Brian M. Thomsen (1959–2008)

I had read a couple of the Ravenloft series books, so this seemed like a good one to pick up. The fact that it was short stories was appealing, as it makes it an easy book to pick and put down as need be. I got it used at Half Price books. We'll see how it turns out.

* * *

After a few months, I finally got it done. The nice thing about short fiction for me is that I can pick it up and drop it, then come back to it. That is what I did with this one. I had a couple of library books I needed to read sooner, so I put this to the side for a while. Overall, I will say this was a pretty good collection. The stories later in the book get better. There is one where Strahd Von Zarovich, the lord of Ravenloft appears, and another featuring the Knight of the Black Rose. These are regular characters of the series. While it is not necessary to have read other novels in the Ravenloft series, readers who have will probably appreciate the stories a bit more. I particularly liked the twist at the end on the Black Knight's tale. Actually, twists were a common feature in this anthology. If I recall, only one or two stories towards the beginning were a bit slow, but past that, the selections were good, some a bit scarier than others. Overall, if you are looking for some light entertainment with a horror element, this may be the book for you.… (more)

The Further Adventures of Beowulf does what it says on the cover. The book starts off with an interesting introduction discussing the legacy of the Beowulf text and Middle-Earth. This is followed by 'The Deeds of Beowulf' translated into prose by John Earle in 1892. This prose version is rather old fashioned and has a few issues with sentence structure, which could have used cleaning up and clarification by an editor, or better yet, the inclusion of a better prose version or even just a summary of the Beowulf story. The book then provides 4 fantasy-tales, by 4 different authors, involving the adventures of Beowulf after his run-in with Grendel. These 4 fantasy adventures are written in a style that reminds me of a typical Sword & Sorcery/ Forgotten Realms Novel, but each short story is rather interesting, or at least entertaining. Each chapter/story is followed by a short (rather pointless) interlude which doesn't fit and could have been left out. The book also includes a rather useful (especially for scholars of Beowulf) partial, annotated bibliography of the Beowulf cannon through to current times.

In short, this is an entertaining, but not spectacular, fantasy anthology featuring the further adventures of Beowulf that could have used improvements with some of the other material.… (more)