Thieves' World Turning Points: A Classic Fantasy Anthology Returns

Book: Thieves’ World: Turning Points Editor: Lynn Abbey Series: Thieves’ World New Series, Book 1 Publisher: Tor Books, 2002

What Even Is Thieves’ World?

If you’ve never heard of Thieves’ World, here’s the short version. Back in 1979, editor Robert Lynn Asprin had a wild idea. What if you took a bunch of fantasy authors, gave them the same city to play in, and let them write stories that shared characters, locations, and consequences? What one writer did in their story would actually affect the world another writer was building in theirs.

That city was Sanctuary. And Sanctuary was not a nice place.

Think of the grittiest fantasy city you can imagine. Now make it worse. Sanctuary sits on the edge of an empire nobody cares about. It’s full of thieves, assassins, corrupt priests, shapeshifting wizards, feuding gods, and regular people just trying to survive. The streets are dangerous. The taverns are dangerous. The temples are dangerous. Basically everything in Sanctuary can kill you.

The original Thieves’ World anthology series ran from 1979 to 1989. A dozen volumes. Contributors included big names like Poul Anderson, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Brunner, C.J. Cherryh, and Raymond Feist. It was a massive hit. And then it stopped.

So Why Are We Here in 2002?

After more than a decade of silence, Lynn Abbey brought Sanctuary back. Turning Points is the first book in a new series. And the dedication page tells you something important right away. It’s dedicated to the memory of Poul Anderson, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Brunner, A.E. van Vogt, and Gordon R. Dickson. These are people who built the original world. Some of them were gone by the time this book came out. This revival carries weight.

But Abbey didn’t just reheat leftovers. She moved the timeline forward. Ten years have passed in Sanctuary since the old stories ended. The Irrune tribe has conquered the city. The Bloody Hand of Dyareela, a brutal death cult, has been destroyed. The old power players are dead or gone. New problems are brewing.

And that’s what makes this book interesting. It’s not a nostalgia trip. It’s a fresh start that happens to take place in a world with a long, complicated history.

What This Series Is About

Over the next several posts, I’m going to walk through every story in Turning Points. This isn’t a straight summary. I’ll retell the key events, break down what each story adds to the world, and share my honest thoughts on what works and what doesn’t.

Here’s the lineup:

• Introduction by Lynn Abbey. Meet Cauvin, a stonemason carrying the memories of a dead man. Political scheming, eclipses, and a city bracing for trouble.
• “Home Is Where the Hate Is” by Mickey Zucker Reichert. A broken kid named Dysan fights to keep the only home he’s ever known.
• “Role Model” by Andrew Offutt. A two-part story about identity and the shadows of the past.
• “The Prisoner in the Jewel” by Diana L. Paxson. Magic and confinement in a world where gods meddle directly.
• “Ritual Evolution” by Selina Rosen. How belief systems change when the old ones burn down.
• “Duel” by Dennis L. McKiernan. Steel, honor, and what happens when warriors actually have to fight.
• “Ring of Sea and Fire” by Robin Wayne Bailey. The world beyond Sanctuary’s walls starts pushing in.
• “Doing the Gods’ Work” by Jody Lynn Nye. What it actually means to serve a deity in a city that hates religion.
• “The Red Lucky” by Lynn Abbey. Abbey herself returns to the streets with a story about luck and survival.
• “Apocalypse Noun” by Jeff Grubb. Yes, that’s the real title. And it’s about exactly what you’d expect.
• “One to Go” by Raymond E. Feist. The big name closer. Feist brings his style to Sanctuary one more time.

Why This Book Matters

Shared-world anthologies are rare now. They were never exactly common, but Thieves’ World was the gold standard. The idea that multiple authors would coordinate their stories so that events in one tale ripple through others. That characters would cross between stories. That the city itself would change based on what happened. It was collaborative worldbuilding before we had a word for it.

Turning Points tries to recapture that. Some stories succeed. Some feel a little disconnected. But the ambition is there, and Sanctuary still feels like a real place. Dirty, dangerous, and alive.

If you’ve read the originals, this book picks up threads you remember while spinning new ones. If you haven’t, don’t worry. Abbey builds in enough context that you can start here. You’ll just miss some Easter eggs.

Let’s Get Started

The first actual story is Lynn Abbey’s Introduction, where we meet Cauvin. He’s a stonemason. He inherited an entire lifetime of memories from a dead political mastermind. And the city’s ruler just sent a messenger to drag him to the palace. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

Next: Meet Cauvin - The Stonemason With a Dead Man’s Memories