Legends (1998)
Legends is a 1998 short stories book written by Robert Silverberg and Orson Scott Card.
Robert Silverberg gathered eleven of modern fantasy's biggest names and asked each to return to the world that made their reputation. The result is a tour of famous realms in a single volume: a Wheel of Time novella from Robert Jordan, an early Roland tale from Stephen King's Dark Tower, Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, George R.R. Martin's Westeros, Orson Scott Card's frontier of Alvin Maker, plus Anne McCaffrey, Raymond E. Feist and Tad Williams. Each story stands alone, an ideal doorway into a series or a reunion for readers already inside.
Quick answers
What is Legends about?
Robert Silverberg gathered eleven of modern fantasy's biggest names and asked each to return to the world that made their reputation. The result is a tour of famous realms in a single volume: a Wheel of Time novella from Robert Jordan, an early Roland tale from Stephen King's Dark Tower, Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, George R.R. Martin's Westeros, Orson Scott Card's frontier of Alvin Maker, plus Anne McCaffrey, Raymond E. Feist and Tad Williams. Each story stands alone, an ideal doorway into a series or a reunion for readers already inside.
When was Legends published?
Legends was published in 1998.
Who made Legends?
Legends was written by Robert Silverberg, Orson Scott Card and Stephen King.
Similar books
A few thoughts on Legends
Treat the book as a sampler. If Stephen King's contribution hooks you, the Dark Tower saga and its 2017 film adaptation wait with the same weird-western scope. George R.R. Martin's Hedge Knight novella feeds straight into the Westeros of Game of Thrones. Robert Jordan's New Spring is a prequel to the world The Wheel of Time series adapts.
Return to the world you fell in love with
Legends sends famous fantasy authors back into the worlds that made their names, one novella at a time. Game of Thrones and The Wheel of Time keep expanding the same universes across seasons the way these novellas expand a series between books, The Dark Tower carries Roland's mythology to a wider audience, and The Silmarillion does the same trick for Tolkien, returning to a world's oldest history.
Genre legends who share one book instead of competing
Legends gathers eleven famous fantasy writers under a single cover, each returning to their signature world for one story. Warriors and Again, Dangerous Visions run the same playbook of big names writing side by side, while The Fantasy Hall of Fame, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder collect the genre's best-known voices into one durable anthology apiece.
TV anthologies that let a different world play out every episode
Legends works like an anthology, handing the reader a new world every chapter instead of one continuous plot. The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery run on that same structure, a fresh premise and cast each episode, Amazing Stories keeps the format alive for a new generation, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams and Nightmares & Dreamscapes adapt a single acclaimed author's stories the way Legends showcases fantasy's biggest names.