We Are All Legends
Cover of We Are All Legends
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| Author | Darrell Schweitzer |
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| Illustrator | Stephen Fabian |
| Cover artist | Stephen Fabian |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy short stories |
| Publisher | The Donning Company/Starblaze Editions |
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Publication date
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1981 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 193 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 07271987 |
We Are All Legends is a collection of fantasy short stories written by Darrell Schweitzer featuring his sword and sorcery hero Sir Julian. The book was edited by Hank Stine and illustrated by Stephen Fabian, and features an introduction by L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published as a trade paperback by The Donning Company in 1981. It was reprinted by Starmount House in 1988, Borgo Press in 1989 and Wildside Press in 1999.
The collection consists of a cycle of thirteen stories, nine of them originally published from 1976-1979 in various fantasy and science fiction magazines and anthologies, with the remainder original to the collection.
The stories relate the endless, hopeless journey of the doomed anti-hero Sir Julian, a Medieval knight whose soul is forfeit to Satan but who has been left free to wander the world. He encounters numerous horrors and divine or semi-divine creatures from myth and legend, and in the course of his adventures is continually forced into awareness of his internal and seemingly unconquerable flaws, frailties that brought about and continue to ensure his damnation.
L. Sprague de Camp in his introduction to the book called the author "one of the brightest of the rising generation of fantasists," and its contents "dreamy — often nightmarish — narratives ... mood pieces, the mood of which the author achieves with deceptive ease," reminiscent of the works of "Lord Dunsany, James Branch Cabell, Michael Moorcock, and perhaps George MacDonald" that leave the reader "with the feeling that he has undergone a strange and haunting experience."
L. Cowan, writing on the collection in Mythprint, called its stories "worth sharing" and their author "a master story-teller," who "conveys his ideas with professional ease, never once confusing or cheating the reader" in a style "moody, haunting, persuasive, and smooth."
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