Near-complete review of The Averoigne Legacy: B+

I have read or almost-read most of the stories in The Averoigne Legacy. I reviewed them over at Ace's. Here's the first bunch and here's the rest.

I didn't review the poems - only Stillman's rises above the high-school level. For the stories, I reviewed twenty out of the twenty-two; skipping "Cult" which was mine and "Clotaire" which I didn't finish.

I graded them by the American system of FDCBA. By a grade-point system, that's 0-4. I'm counting my one "A-" as a "B" for the purpose of a grade-point average (GPA). My total was 66 64; so the collection's GPA is 3.2. Again: not counting "Cult" or "Clotaire".

I punished otherwise-competent authors for ignoring Klarkash-Ton's canon. The main offender here was Simon Whitechapel, who did it twice: first by relating of phantom city Touraine, second by summoning up a bridge to nowhere (tho' I may have rescued the latter). Third time lucky though, with "Quarry". I further had an editorial problem with the end of "Cats", which I hope can be fixed in future editions.

Of the three duds I counted, I observe that two of them were among the first-written: Hilger's "Oracle" and McNaughton's "Return". It is difficult to see what an editor can do with either, the one being abandoned by CAS himself (although Hilger did resurrect "Doom" successfully) and the other coming from an author now deceased. Contrast the poetry! Grace Stillman's 1934 "The Woods of Averoigne" is the only one free of false rhyme and forced metre.

As markers in the history of Averoigne derivative fiction, the editor has that case for including the two misfires. Here I point over to Nightshade Press, which included several tales from Smith himself that not everyone likes: among them, "Ubbo-Sathla", and the famously-misplaced "Voyage of King Euvoran". For Averoigne, anyway, the Nightshade editors found their way to salvage "Disinterment of Venus" and "Beast of Averoigne". Our editor agrees with Nightshade's decision: The Averoigne Archives (Pickmans) reconstructs "Beast" similarly and independently.

On a happier note I count that over half the stories - twelve eleven out of twenty-two, since for this denominator we may bring the exclusions - are excellent. The five I ranked "B" only barely missed my standard, which I like to think is a high one. I would like to read more from all of the associated authors.

As an almost comprehensive selection of the genre, I propose that The Averoigne Legacy succeeds.

UPDATE 3:30 PM MST: I've rung the alarm-bell on "The Fell Fête". I still don't count it a "dud" since some editing can fix this.