identity. In The Naga the creatures are seen as good luck and the king knows full well what his queen is. The problem stems from the hot-blooded young statesmen who come to resent the kingdom's quiet peace and prosperity.
In Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Mike Resnick, the fairies are comparable to mild-mannered accountants (I would like to clarify that my sister is an actual accountant and she could break you like a Kit Kat) who buy biker gear and hang out at bars acting all tough and hardcore. The fairies left their home country because the other fairies laugh at them, and they've vowed to take revenge on the three people who made their lives miserable: Walt Disney ( Fantasia), Balanchine (chorographer of The Nutcracker) and Tchaikovsky (composer of The Nutcracker, specifically on the hit list for The Waltz of the Sugar Plum Fairies). This one was pretty darn cute and the best of the later stories, but I've never been a fan of the 'supernatural beings in modern day' theme.
Winter's King by Jane Yolen is a short tale of a dead boy brought back to life, who grows and undergoes hardships that slide off his back as he yearns to join the winter folk he knows to be his true kin. It's quick, it's nice, and it's got more of a fairy tale feel than the rest of the stories in the collection.
In Götterdämmerung by Barry N. Malzberg a group of adventures travel to seek the help of a wizard in retrieving a magic ring. The result of his answer might not be quite what the wizard had expected. It's a nice story with cardboard characters that become much more interesting right when the story cuts off. It's a great set-up for a longer plot but it doesn't do much on its own. Unlike The Fellowship of the Dragon, which reads like the beginning of a story but still feels like a full adventure in and of itself (think of Jason, whose overall story of his quest for the Golden Fleece is told in many separate adventures), this one feels like a chapter taken out of a book. You're dropped into a situation with no bearing on what brought you to this point, and you're pulled out as soon as the action starts.
I have no idea what Down the River Road by Gregory Benford is about. There're ripples in the time space continuum, and metal where there should be sand, and hats made of hydrogen because reasons, and it made no sense at all. I skimmed the hell out of it is what I'm saying.
In Death and the Lady by Judith Tarr, a mysterious young woman arrives at a convent seeking sanctuary from her dead lover's brother, who hunts her down to have as his own. It's a very good story that I've read before, and a strong one to end on, but I've little to say of it. The women are trapped in their cloister and the story tells the tale of their confrontation with the woman's supernatural nature.
THE VERDICT? It's a great compilation that really had me going to add it to the collection before it started to fizzle. Would have liked to see the stronger stories better distributed, but I'm sure many out there have different tastes and find the distribution just fine. Either way it's definitely worth a read. -
This anthology is a tribute to J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, books which had a substantial impact on the fantasy genre. Thirty or so authors have contributed stories inspired by Tolkien. As with many such works, the quality of the writing here varies from story to story. Most are good to excellent, making it an enjoyable read.
But let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. A few stories seem out of place in the volume. Gregory Benford's "Down the River Road," is similar to Tolkien only in world-building, otherwise it is a very different sort of fantasy--a boy travels down a river that is literally a time stream, with "timequakes" and storms that alter the speed of time. It's an interesting story but hardly Tolkienesque. "Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies" by Mike Resnick desperately and unsuccessfully tries to be comic. But the lesser stories are few in this volume.
My favorite stories were the fantasy horror "Faith" by Poul and Karen Anderson, where a goblin fortress appears near a human village and the human children start disappearing, and "The Fellowship of the Dragon" by Patricia A. McKillip, where a band of female warriors headed into the wilderness to save a bard from the clutches of a dragon. The most Tolkienesque story was "Nine Threads of Gold" by Andre Norton--nine children gather at a Hold where a sorceress binds them together to fight the evil that has overwhelmed the land. The narrative and the writing style mimic well the tone of old epics, the like of which Tolkien translated. The book has a lot of other entertaining stories.
Overall, I recommend this for Tolkien fans. -
Це було непогане передсонне читання. Оскільки я не фанатка Толкіна, то й ступінь присутності його духу в оповіданнях мені визначити важко. Кілька аторів я виписала, щоб пошукати інші їх тексти.
Перше оповідання вразило мене особливо, в поганому сенсі, там на повному серйозі позитивна фігура запитує в згвалтованої жінки, чому та не наклала на себе рук, та звинувачує в тому що вона "чинила недостсатньо спротиву, оскільки все ще жива". Аж такого я в Толкіна, все ж, не зустрічала, і мені тепер цікаво - автор це серйозно, чи то така дуже тонка іронія з приводу місця жінки в текстах професора. -
Terminado este Homenaje a Tolkien.
La verdad no me gustó mucho, no era lo que esperaba pero no fue eso lo que causo que el libro no me gustara sino que realmente no le vi mucha relación a algunos de los cuentos, sobre todo los dos últimos se me hicieron enormemente aburridos, el penúltimo sobre todo. Algunos otros me gustaron bastante como "La naga", de Peter S. Beagle, "La casa halfling", de Dennis L. McKiernan, "La comunidad del dragón" de Patricia A. McKillip, El Rey del Invierno", de Jane Yolen, "La rebelión de los duendes de confite", de Mike Resnick y sobre todo mi favorito "El puente del troll" de Terry Pratchett pero en general los demás la verdad no fueron muy de mi agrado. -
This is a decent, reasonably eclectic collection of fantasy stories, "in honor of J. R. R. Tolkien." However, in many cases, the Tolkien connection is difficult to discern, except insofar as one can argue that all modern fantasy can be traced, one way or another, to Tolkien's influence and achievements. Indeed, the two stories that most explicitly reference Tolkien (Mike Resnick's "Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies," which mentions hobbits, and Dennis L. McKiernan's "The Halfling House," which features an uncredited guest appearance by Bilbo Baggins) are also among the weakest in the collection--though more for their indifferent attempts at being humorous than for their Tolkien connections. Even Terry Pratchett, who can do humour successfully, has an amusing enough but undistinguished offering that deals rather cleverly with the stories about trolls and heroes, so at least has some link to Tolkien's interest in storytelling per se. John Brunner's contribution is set post World wAr I and has a former soldier suffering from PTSD as its protagonist, so might be linked to Tolkien's life--somewhat--more than to his fiction. It is a good story (better than anything in the recent Brunner collection I read, in fact), but hardly Tolkienesque. Nothing here is, really, which may of course be a good thing--why read mediocre pastiche? The best stories are the least like Tolkien, in fact--Emma Bull's "Silver or Gold," for instance, plays nicely with folk tale conceits but owes, I think, much more to Ursula K. Le Guin in how it does so than it does to Tolkien. One of the oddest inclusions is Gregory Benford's "Down the River Road," which is a) SF, not fantasy, and b) an obvious riff on Mark Twain, not Tolkien. (There's an SF story from Robert Silverberg, as well, which is also not very Tolkienesque, but it does play on how stories--or myths--are made and can shape a culture, so it does tie in to some of Tolkien's own characteristic concerns.).) It's an intriguing enough story about a river that literally carries one through time, but it seems like an odd fit. The resto of the stories are a mixed bag. None are really bad, a few are quite good (e.g. Judith Tarr's, Jane Yolen's, Peter S. Beagle's, a few others) but others (e.g. Harry Turtledove's, Patricia A. McKillip's, Andre Norton's) did not do much for me.
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Three and a half stars. Kind of a mixed bag. Loved the story by Emma Bull and
the one by Judith Tarr. Didn’t care for the Greg Benford story. But most of them were pretty good. -
Some masters of the genre contribute to this book that honors J.R.R. Tolkien. Strong stories from Andre Norton, Patricia A. McKillip, Emma Bull and others. There are also the usual his and misses you find in any collection of short stories - some yawners, some clunkers. What the book misses is some explanations from the authors as to why they included or wrote a particular short story as a celebration of Tolkien, how did Tolkien’s life or work influence them? That could have tied this collection together better, took it into a new, more interesting place. Without that narrative thread, it feels like much looser, and “Tolkien” falls away occasionally leaving you wondering “Why is this story here? Would Tolkien have even LIKED this story?” Something delightful about this collection is the number of women contributing; Tolkien’s works are not know for female inclusion. McKillip specifically takes the Tolkienish word “fellowship” and adds female kick-assery to it while still retaining what is likable about the hobbit writer. Bull includes an ending to her story that remains, even after 26 years of reading novels and short stories, one of the most beautifully moving endings of anything I’ve ever read.
-
As a whole this is exactly what I was expecting from this anthology. For the most part I enjoyed the majority of the stories, with a few standouts and a few heavily missing the mark. For the whole though the bulk of the stories felt very Tolkien inspired to me, without feeling like they we copying or unoriginal. The detailed star rating of each individual story and my quick thoughts as well will be given below.
Reave the Just: 1 star
A short story with as many mentions of rape as this one was far to excessive, add in the victim blaming and shaming and it sickened and angered me. There was nothing Tolkien inspired about this story.
Troll Bridge: 5 stars
Pure humor and lighthearted fun, very Tolkien inspired, but with a Disc World twist of Terry Pratchett which made me very interested n picking up that series. Also the good old days vibes this story get was amazing.
A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple: 4 stars
This has a sci-fi and fantasy blend to it that I wasn't expecting to find. That being said this very much has Tolkien contemplative nature of a task and one questioning there ability to complete it, with the religious overtures in Tolkien work.
The Dragon of Tollin: 3 stars
Playing with the idea of The Hobbit, has a heavy handed approach with the ideas of greed and it bewitching effect. Found the darker tones p\present very enjoyable and a nice twist to The Hobbit story idea.
Faith: 5 stars
Felt like it belonged in Tolkien universe of works while still keeping the author voice and not feeling like a writer forcing themselves to write like Tolkien. Had the darkness and bittersweet end that I found in the work of Tolkien I've read, in particular Lord of the Rings.
In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells: 4 stars
This felt like it was inspired by Tolkien life after his return from WWI to England. And his motivation to write The Lord of the Rings. It had a beautiful and magical feel to it that enhanced the story.
The Fellowship of the Dragon: 5 stars
This felt heavily inspired by specifically The Fellowship of the Ring, but with an all female cast. Which was really nice given how rarely female characters are present or featured in Tolkien work or works inspired by him. The ending also had an amazing twist I didn't foresee, but really enjoyed. Would love a full length novel to see what happens next.
The Decoy Duck: 3 stars
This has very Viking inspired feel to it. And playing on history with the clash between Viking raiders and Catholic Englishmen. The only thing that perhaps could be Tolkien inspired is the religious nature of the story. However very much enjoyed the short story for what it was.
Nine Threads of Gold: 3 stars
This had very strong feelings of Fea present, but was very Tolkien inspired work with Wheel of Time influences as well. It had everything from ancient fight between good and evil to chosen one trope and band of unlikely friends fighting together and overcoming temptation. Really enjoyed and added a little originality with the inclusion of Fea in the story.
The Conjure Man: 4 stars
The hint of Tolkien pain at his return to England and the loss of nature to Industrialism was an interesting bend to the story. Appreciated the hint at how storytelling is needed in one life, and how the story isn't about Tolkien work but his life.
The Halfling House: 5 stars
This mad direct references and pulls from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. From dragons to rings of power and ring wraiths, to possibly inserting Bilbo and the Shire directly into the story. The band of Hero, that were all Wee Folk, was an amazing touch especially given the adventures they went on. Really a fun and cute tall I fell into.
Silver or Gold: 3 stars
An adventure tale to save a lost king, very enjoyable to read, but in no way felt Tolkien inspred to me.
Up the Side of the Air: 3 stars
This felt like they were pulling on Return of the King in particular Gandalf and Merry relationship. Enjoyable and found the ending very sweet and cute. Absolutely heart warming.
The Naga: 4 stars
The story had a very beautiful message weaved throughout. The writing was beautiful and the writer enjoyed dropping in SAT words throughout. The story itself wasn't very Tolkien inspired, but the message it delivered absolutely was.
Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies: 2 stars
This story didn't feel like it was inspired by Tolkien in any way. Add to it that I didn't really enjoy the story in and of itself and it was bust. I will say it was worth a chuckle so not a complete loss.
Winter's King: 4 stars
This was haunting and beautiful, the writing felt very fairytale in nature, right down to the disjointed and confused nature. Wishing this had been longer and more detailed. Felt like this was an Elven story Legolas wound have told to the Hobbits.
Gotterdammerung: 2 stars
This feels like it was perhaps inspired by Saruman fall to darkness before it came to light. However the writing was poor and the story felt disjointed to me.
Down the River Road: 1 star
This felt very disjointed, confusing, and overall unpleasant to read. For the most part like I was reading a Sci-Fi story that was on a bad acid trip. It felt like this story had no point at all, I get what the protagonist was after and what happened but it felt like it had no real point to the story.
Death and the Lady: 4 stars
This was haunting and had a beautiful magical feel throughout. Very much like it would be an Elven tail present in one of Tolkien books. -
I'm rereading this book, and it's fascinating to me that the stories I loved the most when I first read this book now seem like some of the most unnuanced and formulaic, while the ones I used to think were "boring" are now among my favorites.
The ones I used to think were creepy, though, apparently can still give me nightmares. -
Esta recopilación de relatos en homenaje a
J. R. R. Tolkien adolece del mismo problema que suelen tener otros libros similares. La calidad de los relatos es irregular, el estilo de cada uno de los autores también. Y, en muchos de ellos, es difícil poder interpretar dónde se oculta el homenaje del autor a la figura del homenajeado. En este caso, podemos encontrar elementos de fantasía, los temas de la corrupción, objetos mágicos, la lucha entre el bien y el mal o el destino de las personas.
Hay relatos muy interesantes como "El puente del troll" (de
Terry Pratchett), "Reave el Justo" (de
Stephen R. Donaldson), "En la estación de engalanar los pozos" (de
John Brunner), "Fe" (de
Poul Anderson y
Karen Anderson) o "Una larga vigilia en el tiempo" (de
Robert Silverberg), que tocan temas diferentes y con enfoques variados. Fantasía, terror e incluso ciencia ficción muy bien escritos y que mantienen al lector atado a las páginas. Pero a mitad del libro el nivel de los relatos baja estrepitosamente. O al menos, no ofrecen la frescura y originalidad de los primeros.
No recomendaría este libro a los amantes de Tolkien porque creo que no encontrarán lo que esperan. En cambio, está bien para bucear en estilos e historias cortas diferentes. Yo lo he leído porque pertenece a la colección de libros que estoy leyendo de Terry Pratchett y estoy siguiendo el orden de publicación de su obra. Pero creo que de otra manera, no habría caído entre mis lecturas. -
Well. Some of the stories are very good, some are okay, and some are awful.
worth reading: "Troll Bridge" (some profanity), "Faith" (death/violence), "The Fellowship of the Dragon," "Nine Threads of Gold," "The Conjure Man," "Silver or Gold," "Up the Side of the Air," "Winter's King" (mature content), "Death and the Lady" (some mature content)
read with caution: "Reave the Just" (sexual content), "In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells" (sexual content, violence, strange religious content), "The Halfling House"
skip: "A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple," "The Dragon of Tollin," "The Decoy Duck" (sexual content), "The Naga," "Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies," "Down the River Road" (seriously. do not read this one. ever.)
Would *not* hand to a child who enjoyed LOTR. Maybe worth it for a teen or adult who can weed through the awful bits. Not really in honor of Tolkien (except a few of the "worth reading" stories); frankly, I think he'd be horrified by most of it.
Thoughts on my favorite stories in the collection:
- The Fellowship of the Dragon: I really enjoyed this one, especially how most of the characters were women. Realized later it's by McKillip (I love her The Forgotten Beasts of Eld). I would've loved for it to be longer.
- Death and the Lady: This reminded me of Tam Lin. I liked it.
- Silver or Gold: Ahhhh, my favorite story in this book, possibly ever. The characters are memorable and I love the slow, soft romance. Plus the magic system! And the worldbuilding!
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read 12/22/2017
reread 4/1/2019 -
For the most part, I found the majority of these tales plodding and tedious and pointless.
Truly, the best of the batch were Terry Pratchett’s Troll Bridge and Emma Bull’s Silver or Gold. The short story format felt cleanest in those tales.
I enjoyed Karen Harber’s Up the Side of the Air, and and at least Yolen’s Winter King felt like a fairy tale. I know so many of the authors in the list and like them, I just...couldn’t get into this collection. It’s too uneven. -
I've been reading this one and off for over a year and finally got to the end. It's quite a mix of stories, very few of which having an obvious connection to Tolkien's work, some even being science fiction at heart. I don't read a lot of fantasy (I bought this for the Terry Pratchett short story, "Troll Bridge") but there's a few authors here I might investigate further.
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I could not finish this book which is something that rarely happens. Stories are of rather uneven quality and I couldn't actually grasp why some of them were in this anthology. Some are reminiscent of Tolkien's works in theme or setting but others does not to seem to have anything in common with them. Too little to keep me going till the end, unfortunately.
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Uma coletânea de contos com altos e baixos.
Podem ser em homenagem a Tolkien, mas fiel ao enredo, apenas um conto :-o
Adquira se sua intenção for ler bons contos de fantasia, mas não no Universo de Tolkien ... -
Took me nearly two years to finish this! As with most anthologies, I liked a few of the stories better and the ones I didn't like really slowed me down. My favourites were by Terry Pratchett, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Patricia A McKillip, Emma Bull, and Judith Tarr.
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An interesting collection of stories to honour J R R Tolkien. I loved the Terry Pratchett’s ‘Troll Bridge’ and John Brunner’s ‘In the season of the Dressing of the Wells. I liked all of the other stories, except for Gregory Benford’s ‘Down the River Road’ which I found difficult and confusing.
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3.5
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about 30% of the stories I liked.
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After the King is a collection of nineteen short-stories written by nineteen different authors, in honour of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Halfway through reading After the King I decided that I wanted to review all of the stories individually. However, because I had already read half of them, it would be very difficult for me to review all of the ones I had already read, having either forgotten what happened or forgotten how I felt about them.
Truth be told, this review is going to hard enough doing the book as a whole. I can’t remember many of the stories from the book, let alone what happened in them.
I suppose the best – and only – way for me to do this is to simply review the ones that I can remember, and then give my thoughts on the book as a whole.
Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies
Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies was, by far, my favourite tale in this book of many. Everything about it I found funny, from beginning to end, from top to bottom, this short story was interesting, hilarious, and so random and simple that it made it all that much better.
Reave the Just by Stephen R. Donaldson
Reave the Just was full of knights, magic (false magic), story telling, damsels in distress and brave (but foolish, and, quite frankly, useless heroes). Add a dragon to this and it’s not much short of anything that I love in stories. It’s humorous, intricate, complex – maybe even a little confusing in places – and full of implicit meaning.
Troll Bridge by Terry Pratchett
I can’t remember too much of Troll Bridge, but then, I don’t think there is all that much to remember. All I recall is a guy and a troll meeting and having a conversation. But, I digress. I do remember enjoying this tale, though there is very limited action and excitement in it.
The Decoy Duck by Harry Turtledove
Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew. The Decoy Duck was, by far, the worst story in the book. Full of pompous language, unnecessarily complex and out-of-the-ordinary-names, pretentious writing, unbelievable boredom, a lack of economy, and basically everything else that could be wrong with a story; I hated it from the first sentence.
The Conjure Man by Charles De Lint
The Conjure Man, I think, was the most interesting and capturing story from the book. A very light-hearted, gentle story, it was a pleasure to read. Using the inventive characters so well to progress and tell the story, and with such an important message, and wonderful writing, describing, and story-telling, it is a fantastic piece.
The Naga by Peter S. Beagle
The Naga is a difficult one for me, not being able to decide whether I like it or not. While it was well written and had an interesting story line and characters, the story itself seemed rather strange and pointless. With or without the events of the story, the outcome would have been the same, or at least something similar. I also thought the ending was quite unfulfilling. However, I think I am mostly in favour of this story, more than being against it.
Winter’s King by Jane Yolen
Not even going to lie, all I am picturing when I read about these white, ice people, is Whitewalkers from Game of Thrones. The story, just like The Naga, seemed very pointless, though not for the same reasons. With this story it just seemed to me that nothing at all happened. Now, unless I completely misread this story and missed either something happening during the course of the story, or some implicit meaning behind it all, there really was no point to it.
Silver or Gold by Emma Bull
A little long, perhaps, or maybe just full of irrelevant text, this story seemed to drag on a little. If found it rather confusing, this story, but still rather enticing. The ‘plot twist’ was rather obvious, and I guessed it a while before its reveal. It had its ups and downs, and a very interesting and meaningful ending, with little subliminal life lessons for any young and or naive readers.
Up the Side of the Air by Karen Haber
This story, while innocent and simple and gentle, had some very important, not so much messages, but it had importance to it, dealing with important real life issues in a fantasy, story-telling way – not unlike Harry Potter. A thrilling short-story, complete with action, humour, stuggles, adventure, sadness, and wonderful story-telling.
That’s all of the ones I remember enough to write about. I’ve had to flip through the book to actually remind myself of the different stories that were in it, if I hadn’t I’d have a much shorter list. The book was actually very good, despite all of the bad stories it contained. With stories from some of the best fantasy writers of their time, it was never going to be bad, was it. It was quite refreshing to read short-stories for a change, and also to read so many different authors, many of whom I had not heard of beforehand. -
A decent short-story collection, albeit virtually none of the stories have any strong Tolkienian elements to them (the theme is actually more about fairy tales than JRRT). There's a lot of filler here, including a few embarrassingly bad stories. My brief thoughts at the time (spoilers):
"Reave the Just" Stephen R. Donaldson - the title character might owe a little to Tom Bombadil and the story itself is excellent
"Troll Bridge" Terry Pratchett - largely a Robert E. Howard adventure story parody (mildly enjoyable)
"The Dragon of Trollin" Elizabeth Ann Scarborough - enjoyable but predictable
"A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple" Robert Silverberg - a good story about a man questioning his faith who comes face-to-face with its inaccuracies
"Faith" Poul & Karen Anderson - a fabulous short story about goblins who steal and eat children and their comeuppance
"In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells” John Brunner - middling story; I’m not sure how happy one should be about the “accidental” human sacrifice that confirms the old rites, or Brunner’s celebration of a female, capricious God
"The Fellowship of the Dragon” Patricia A. McKillip - a terrible story wherein the men are stupid and useless and the women just stupid
"Decoy Duck” Harry Turtledove - good story much more in the spirit of Tolkien (the man as opposed to specific stories). A converted North Man returns to his people to bring them the Good News and eventually he is killed by their leader who see’s the political consequences as too dangerous to allow the faith to spread. It’s all couched in metaphor (ie, the convert isn’t from the Roman Empire, but he’s from an empire, and the North Men are not called Norse or Anglo-Saxon or any other Nordic name, but they are the same)
“Nine Threads of God” Andre Norton - generic heroic fantasy story that reads like a prologue to a novel never written (the ending paragraph simply takes the beginnings of what might have been a novel and puts it into legend). A post-apocalypse tale wherein a Gandalf-like figure is summoned by a group of nine children who will eventually free their people from the conquering demons.
“The Conjure Man” Charles de Lint -charming in a weak way, but a wholly telegraphed story dripping in sentimentality (the old man seems based in part on Tom Bombadil)
“The Halfling House” Dennis L. McKiernan - a farrago of nonsense that attempts at being funny. There’s a Ring parallel (held by the Halfling who owns the magical house), and a bizarre anti-drug message, but it’s only so much pap.
“Silver or Gold” Emma Bull - predictable albeit pleasant enough little fairy tale
“Up the Side of the Air” Karen Haber - a terrible story--what’s being attempted? A wizard past his prime gets a female apprentice he doesn’t want, warms to her, & then is harmed in a duel and she’s going to care for him?
“The Naga” Peter S. Beagle - starts off as a supposed historical account by Pliny of a Naga who marries a king. It deals with how they lived and died. Charming and insubstantial
“Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies” Mike Resnick - a sorry excuse for comedy. The concept is funny, but the delivery awful
“Winter’s King” Jane Yolen - another awful story without any point except perhaps that you can’t cheat death (it deals with either a father making a deal with winter people/spirits for his dead infant or else trapping the spirit of their king in the infants body; the infant is never happy & rejoins his folk whilst his human body is discovered dead)
“Götterdämmerung” Barry N. Malzberg - a mediocre story which probably seems better than it is due to the wretchedness of its predecessors. The story is about a wizard who does his best to turn away four questing adventurers (two elves, a dwarf, and a giant, all of whom sound like they have the intelligence of a five year old; the wizard of an eight year old). The only good part is the end where we discover the wizard was lying to them in order to get the ring they like, but it’s not enough to save the tale
“Death and the Lady” Judith Tarr - a middly love story about a woman who is of another ilk (she calls herself a witch, and non-human, but it’s nothing more specific in that) who left her wooded realm for the mortal one, & wants to get back to the fairy realm. Inevitably she does, but the whole tale lacks much passion or investment by the reader (why do we care about her fate? Is there a point to it taking place in northern France? Who are the lady’s people?)
