Sword and Sorceress was a fantasy anthology series created by Marion Zimmer Bradley. She began the series to redress the lack of strong female protagonists in the subgenre of sword and sorcery. The books were released annually from 1984 to 2019.
Mercedes Lackey published nine of the fifteen individual Tarma and Kethry stories in these anthologies. The first, "Sword Sworn", was their origin story: how the two met and revenged Clan Tale'sedrin. Tarma and Kethry appeared in every anthology issue for eight years in a row. All of these stories (except the one with Waters) were collected and published in Oathblood (1998).
Included in Oathblood collection (1998)[]
- Sword and Sorceress III (1986) - "Sword Sworn"
- Sword and Sorceress IV (1987) - "A Tale of Heroes"
- Sword and Sorceress V (1988) - "Keys"
- Sword and Sorceress VI (1989) - "The Making of a Legend"
- Sword and Sorceress VII (1990) - "The Talisman"
- Sword and Sorceress VIII (1991) - "Wings of Fire"
- Sword and Sorceress IX (1992) - "A Woman's Weapon"
- Sword and Sorceress X (1993) - "Friendly Fire"
Not included in a Valdemar anthology[]
- Sword and Sorceress XII (1995) - A Dragon in Distress" (with Elisabeth Waters)
Here is a link to our Book sources page, preset to help you look for a print copy of the Sword and Sorceress XII Anthology at libraries and book re-sellers.
The story by itself is available as an ebook and in two other ebook collections.
Chronological order of stories[]
The complete chronological list of short stories and events is provided in the Interwoven listing. This list includes only the stories published in Sword and Sorceress, most of which were collected in Oathblood, but not in chronological order. This chronological order, based on clues, is unofficial:
- Oathblood - "Sword Sworn
- Oathblood - "The Talisman"
- Oathblood - "Friendly Fire"
- Oathblood - "A Tale of Heroes"
- (ebook) - "A Dragon in Distress"
- Oathblood - "Keys"
- Oathblood - "Turnabout"
- Oathblood - "The Making of a Legend"
- Oathblood - "A Woman's Weapon"
Publication history[]
External link: The Internet Science Fiction and Fantasy Database (ISFDB) has a complete list of the Sword and Sorceress anthologies.