Warriors

I will admit that I purchased the Warriors anthology, edited by George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois, almost entirely for the Dunk and Egg novella by George RR Martin. I do not generally like reading short stories or novellas unless they are set in an existing world. I feel that short stories can add and be added to by larger worlds and this is done effectively in both directions with Dunk and Egg and the aSoIaF novels.

The reason I tend not to like short stories that stand alone is that I despise getting to know a character and then a few pages later moving on. In the Legends anthologies, edited by Robert Silverberg, which contained the previous Dunk and Egg stories I read essentially only those stories either by authors I already knew or those I had an immediate interest in. With Warriors this was also my original intent.

However, after reading the foreword by GRRM I decided to stick it out for the whole anthology. In said foreword GRRM writes about how marketing and labeling of fiction has changed since he was a boy. GRRM posits that while such changes were inevitable that they were not necessarily good for the world of literature. GRRM goes into detail about how, in those days before mega-bookstores like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and even when smaller scale booksellers were less available, all of the different genre’s bumped elbows in spinner racks at convenience stores.

The main notion of Warriors is just that sort of cross-genre elbow rubbing. The only real tie between the stories is that each centers on a warrior of some ilk. Within the anthology there are sci-fi, fantasy, western, mystery, historical fiction, and perhaps even some further subdivisions of literature. I must say this made for a unique reading experience.

Dozois and Martin managed to put together a fairly star-studded group of writers for this anthology. Some of them, like GRRM, work in their “home settings” others like Naomi Novik go far afield from the settings in which they usually write. I won’t go into detail about each story. I will say that some stories I loved, some were strong, a few were mediocre, and at least one I didn’t like at all. However, given the range of writing styles, genres, and settings employed here that is to be expected.

I enjoyed stepping back in time to the “spinner rack” with the aid of GRRM, Gardner Dozois, and all the authors who contributed stories to the volume. I would definitely pick up another such cross-genre anthology if it were to be produced. There are some amazing stories in Warriors, and as a result of reading some of them I will buy other works from authors I had never read before. I give this anthology a 4/5.