The Anvil of the World (Hardcover)

While this book is basically three novellettes cobbled together - the stories flow in a serial fashion. The only thing that differentiates the novellettes from a single story is slight character changes and emphasis and ... that each novellette is more fun, engaging and amusing than the previous one.

The world building resembles medieval fantasy with lots that's familiar but with enough original quirks to keep you off balance. As weird as it is, you find yourself wondering - is this world any worse or even better than our own - or just different and shaped by it's own history?

There is a good variety of characters and they are all key elements to the tales that unfold. The characters engage you in a way that is ... "dumb and misguided, yet lovable", even when they are doing slightly evil things. They are also definitely "pathetic and weird". I think the author thought that she would see what it was like to put the fate of the world in the hands of the bumbling down-and-out losers that never did anything right and then ask you - the reader - is this world really worth saving? And if it is, could this bunch do it?

If fun was the deciding factor in the "Locus" and "Nebula" best of the year awards, this book would grab first place.

Wow ... fun and thought provoking. What are you waiting for - go out and buy it and tell your friends about it? To the author ... write more adventures in this world! This is the first Kage Baker book I have read and now she jumps to my "buy on first sighting" list.

One of the best things about "The Anvil of the World" is Baker's truly original take on world-building. The world in which Baker sets her story is not the typical sword and sorcery realm, nor is it the domain of urban fantasy. Instead, it's the Wild West and the Renaissance combined with a little unfettered Industrialism and an eco-conscious indigenous population. Add a retired assassin, a gourmet cook who's been around, a demon lord and his nursemaid, and a few religious terrorists, and you have the makings of a fun novel. I'll not go into the plot, since other reviewers have done that. Besides, any book that begins by describing a "golden city" that's so dusty that all its inhabitants suffer "from chronic emphysema," wheezing is "considered refined, and the social event of the year [is] the Festival of Respiratory Masks" is to be savored as much for its humor as its story.