Рон Криннит: The Inheritance and Other Stories

Megan Lindholm (Wizard of the Pigeons) writes tightly constructed SF and fantasy with a distinctly contemporary feel. Robin Hobb (Assassin s Quest) writes sprawling, multi-volume fantasies set in imaginary realms. These two writers, apparently so different, are, of course, the same person, each reflecting an aspect of a single multifaceted imagination.

Inheritance gathers the best of Hobb and Lindholm s shorter fiction into one irreplaceable volume containing ten stories and novellas (seven by Lindholm, three by Hobb), together with a revealing introduction and extensive, highly readable story notes. The Lindholm section leads off with the Hugo and Nebula-nominated novella A Touch of Lavender, a powerful account of love, music, poverty, and addiction set against an extended encounter between human and alien societies. Other memorable entries include Cut, a reflection on the complex consequences of freedom, and the newly published Drum Machine, an equally absorbing meditation on the chaotic nature of the creative impulse. Two of Robin Hobb s contributions revisit the world of her popular Live Traders series. Homecoming enlarges the earlier history of those novels through the journal entries of Lady Carillion Carrock, while The Inheritance concerns a disenfranchised young woman who comes to understand the true nature of her grandmother s legacy. And in Cat s Meat, a long and wonderful story written expressly for this collection, an embattled single mother reclaims her life with the help of a gifted—and utterly ruthless—cat.