All of the authors represented except Leigh Brackett were members of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a somewhat informal literary group of fantasy authors active from the 1960s to the 1980s, making the book a precursor of the five Flashing Swords!

Alan Brown, writing of the anthology on tor.com, calls it "a quirky little collection, but turned out to be precisely what I was looking for: a group of well-told tales that were perfect for reading on a sunny summer afternoon.

He observes that it "offers work from five excellent authors at the top of their game, and each story, in a slightly different way, delivered the excitement, action, and adventure I crave from this type of fiction."

Turning to the individual stories, he notes "Anderson’s skill is apparent, and he delivers a taut little action-packed tale," while the Leiber contribution, a Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tale, is, "[l]ike all their adventures, ... a delight.

I enjoyed the action, the irony, and magic when I was young, but now find that the story also serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers and futility of unfettered capitalism."