Rogues was my second George R.R. Martin/Gardner Dozois themed anthology in less than six months, and I’m happy to say I enjoyed it more overall than their previous effort, Dangerous Women. (I will pick up Warriors eventually. Maybe next year. I’m soooo done with anthologies for now.) And I’m sad to say, especially for how good Martin is at writing lady characters, I really think the main difference is that a lot of genre writers (including women!) just could not fathom how to write a […]
On Warfare, Camaraderie, and Malingering Corporals
Early in Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes, a character, when asked about good and evil, remarks, “There’s always good men on both sides of a good question.” Left unspoken is the fact that there are also horrible bastards on both sides of that same question. Given that the book takes place largely during the three-day Battle of Osrung, the latest clash between the Union and the North in Abercrombie’s First Law world, that’s a fairly succinct summation of what the reader’s in for. There will be […]
On Vengeance, Collateral Damage, and Horrifying Eye Prosthetics
Monza Murcatto has spent the last eight years leading a mercenary company to fame and riches during the Years of Blood, a time of open warfare between the city-states of Styria. She and her charismatic brother Benna pay a visit to their patron, Duke Orso of Talins, the most powerful man in Styria, a man who is but a season of campaigning from vanquishing his enemies and becoming King. Unbeknownst to Monza and Benna, Orso sees in Monza a potential rival, as his grandfather leveraged […]
Dear Authors of the World: ‘Dangerous’ doesn’t have to mean ‘Femme Fatale Sex Stripper.’ There are other options.
This was pretty good for an anthology, but I really prefer longer stories, as it really takes a talented author to make me care for characters in such a short period of time, or to have a plot immediately interesting enough to trump my interest in the characters. Short stories also tend more towards the self-important and annoying. Anyway, this was worth it just for the Martin and Sanderson stories alone, and there were several others I really enjoyed as well including ones from Robin […]
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