''Lord Darcy'' is a 1983 omnibus collection of two previous
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
alternate history detectiveLord Darcy, published by Doubleday as a selection in its Science Fiction Book Club. The component books had originally been published in 1966, 1979 and 1981. The collection was reissued in 1999. A second edition, edited by
Eric Flint
Eric Flint (February 6, 1947 – July 17, 2022) was an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are Alternate history (fiction), alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures. ...
, was published by
Baen Books
Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher an ...
in 2002. The second edition reorganized the contents, added two stories not included in the original edition or its component volumes, and was edited slightly to remove duplicative material.
The Lord Darcy stories are set in an alternate world whose history supposedly diverged from our own during the reign of
King Richard the Lionheart
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
, in which King John never reigned and most of western Europe and the Americas are united in an
Angevin Empire
The Angevin Empire (; french: Empire Plantagenêt) describes the possessions of the House of Plantagenet during the 12th and 13th centuries, when they ruled over an area covering roughly half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and W ...
whose continental possessions were never lost by that king. In this world a magic-based technology has developed in place of the science of our own world.
Contents of the first edition
*''
Murder and Magic
''Murder and Magic'' is a collection of short stories by American writer Randall Garrett, featuring his alternate history detective Lord Darcy. It was first published in paperback in 1979 by Ace Books, and has been reprinted a number of times s ...
A Case of Identity
"A Case of Identity" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is the third story in ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. It first appeared in ''The Strand Magazine'' in September 1891.
Plot summa ...
Too Many Magicians
''Too Many Magicians'' is a novel by Randall Garrett, an American science fiction author. One of several stories starring Lord Darcy, it was first serialized in '' Analog Science Fiction'' in 1966 and published in book form the same year by Dou ...
Eric Flint
Eric Flint (February 6, 1947 – July 17, 2022) was an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are Alternate history (fiction), alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures. ...
A Case of Identity
"A Case of Identity" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is the third story in ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. It first appeared in ''The Strand Magazine'' in September 1891.
Plot summa ...
Too Many Magicians
''Too Many Magicians'' is a novel by Randall Garrett, an American science fiction author. One of several stories starring Lord Darcy, it was first serialized in '' Analog Science Fiction'' in 1966 and published in book form the same year by Dou ...
The Bitter End
The Bitter End is a 230-person capacity nightclub, coffeehouse and folk music venue in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to ''The Ot ...
The Spell of War
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...