Every so often, you will see Catherine “C.L.” Moore’s hero Northwest Smith referred to as the model for Han Solo. This would only be strictly true in a world in which Josef von Sternberg directed Star Wars.

Yes, Northwest Smith is a wanted criminal and occasional smuggler; yes, Northwest Smith wears space leathers on his lean frame and a ray-gun on his hip; yes, Northwest Smith has a dangerous killing alien as a sidekick. But in the thirteen recorded Northwest Smith stories by C.L. Moore (all collected for the first time in this excellent Planet Stories omnibus), we only see the inside of one spaceship — and Smith is a passenger, not the pilot.

No, Smith may inhabit a solar system of Martian canals and Venusian swamps, but his adventures are less SF than a kind of lush, operatically colored noir.

Fans of “shared world” fiction will find many of their favorite authors in this collection, however they won’t find any characters from Forgotten Realms or Warhammer here. This collection is all “creator owned” and explores new worlds by these authors. Some of them have been expanded into other works such as RPGs (Demon Wars and Reign for example). These stories have appeared before in various magazines or anthologies over the years, but it is pretty cool to have them all collected together in one volume.

I read Jeremy Jones’ interview with James Lowder back in June and was immediately hooked on the concept of the book.

Many of today’s best (and best-selling) fantasists got their start writing shared-world fiction supporting roleplaying games. This massive anthology collects more than a dozen thrilling tales from R.A. Salvatore, Michael A. Stackpole, Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, Elaine Cunningham, and more, providing an exciting overview of the original worlds and characters of authors who achieved their greatest fame writing stories they do not own.

Edited by James Lowder (The Book of All Flesh, Prince of Lies), Worlds of Their Own presents an unprecedented sampler of fantasy and science-fiction adventure tales from some of the best-loved and best-known authors in the genre.