Return to Sandahl: A compendium of short stories set in the town of Sandahl, in the Lands of Methanasia, on the World of Pearl

by Audra Middleton (Contribution by), Maggie Banks (Contribution by), Amy Sonoda (Contribution by)

Overview

With six other authors, C. Lee Brown has again compiled an anthology of eight fantasy tales set in the medieval town of Sandahl high up in the mountains that cross the continent of Methanasia on the fantastic world of Pearl. Not a sequel to A Visitor to Sandahl, this compendium of short stories complements that work and contains stories set in the same familiar realm. In Cliffhanger you will follow the Bard, Cable Hornman, as he leaves Sandahl on his steed Blackie to explore an abandoned Dwarf mine and finds a tricky monster defending the tunnels. Linda Ulleseit's story from A Visitor to Sandahl continues when a young man infiltrates Roark's Raiders to expose the band of murderers and thieves troubling the western trade route. Another return author, Zephyrus White, thrills us with his tale about The Girl with the Red Curls set in the night shaded streets of Sandahl, where the unknown lurks and life can be cheap. The Witch's Cure by Audra Middleton will intrigue you with a character so embroiled in her own desire for a man she will do almost anything. Read what an opportunity with a stranger offers her. Do you know Marak's Dream? Read Maggie Banks' story of a delightful magical romp and find out what happens to Marak after being struck by a girl on a horse. In The Girl Who Saw Red, Amy Sonoda paints a picture of life among the less fortunate who scavenge the streets of Sandahl. Then Robert Fluegel offers up a story of a reluctant Guardian hired to protect a Princess, in spite of his secret disdain for royalty. The final story is called The Bag, another offering from C. Lee Brown. It contains the Dwarf, Bar lo Mein, and his big Northman friend, Oskar Zulu, who get into their ale at a local tavern and stagger into an adventure under Spit Peak way down by East Lake. This second anthology has heroes, miscreants, and adventurers going in many different directions in, out, and around Sandahl to find treasure, romance, danger, and adventure. If you enjoy fantasy tales, consider this second offering in the Bard's Troubadour Tales, Return to Sandahl.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493595549
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	02/09/2014
Series:	Troubadour Tales of Methanasia , #2
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

C. Lee Brown, creator of Pearl, Methanasia and Tales of the Bard, is a lover of all different sorts of secrets, myths, legends, and adventures. He was an avid reader and especially enjoyed science fiction.
Born in Southern Illinois, he was an only child. His father worked in the mines and his mother was a seamstress. As a teen, Lee loved to explore a local place called Cave Hill and was always excited to see the stalactites, stalagmites, and tunnels. This inspired his interest in the exploits of characters in fantasy novels.
Lee had three children from his first marriage and is a proud grandfather of seven. A military veteran with over twenty years work in intelligence and a world traveler, he now resides just south of Savannah, Georgia. Lee worked in Law Enforcement as a Police Captain for several years after retiring from the Army; then went on to work for the Georgia Department of Labor as a Local Veterans Employment Representative, LVER, for over fourteen years. He was a certified master instructor while in Army Security Agency and built on those skills as a TAP facilitator for military exiting the services at Fort Stewart and Kings Bay Naval Base.
An active veteran, he co-founded a local American Legion Post in the late 90's as the first post commander and also published documentaries as the historian. He's also a member of the VFW, Elks and local historical society.
Twice retired, he now spends most of his time painting and writing. His first fantasy novel, Cable Hornman: The Bard Begins, was set in the faraway world of Pearl in the future. It artfully blends a science fiction premise and high fantasy where the colonized planet of Pearl has its population decimated. The world is thrown into an ice age and emerges as a medieval land where magic is possible. A continent called Methanasia is the primary realm for most of the stories. As an editor, Brown's first anthology is A Visitor to Sandahl. It incorporates the same fantasy world of Pearl and sets the short stories in a centrally located town called Sandahl. Brown's next anthology is titled Return to Sandahl. He and six other writers produced eight fresh stories in the same realm. If you enjoy high fantasy, C. Lee Brown writes stories and collects tales from other authors to magically enthrall and entertain you.
If you ask him why he writes, he will say he does it for his family and friends.

Editorial Reviews

2014-04-24
The second anthology of fantasy tales compiled and edited by Brown (A Visitor to Sandahl, 2010, etc.) collects eight stories set in and around the town of its title.According to Brown's detailed geography, Sandahl is nestled near the junction of three mountain ranges, the trade center of the continent of Methanasia on a world called Pearl. Its true location, however, is Epic Fantasy Land, the quasi-medieval milieu popularized by J.R.R. Tolkien and oft-imitated ever since: Elves, dwarves and humans exist in uneasy company, fighting Dire wolves and other ferocious beasts, finding treasure and casting spells, and encountering unambiguous villains usually evident by their ugly exterior. The runaway hit Game of Thrones series shows that this formula still excites; however, the Sandahl tales offer little that's new. Though seven different authors contribute, there's a sameness to the workaday prose—only the opening paragraphs of Amy Sonoda's "The Girl Who Saw Red" attempt a different register, taking the first-person point of view of the homeless child of its title: "Every day of my life is same. Wake, hide, sneak, hide, steal, hide, eat, 'n hide again." This is the best story in the bunch, with a grotesque plot twist effectively rendered. Many of the others seem to stop right where the story begins. Zephyrus White's "The Girl with the Red Curls" links the title character's bloody visions to a series of gruesome murders but ends with no explanation, just the last line "Whatever the truth, whoever I am, I must find out...." Similarly, Brown's own "Cliffhanger" covers Cable Hornman's discovery of a magic sword, but trails off once he learns its origin and destiny. While it's possible that the answers to this and other mysteries raised by these tales will appear in a future Sandahl collection, the lack of resolution gives this one an unfinished quality.Familiar tropes and a population of stock characters render Sandahl an unremarkable place.

Kirkus Reviews