Interesting, but a little too fractured for me. The first (newest) story was the best, despite Weiland being confused and uncertain throughout - it made it hard to see what was going on when so much time was spent on him calculating what he could do without being punished or killed for it. And then it ends, with very few answers (why him? Who was he? What was she planning?). The middle story, Lylene's, is even less satisfying - she's lied to, over and over and over, and drags Weiland and Shile into her mess...And again, it's not clear why they do what they do. A sudden death and the reveal of the biggest lie, and...it ends, with them having paid a high price for basically nothing. Then the original story, that she wrote first and her readers said, essentially, where's the rest of the story? I agree, there are large holes...not so much in the plot as in the characters. Lylene gets lied to again, sheesh. Actually, that's a strong theme - Weiland gets lied to too, in all three stories, and not all of the lies get explained. It ends without ending - she gets what she really wanted, but we the readers aren't told what that is. And despite adding two books, she didn't answer the questions I had from that last/first story - maybe if I'd read them in the original order the other two stories would have helped, but as it is...very unsatisfying. ( )

This is an omnibus of two novels and one short story that I'd bought several years ago with the notion of reading it with the kids. Interestingly, in the foreword, the author explains that they were written in reverse order--that is, the one that takes place most recently in the story world was the first one written. Perhaps as a result of that, the first novel in the volume (that is, the last one written) is my favorite.

***** The Changeling Prince. A sorceress, Daria, has a household full of servants and warriors that are animals she's changed to human form. Weiland is an experiment. She changed him when he was very young, and keeps him in human form most of the time, trying to see if that will make him more "human."

Everything changes when Daria moves her entourage to town, and they're in frequent, and confusing, contact with people. Most importantly, Weiland meets and befriends a thief named Shile.

Weiland's attempts to make sense of everything, and his conflict between morality and his own mortality are what made this story worth reading for me.

**** The Conjurer Princess. I wasn't sure at first how this connected to the previous story. Lylene's older sister's wedding is interrupted when the groom is killed and Beryl is abducted. When neither the law nor the church will help, she takes it upon herself to rescue her sister. The first step in her plan: become a sorceress.

As with the previous story, Lylene has some morality/mortality choices to make, and they're honestly and realistically handled.

It's not until over halfway through the story that she meets up with Shile and Weiland, and that likely contributed to my not liking this story quite as much, because I was expecting and waiting for that connection.

**** "Just Another Dragon-Slaying".This is the short story, and where Vivian Vande Velde started the concept.

Weiland and Lylene are hired to kill a dragon--a fairly simple task that they've done before. But this time, it's not quite the same.

It's got a fairly clever plot, and a rather shocking development.

I'm don't think I'll be reading these with the kids, but I'll probably keep an eye out for more books by Vivian Vande Velde. ( )