Champions

Multiple Authors

4.5 out of 5 stars

I’m a very casual user of Reddit, every once in a while I come across something that reminds me I should get on there more often. This collection of short stories is one of those things. Champions is an anthology of stories from the r/fantasywriters subreddit’s monthly challenge from December 2011 to July 2015.

These stories show the wide range the fantasy genre has. Most are complete stories, but some could be the beginning of a longer epic fantasy story. There are funny stories, more adventurous ones, even some sad ones. One of the sad ones is “The Mesmerist”, where a magician helps a soldier talk to the spirit of his dead lover. There were also a few stories that had an interesting twist on the convention. The best one is “The Exam”. In it, once someone passes their exam to use magic on their own, they are able o summon their mount, which turns out to be a motorcycle. Some of the settings are in a more medieval fantasy world and others are in the modern time.

But overall, my favorite story was “A Grievance”, which is about someone wanting to submit a complaint with the King against the people in the town they live in. The story is written with only dialogue, and the author managed to give the characters very distinct voices. It was hilarious as the person taking the complaint matter-of-factly asks questions and is eventually able to get out of the other person to admit to being a necromancer and that the necromancy is why the townspeople aren’t treating them well. The tone of both characters throughout was so funny, and it has a very funny ending.

There were some editing mistakes that I noticed, so I’m rating this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. This book shows that you can find great stories in unexpected places. So if you like fantasy, pick up this book, ad check out r/fantasywriters on Reddit.

Price through Amazon Kindle: $0

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JETZWHS

(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)