Title Unfettered Series --- Editor Shawn Speakman Cover Art --- Publisher Grim Oak Press - 2013 First Printing Grim Oak Press - 2013 Category Anthology Main Characters See below Main Elements Dragons, Wizards, Demons

• "Imaginary Friends" - Terry Brooks (Word & Void)
• "How Old Holly Came To Be" - Patrick Rothfuss (Four Corners)
• "The Old Scale Game" - Tad Williams
• "Game of Chance" - Carrie Vaughn
• "Martyr of the Roses" - Jacqueline Carey (Kushiel)
• "Mudboy" - Peter V. Brett (Demon Cycle)
• "The Sound of Broken Absolutes" - Peter Orullian (Vault of Heaven)
• "The Coach with Big Teeth" - R.A. Salvatore
• "Keeper of Memory" - Todd Lockwood (Summer Dragon)
• "Heaven in a Wildflower" - Blake Charlton
• "Dogs" - Daniel Abraham
• "The Chapel Perilous" - Kevin Hearne (Iron Druid)
• "Select Mode" - Mark Lawrence (Broken Empire)
• "All the Girls Love Michael Stein" - David Anthony Durham
• "Strange Rain" - Jennifer Bosworth (Struck)
• "Nocturne" - Robert V. S. Redick
• "Unbowed" - Eldon Thompson (Legend of Asahiel)
• "In Favour with Their Stars" - Naomi Novik (Temeraire)
• "The Jester" - Michael J. Sullivan (Riyria Chronicles)
• "The Duel" - Lev Grossman (Magicians)
• "Walker and the Shade of Allanon" - Terry Brooks (Shannara)
• "The Unfettered Knight" - Shawn Speakman (Annwn Cycle)

You define life or it defines you.

In Shawn Speakman’s case, it was both.

Lacking health insurance and diagnosed with Hogdkin’s lymphoma in 2011, Shawn quickly accrued a massive medical debt that he did not have the ability to pay. That’s when New York Times best-selling author Terry Brooks offered to donate a short story Shawn could sell toward alleviating those bills—and suggested Shawn ask the same of his other friends.

Unfettered is the result, an anthology built to relieve that debt, featuring short stories by some of the best fantasy writers in the genre.

With the help of stalwart friends and these wonderful short stories, Shawn has taken the gravest of life hardships and created something magical. Unfettered is not only a fantastic anthology in its own right but it’s a testament to the generosity found in the science fiction and fantasy community—proof that humanity can give beyond itself when the need arises.

After all, isn’t that the driving narrative in fantasy literature?

I actually try to avoid reading anthologies that have stories set in other series, at least reading them cover to cover, usually I just pick out the one story related to the series I'm currently reading. In this case it was Brook's Shanara and Word/Void series. However its not as easy to jump in and out of an ebook so I decided to risk it and read it all the way through. On the positive side, really enjoyed some, on the downside, now I want to read the series that go with them! My to read pile was already epically huge and it just got bigger!!!

Imaginary Friends - This was Brooks experiment in creating an urban fantasy series that eventually became The Word and the Void. It doesn't quite fit in, its clearly a first draft and a lot changed between this story and the trilogy, but was still interesting to see how authors develop their worlds. It is also a fitting tale about a boy who must face the monster that is cancer, while battling a demon in the woods with the help of a sylvain creature called Pick, who does in fact survive into the trilogy.

How Old Holly Came To Be - I never started the Four Corners books, though I own them, been waiting for the series to continue before I dive in, and since that may or may not ever happen, I felt no risk reading this story, by the time I get to the novels, if there were any spoilers, I'd have forgotten them. Well, its been a couple weeks since I read it and I've already mostly forgotten. It was written in a very odd style, which why not, the anthology is called Unfettered so authors could write whatever they wanted, and if they wanted to try out a new technique why not. But...honestly not quite sure what really happened in this story, and based on reviews I've seen, its unclear even to people who've read the novels.

The Old Scale Game - At first it was just another retelling of that knight that pretends to slay a dragon to trick the villagers into paying him for his services. But it didn't stop there. Next up was a giant, and then slowly but surely a whole army of fantasy creatures were following along looking for a place to live, and in the meantime, harrassing villagers so that the knight could be paid to "kill" them off. But what do you do when what started as a simple con becomes too big to handle?

Game of Chance - I'd recently read the duology The Incrementalists by Stephen Brust where a group of people have special powers to allow them to incrementally change the world. If you consider the flap of a butterfly's wings could cause a hurricane over time, that's the idea. It's the same idea here, and as in Brust's novels, those with the power aren't quite sure what to nudge or does it need something more dramatic. In many cases you'll just make things worse, in others, some things just can't be changed.

Martyr of the Roses - Apparently this story couldn't otherwise be published since it doesn't actually fit into the Kusiel chronology properly, but because of that I wasn't worried about spoilers to the series. Instead it made for an interesting teaser and shortly after reading this I bought a second book in the series with plans to pick up more. I'll be honest and say I didn't entirely understand everything that happened, but the worldbuilding certainly left me wanting more.

Mudboy - An origin story for the character of Briar. Again, this little sneak peak into the world of the Demon Cycle series left me wanting to know more.

The Sound of Broken Absolutes - Another tale that created a world I wanted to spend more time in. A world where music can be used as a weapon. But that was only half the tale, the other half was a love story about music itself. I don't know if the characters that are in this story will show up in the series, only likely will, as the head of the musical order, but I'd like to find out more about the other, the student that had to leave school to go fight a war before he was ready. This was a long story, nearly a novella, but I was glad I could spend the time.

The Coach with Big Teeth - This one is a bit like Imaginary Friends, where a boy is struggling with something, in this case doing well at baseball when he isn't really all that good, and then being confronted by monsters, although in this case it doesn't turn out so well for LC as it does for Jack.

Keeper of Memory - Usually known as an artist, Lockwood started the Summer Dragon series and wrote this story that takes place in that world. It's not the first story to use dragons as beast of war but like Martyr of Roses and The Sound of Broken Absolutes I liked the atmosphere, the writing and the worldbuilding.

Heaven in a Wildflower - A strange world where children, especially girls, are found as spirits and need to be encouraged to take human form. Some boys are found this way too. These people are reincarnated over and over. However some humans are just humans and when they die, they don't come back. And for the human that finds one of these reincarnated children, they will die if the child dies.

Dogs - This one confused me a little since I didn't find an SFF element in it. Just this guy that gets attacked by a dog and then becomes afraid of them. Not a very happy story no matter how you look at it.

Chapel Perilous - This was fun. I knew about the Iron Druid series but didn't know it had a lot of the vibes of the Dresden Files. Now I really want to read more of this series, already started buying some of the books...

Select Mode - I felt this one was a bit hard to get into without having read the series so I didn't quite grasp what was happening in the origin story.

All the Girls Love Michael Stein - This was cute, I have to wonder if all the cats I've own in the past are still around keeping an eye out for me. They might not be able to do all that much but its still nice to think they still bump their heads on your legs or snuggle in your bed.

Strange Rain - Strange is a good word for this one, again an origin story. I'm also not sure if I'll invest time in the series because...well there's only one book and a couple short stories so is the series complete? Or did it get abandoned?

Nocturne - Ah...another strange one. A tale of madness that's challenging to unravel. Fortunately I had a long wait at a doctor's office so I could read a big chunk of this in one sitting since it would have been impossible to follow if I had broken it up. Another one where I couldn't pick out any fantasy element, other than the fantasy in the protagonist's head.

Unbowed - An origin story about how Kylac Kronor because the character he became (I get the impression its a kind of grim dark series?), but he didn't start out as a bad guy, he was made one.

In Favour with Their Stars - Alright, I've read most of the Temeraire series so this one was particularly fun for me. Now, its not really a Temeraire story, its an alternate version of it. Instead of history fantasy, its SF, with the dragons being colonists on another planet, and spaceships, and lasers and all that fun stuff. You need to be familiar with the series to really enjoy the twists in this one, but it definitely made me smile.

The Jester - Oh man, another series I absolutely must read. The tale starts near the end of an adventure actually and there was fun ways of figuring out what led to character's particular awkward (and deadly) situation. I'm sure this might have even been more fun if you were familiar with the character but I loved every moment of it anyway, including the characters I've never met before. This is high on my to read pile now, and these I'll be buying not borrowing!

The Duel - Yay, another series I'm familiar with...although wasn't this scene actually in the book? Grossman said it was cut out but I seem to recall Eliott having a fight with a super strong champion. But that's fine, any excuse to go back to Fillory is a good one.

Walker and the Shade of Allanon - Well, I had bought this book because I'm in the middle of reading the entire Shannara series and wanted to read all the short stories too. Now, in the meantime I picked up an anthology of Brooks' work and all his stories are there. But I don't feel back about being "tricked" into buy this anthology because, well, I was exposed to so many other series that I didn't realize were so good (and of course if proceeds of this book still go to Shawn, all the better). This tale is of course a bit cryptic because Allanon is a shade and they never make a lot of sense. This fits somewhere inside the first book in the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy.

The Unfettered Knight - Another tale that immediately made me think of the Iron Druid due to the Celtic vibe. Its also an urban fantasy like The Desden Files.

In conclusion, this was a really great anthology, there were very few stories I didn't outright enjoy and most did their job to make me want to read more of their respective series and/or to give me happy vibes to return to a world I hadn't visited in some time.