Sanctuary [Anglais] [Broché]

So I started Sanctuary with apprehensions. One of them being that this book was written by a single author, while Thieves' World was a shared-world-anthology by multiple writers which created a uniqueness with universal appeal. The other issue that troubled me was that inside flap had informed me that my favorite characters were no longer around.

Just like any place a person comes to love, I wasn't sure I'd like going back when the very things I'd enjoyed the most had changed.

However, Abbey skillfully proves true that "the more things change the more they stay the same". As with any famous city, or in this case, infamous city, Sanctuary pulses with a life all her own. Previous generations leave their mark and the new rise up only to soon become part of the legend themselves.

Whether this is a return visit or your first time in this notorious city, be wary. The reader is quickly seduced by the sinful charm of Sanctuary's intriguingly seedy taverns like the Vulgar Unicorn, the shadowy allies of the Maze, and her dangerous ghettos such as the waterfront district.

If you're a fan of Thieves' World, you're sure to enjoy your return visit as much as I have. If you haven't read Thieves' World, this book is great introduction. It's a whole new story in a dark, old city. Abbey gives you just enough history so you'll learn a little of what your getting into while the veterans get a reminder.

Keep your money-purse close, dagger closer and trust few. Sanctuary has no mercy, even more so for visitors.

Most everyone the longtime fan knew from back in the day is dead, fled, or vanished. Pretty much the only major figure left is an eighty-year-old Molin Torchholder, and due to circumstances he has to more or less dictate his memoirs in a nifty little ploy that allows the old school readers to dredge up memories of the first series while giving new readers a bit of background on the setting. This device makes it pretty apparent how wildly out of control the series had become and how critical it is to have a strong editorial hand (such as Martin) at the helm to reject the stupider ideas. My opinion is that very few of the authors could content themselves with "writing small" and with telling quiet little tales of interesting but limited and flawed characters. Very rapidly, after the first couple of books, every contributer wanted to turn their amps up to 11, and so each new character became deadlier, angrier, and more brutal than the last, and each of them seemed designed specifically as grudge monsters who were meant only to humiliate or eliminate the pre-existing characters. Not to mention that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as it were, rode through the city so often that it became ludicrous. Authors began to show off and have gods duking it out in the street, or had the city invaded again and again by awesome new and never-before-suspected threats from all quarters of the globe, or tossed in legions of the undead or bands of invincible and sneering warriors. In hearing Molin relate the whole sorry mess, it just really seems ludicrous in retrospect.

This particular addition to the milieu is a necessary but somewhat awkward bridge between the decades-old material accumulated over the first run of the series and the new tales that follow in the newest collection of short stories (entitled Turning Points) that has just become available. (Another volume, First Blood, will be rolling out soon.) Quite likely, it can be skipped, and it may only really be compelling reading for continuity devotees who need to acquire each Thieves World volume for their collections.

Now that Abbey has cleaned the slate by jumping the series into the future so that everyone has keeled over or wandered off, Thieves World can enjoy a fresh start and avoid the mistakes of the past. In Cauvin and Bec, the Thieves World setting has a couple of interesting characters to serve as a starting point, with the help of some of the supporting cast, such as Soldt. Here's hoping that Abbey can prevent future contributors under control so that Sanctuary will not again implode under the weight of overly ambitious and byzantine plots and the hordes of grandiose heroes and villains.