Көшпенділер әлемі: Санктуарий қаласының хикаясы

Shared world fantasy series by Robert Asprin
the fantasy setting

Thieves' World is a shared world fantasy series created by Robert Lynn Asprin in 1978. The original series comprised twelve anthologies, including stories by science fiction and fantasy authors Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Andrew J. Offutt, C. J. Cherryh, Janet Morris, and Chris Morris. Thieves' World is set in the city of Sanctuary at the edge of the Rankan Empire. The city is depicted as a place where many are downtrodden and where the invading Rankan gods and the Ilsigi gods they had ousted begin a struggle for dominance. As the series continues, additional invasions occur, and the city is taken over by the snake worshipping Beysib as the Rankan empire collapses. Over time, a number of the characters in the series are revealed either to be the offspring of or otherwise blessed by various figures in the pantheons of the competing deities, and they discover or develop various powers as the series progresses. First published in 1979, the series went on hiatus in 1989 after the twelfth anthology. In addition to the official anthologies, several authors published novels set in Thieves' World. In 2002, Lynn Abbey, who co edited several of the original anthologies, relaunched the series with the novel Sanctuary. It was followed by the anthologies Turning Points and Enemies of Fortune, which contain some returning authors and several new ones. Abbey also oversaw the republication of the original anthologies in omnibus editions.

The Thieves' World anthologies were conceived by authors Robert Lynn Asprin, Lynn Abbey, and Gordon R. Dickson during a casual meeting at the Boston science fiction convention Boskone in 1978. Asprin suggested that the task of world building was a major hurdle for modern fantasy writers:

"Whenever one set out to write heroic fantasy, it was first necessary to reinvent the universe from scratch regardless of what had gone before. Despite the carefully crafted Hyborean world of Howard or even the delightfully complex town of Lankhmar which Leiber created, every author was expected to beat his head against the writing table and devise a world of his own. Imagine, I proposed, if our favorite sword and sorcery characters shared the same settings and time frames. Imagine the story potentials.”

Abbey described the 1978 meeting as "a casual conversation [that] changed the lives of a couple dozen people who had no idea what they had been missing or what they were getting into." The writers who were recruited for the series saw Thieves' World as both a challenge and an opportunity to bring "new oddments of human behavior, new quirks of character that the authors wouldn't dare put in a universe for which he or she was solely responsible." The city itself was envisioned as a late medieval town with similarities to the Shambles in York, England, and additional elements of Baghdad. The faraway capital city of Ranke is based on Rome. "Nobody knows how big Sanctuary really is. Anytime any one of us needs a secret meeting place we just create one – Sanctuary is either very large or very cramped." In an interview for Green Ronin's Sanctuary based roleplaying guides, Abbey explained the increase of interconnected storylines as the series progressed. "The stories of the first few volumes stood by themselves. But starting in about volume three (Shadows of Sanctuary) the authors began collaborating big time. Eventually just about every author worked with the same plot threads, some of which stretched over several volumes." Authors would often mine each other's stories for plot ideas, with a minor plot point or piece of dialogue turning into a complete story in a subsequent volume. Abbey noted that the interwoven plots eventually hurt the series' readership: "The very plot and character denseness of a Thieves' World volume, while it was eagerly anticipated by long time readers, was a bit intimidating to anyone who hadn't been following the series from the beginning." Her observation led to a revised approach for the 2002 relaunch. "When we went to work on 'new Thieves' World', we tried to find a happy medium between stand alone stories and densely interwoven plots. In Turning Points and Enemies of Fortune there are a few events and situations that serve as a backdrop for the stories." and the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts cites Thieves' World as the "first and protype of the form". Science fiction author Cory Doctorow says the series "rocked my world when I was about 13", and author Robin Hobb called its concept of a collective setting and characters "a brilliant idea". Author and game designer Robert J. Schwalb said "Thieves' World is to authors what D&D is to gamers." Greg Costikyan reviewed Thieves' World in Ares Magazine #1. Costikyan commented that "since fantasy role playing involves the group production of a multi hero fantasy story, role playing fans especially will find Thieves' World enjoyable. [ ] The stories themselves range from mediocre to excellent, but all are worth reading." The Encyclopedia of Fantasy describes the series: "It is in the creation and editorial supervision of the Thieves' World sequence of shared world anthologies that Robert Lynn Asprin in collaboration with Abbey has done his most original work." In the editorial essay included in the second volume, Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, Asprin noted that, though fan response was mostly positive and high sales had led to sequels and the development of the Chaosium board game, many readers had written to the publisher to comment on the series' overall lack of humor.

In August 2023, Thieves' World will be released as an audiobook on Audible, published by Tantor Media and narrated by Jonathan Johns.

Sanctuary: Thieves' World (Mayfair Games, 1982).