Liavek
core collection 1985 Liavek
Record
| First published | 1985 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | collection |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.93 (315 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780441481804 |
Synopsis
Liavek, the first volume of the shared-world anthology series edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly, gathers eleven stories by multiple fantasy writers, including Gene Wolfe, Patricia C. Wrede, Nancy Kress, and Steven Brust, all set in the bustling trade city of Liavek on the southern shore of the Sea of Luck. The anthology establishes the city's distinctive magic system, in which every inhabitant is born with a fixed quantity of magical potential, called birth luck, determined by the length of their mother's labor; those who wish to work spells must invest this luck into an external object each year, a difficult and risky act that leaves them vulnerable if the object is lost or destroyed. The individual stories follow different Liavekan characters and households as they navigate the city's trade, politics, and magical customs within this shared setting.
Where it sits
- Universe: Liavek
- Series: Liavek core; position 1 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Emma Bull
- Author: Will Shetterly
Notes
- From the series record (Liavek): A five-volume shared-world anthology series created and edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly, with contributions from Gene Wolfe, Jane Yolen, Steven Brust, Megan Lindholm, Pamela Dean, Charles de Lint and others, several already credited elsewhere in this canon under their own separate universes.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Liavek: position 1 of 5: next Liavek: The Players of Luck (1986)
Sources
← Liavek dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.