Books4Tomorrow: GUEST REVIEW: ROGUES by George R.R. Martin & Others

Title: Rogues

Series: Anthology

Authors: George R.R. Martin & Others

Publisher: Bantam Books

Publication Date: June 17, 2014

Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, etc

Reviewed by: Ellen Fritz

Ellen’s rating: 5/5

SUMMARY

Follow along with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Cherie Priest, Garth Nix, and Connie Willis, as well as other masters of literary sleight-of-hand, in this rogues gallery of stories that will plunder your heart—and yet leave you all the richer for it.

The Rogues anthology contains following stories:
- “Tough Times All Over” by Joe Abercrombie - A Red Country story
- “What Do You Do?” by Gillian Flynn
- “The Inn of the Seven Blessings” by Matthew Hughes
- “Bent Twig” by Joe R. Lansdale
- “Tawny Petticoats” by Michael Swanwick
- “Provenance” by David W. Ball
- “The Roaring Twenties” by Carrie Vaughn
- “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane” by Scott Lynch
- “Bad Brass” by Bradley Denton
- “Heavy Metal” by Cherie Priest
- “The Meaning of Love” by Daniel Abraham
- “A Better Way to Die” by Paul Cornell
- “Ill Seen in Tyre” by Steven Saylor
- “A Cargo of Ivories” by Garth Nix
- “Diamonds From Tequila” by Walter Jon Williams
- “The Caravan to Nowhere” by Phyllis Eisenstein
- “The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives” by Lisa Tuttle
- “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back” by Neil Gaiman
- “Now Showing” by Connie Willis
- “The Lightning Tree” by Patrick Rothfuss - A Kingkiller Chronicle story
- “The Rogue Prince, or, A King’s Brother” by George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire story

REVIEW

Starting with something resembling a deadly relay race involving a mysterious parcel that reduces a large part of a city to chaos and ending with the turbulent tale of the feuding Targaryens of Westeros, the stories in this anthology truly reflect the multi-facetted nature of rogues. In Rogues you will encounter wonderfully original villains: from a devious con-artist and thieving school kids, to a very clever art dealer, as well as several thieves who ultimately want to stop an evil god from being unleashed into the world.

Rogues is undoubtedly the best anthology of short stories I've read in a while. No surprise there as all the contributors are experienced, award-winning authors. Apart from the extremely high quality of storytelling, the sheer variety of incredibly imaginative settings of said stories make this an outstanding anthology!

I found the short story, Bent Twig, in which two rogues rescue a prostitute, rather touching. A Year and A Day In Old Theradane in which the theft of a whole street causes spectacular chaos in the city, was the most humorous and perhaps my favorite story.

Like Neil Gaiman with the Marquis de Carabas from his novel, Neverwhere, several of the authors trot out well-known characters from previously written work. Other writers again introduce brand new characters in the short fiction presented in this book. To me this was a wonderful opportunity to discover new authors and even new genres for my reading future.

Spanning numerous genres, Rogues offer tales of fantasy, horror, and the paranormal as well as mystery and historical fiction. This is an absolute must-read for anybody who can appreciate well-written fiction by truly gifted writers.