The first sequel to Thieves’ World is a fun read, although there is none of the brilliant humour of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld stories. It also shows its age in the simplistic portrayal of women in many of the stories.
A reread from 1982, this second anthology of short stories set in Sanctuary, Thieves’ World, includes stories by well known names such as Philip José Farmer with the terrible pun of Spiders of the Purple Mage (see also his title, Riders of the Purple Wage, in Dangerous Visions) and A E van Vogt with The Dream of the Sorceress.
Although I found the language of The Dream of the Sorceress sometimes stilted (I am presuming this is not a fault of the ebook conversion), this synthesising story has the merit of introducing us to Vashanka (the Ranke god of war) and having satisfying cameos from characters introduced in the first anthology.
The Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn improve in the second half, integrating more of the characters encountered in earlier stories, and introducing Janet Morris’ more complex Tempus character.
Overall, this second volume works better than the first, beginning to show more depth and complexity. Not great literature, but easy reading fun.

Contents:
• Spiders of the Purple Mage - Philip José Farmer
• Goddess - David Drake
• The Fruit of Enlibar - Lynn Abbey
• The Dream of the Sorceress - A. E. van Vogt
• Vashanka’s Minion - Janet Morris
• Shadow’s Pawn - Andrew J. Offutt
• To Guard the Guardians - Robert Lynn Asprin ( )

short stories set in Thieve's World

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn Series: Thieves' World Author: Robert Asprin, Editor Rating: of 5 Battle Axes Genre: SFF Pages: 299 Synopsis: A continuation of the Thieves' World anthology, where we get novellas to short stories about various characters and their adventures in the grubby city of Sanctuary. My Thoughts: This stuff was ok. Kind of a like a Forgotten Realms but in one city instead of multiverse and short stories instead of trilogies or series. My only sticking point is that no character is really likable. You have some slightly sympathetic ones, but none that you want to cheer for. It really is a collection of scummy people. There are 10 books in this anthology series, we'll see how long I stick with it :-D " ( )

# 2 in Aspirin's Thieve's World series - An excellent exmple of accomplished authors contributing stories to a shared universe. ( )

Another great collection of short stories in the Thieves World shared world. Farmer, Abbey, Drake, Van Vogt, its hard to beat that collection of authors. The story continues to develop in these stories in a cohesive and interesting way. ( )