LEGENDS

Eleven substantial new “short novels” set in (mostly) famous multivolume fantasy worlds that need little or no introduction. Stephen King offers a tale of the Dark Tower featuring Roland the Gunslinger. Terry Pratchett’s Granny Weatherwax, as amusing as ever, materializes from Discworld. Terry Goodkind dusts off the Sword of Truth. Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker puts in an appearance, as does editor Silverberg’s Lord Valentine of Majipoor. Ursula K. LeGuin, concise and elegant as always, revisits Earthsea; Tad Williams delves into Memory, Sorrow and Thorn; Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Fern fly again; Raymond E. Feist expands on his Riftwar Saga; and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time rolls on. The odd one out would is George R. R. Martin, whose Song of Ice and Fire thus far boasts but a single entry. Will readers relish a volume of such utterly disparate yarns? Well, fantasy fans like what they like, and will read anything regardless of normal, rational considerations; neither does Silverberg’s introduction shed any light on the modern predilection for grossly distended, interminable, pseudo-medieval sagas. So the answer is: probably yes. ($250,000 ad/promo)