Sword and Sorceress VII

Although these 25 original stories are studded with moments of intense drama, this collection is a shallow one and won't win fans to the fantasy genre. Each tale has a strong central female character, like the sorceress who pays for the experience of love by cutting out her own heart in Rowena A. Bathgate's ``Heart of the Matter.'' In Vera Nazarian's ``A Thing of Love,'' a public executioner uses her special gifts to perform her grisly duties with a compassion unsuspected by the crowds who come to gawk. A crafty ``knife-wielder'' and her companion, an eccentric old crone, outwit both the good guys and the bad guys as they prevent a small kingdom from being overrun by barbarians in Stephen L. Burns's ``The Bridge over Darikill Fel.'' Deborah Wheeler's heroine wrestles wolves; Gary Jonas's healer learns that not all injuries can be cured; Nancy Jane Moore offers the feisty lass who killed the dragon that ate St. George for lunch (after a swift kick to the dragon's testicles, she rams the sword into its neck); and Laurell K. Hamilton describes a deadly battle of revenge between an earth-witch and a sorceress. Bradley wrote The Mists of Avalon. (Dec.)