CR2: Book 27 Thieves' World edited by Robert Aspirin

Why do I keep picking these weird books with multiple authors?

Having never read anything from the Sanctuary series, Henry thought Thieves' World would be a good place for me to start.
It is a collection of eight stories, each by a different author, who agreed going in that they would all write about this land of Sanctuary, but that details didn't necessarily have to match up. I was warned from page 1 that I may notice some inconsistencies, which I really didn't, as all of the stories are verbose to the point of being distracting.
It's a problem a lot of fantasy has- the forced made-up caste systems, the magical to-and-fro, the lack of connection with not only the events going down, but with the characters themselves. Add to that, the freedom to ignore important constants (be they from the authors not maintaining any communication with each other while writing such a history, or worse, from the paranoid characters themselves changing facts and perceptions) and suddenly, I feel like I'm scanning the story, rather than ingesting it.

I'm sure I zoned out more than once.

But there IS some good storytelling here, despite the too-wordy dialogue and complete wash of plot. It just took me longer than usual to appreciate it, and a shorter time than that to forget what made it interesting. For every story I think I liked, there were two others that made me wish I had never heard of Thieves' World.

My advice? Sentences of Death by John Brunner and The Price of Doing Business by Robert Aspirin are the best of the bunch. Skip Blood Brothers by Joe Haldeman and Myrtis by Christine DeWees altogether (they do nothing but infuriate your logical thinkings). The Gate of the Flying Knives by Poul Anderson *could have been* great, but lost its momentum.

No more Sanctuary for me.