Review: Thieves’ World

Thieves’ World is an early example of a shared-world anthology series, where authors collaborated on stories set in a common fictional universe, using each other’s characters. Dark and complex, the series showcased some of the finest fantasy authors in multi-faceted story-telling.

A new outlook

An antidote to the excess of epic fantasy that dominated the market, Thieves’ World introduced me to a host of excellent fantasy writers from the ’80’s. With twelve books in the original series and at least fifteen spin-off’s, it created a rich extended universe.

Set in the coastal backwater city of Sanctuary, everyone from criminals, thieves, wizards, courtesans, mercenaries and bar-tenders got to be the heroes of their own stories. Sometimes the heroes of others’, sometimes the villains.

With the arrival of the exiled Prince-Govenor after a military coup, Sanctuary suddenly becomes a place of political intrigue as well as street-level stories. From the slums of the Maze, to the Vulgar Unicorn tavern, to the governor’s palace, everyone has an agenda.

Stellar roll-call

Authors in the early volumes include John Brunner, Poul Anderson, Andy Offut, Joe Haldeman, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, with contributions from series editors Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey themselves.

The early characters include Enas Yorl, a cursed, shape-shifting mage, the young thief Hanse/Shadowspawn, ex-gladiator and crimelord Jubal, fortune-teller Illyra, minstrel Cappen Vara, and crooked bar-tender One Thumb. Notably, Bradley’s trans-gender mage Lythande becomes a series regular for a time, widening diversity in popular fantasy.

Later contributors Philip Hose Farmer, David Drake, Abbey, A. E. van Vogt and Janet Morris introduced further mainstay characters. Morris brought us the Hellhounds, a mercenary cadre that included Tempus, a true anti-hero, a regenerating warrior and force of nature. At times threatening to unblance the series, Tempus got his own spin-off series.

As the author roll-call expanded to bring in Vonda N. McIntyre, C. J. Cherryh, and Diana L. Paxson, so the gender balance also reflected changing times. They added, among others, the pseudo-vampire Ischade and the Nibisi witch Roxane.

The trouble with the extended series and the ever-growing ensemble cast, it got difficult to track the ongoing feuds and alliances. Occasionally a standalone romance about a retired wizard turned bar-keep came as a welcome break.

A shared world

Sanctuary shines as a decrepit pit of iniquity. The Prince-Governor desires a makeover of respectability, the residents largely want the Empire to stay out of their shady business. It’s a gritty, sleazy and sordid fantasy-noir setting; Grimdark coined twenty or more years earlier than the latched onto.

The shared-world developed by Asprin and Abbey freed the contributors from continual world-building to concentrate on character and story telling. Much of the time, the collaborations are seamless, thanks to their careful editing.

A neglected masterwork

Yes, the series runs out of steam in the later volumes. It feels like the authors aren’t quite so committed. The roll-call changes as new writers join, and some of the early compelling characters drop out. The invasion by a race of fish-people doesn’t change-up the stakes in the same way as a visit by the Emperor Thales himself. We feel Sanctuary winding-down by the last volume as many characters move on.

But the central achievements are the shared world and author collaborations. Thieves’ world showed the depths character-driven fantasy could reach under carefully curated world-building. And not one of those characters fell into cliche or archetype. We loved Hanse’s underdog thief and Niko’s conflicted mercenary. Tempus regularly battered his way through a problem like an unstoppable siege engine. Even Prince Kitty-Kat grew from child to man, from fop to statesman, and eventually chose his own path. As must we all.