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Repost from my

There are a couple of anthologies edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois, featuring diverse topics like Warriors, Old Mars, or
Dangerous Women (cf. my review!). Here, authors delivered not only fantasy or SF stories but also history, thriller, and other genres involving rogues, con-men, tricksters.

In Dangerous Women, which was published the same year, authors often interpreted the given given topic very loosely. So, I was somewhat sceptical, but found that most story in Rogues staid true to the combining theme. Tone and style of the authors differed heavily and I have to say that the lineup with Abercrombie, Swanwick, Vaughn, Lynch, Williams, Gaiman, Willis and Rothfuß is irresistible!
It is quite clear, that most anthologies contain some mediocre stories and only a few outstanding pearls. Rogues is no exception to this, but ist is tending to the good side. Overall, it worked very well for me reading it from front to back. I expect other readers to cherrypick their favourite authors and be happy with it. I'd say that reading only those is absolutely worth the price even if you skip lots of the other stories.

The binding of the hardcover is good but the cover illustration is ugly - green background with gold "Rogues" impress and lots of names. No illustrations at all, no inlet, nothing. Which means: You don't loose anything at all if you get the ebook.

As with Dangerous Women, I don't like the editor's introduction to each story and author: They are just a dumb list of works the author has written and where he lives. In most cases, I'd rather read the wikipedia article and skip the introduction. If you want to read an example of good introductions, go for Harlan Ellison!

Some authors utilize characters they introduced in previous stories which I found to be hard to get attached to the same way as a fan of those characters would do. This was the case e.g. for Landsdale but not for Swanwick.

4.5* for Joe Abercrombie “Tough Times All Over�� - Like in Dangerous Women, Abercrombie opens the ball. This time with a 12,000 word (35 pages) fantasy set in the world of First Law. It is a kind of chamber play in the city of Sipani "City of Fogs, City of Whispers" which reminds me of Renaissance Venice and which we already know from Best Served Cold (remember the House of Leisure there? Ha!). The main protagonist is not a single rogue but a mysterious package which is handed over from one POV to the next. Abercrombie seems to have tried this style of handshaking POVs and mastered it in The Heroes. Abercrombie manages it to characterize the protagonists very well in the short screen time each one is given. Besides of that it is in the author's typical raunchy narrative tone. He stood and delivered the anthology's premise!

5* for Gillian Flynn “What Do You Do?�� - Didn't know this author, but Flynn seems to be known in the thriller sector and has got awards there. The story's title questions asks for the main protagonist's job which is easy to answer: She is a customer service representant (read: "handjob whore and esoteric aura reader") filling the trickster rogue role. She's got a tongue in the cheek exposition in an unnamed current town who gets involved in a desperate wife's mysteric house with creepy stepson. Absent husband, cat, library seem to lead to a foreseeable ending, when things start to turn different, so expect some plot twists. Really creepy, funny, WOW! This is really 5*plus and even better than Abercrombie's story.

3* for Matthew Hughes “The Inn of the Seven Blessings�� - didn't know this author, but you'll find him on Wikipedia under his crime-writing name "Matt Hughes". Have you ever read a Cugel story by Jack Vance? Hughes' story resembles the tone: The main protagonist Raffalon helps a lesser god imprisoned in a box, rescues a cleric and an inn keeper's daughter, is pursuited by some creepy cannibals. Nice dialogues, good tension-arc, some action and turnings. But sometimes the motivation and actions are confusing. The story works quite good within the anthology, as it is quite different from the others. I'll have to check his story collection The Gist Hunter and Other Stories later on (combining my favourites Gene Wolfe and Jack Vance is kind of irresistible!).

1.5 * for Joe R. Lansdale “Bent Twig�� - I really liked Lansdale's wrestling story for Dangerous Women. This story has the same hard-ass, bare-knuckled tone with Hap and Leonard who he used in a lot of stories. I don't know them, I don't care about them. They are out to rescue the cracked up daughter of a lover. Pointless action with broken legs, shot men and trash talk. I even don't know what it has to do with the anthology's theme. A real letdown.

4* for Michael Swanwick “Tawny Petticoats�� - Swanwick won several Hugo and Nebula awards for his SF&F stories. This story is set in an alternate New Orleans filled with labor zombies. Two con-men Darger and Surplus and the eponymous heroine head out to play the "black money" scam. Despite the zombies the story's tone is light-hearted and humorous. World-building is excellent. I love Swanwick's narrative style! Only the end is somewhat foreseeable. The story makes you wish for more of Darger and Surplus - I'll note Dancing with Bears and the Hugo winner The Dog Said Bow-Wow as a must-read.

3.5* for David Ball “Provenance�� - tells us the winding provenance of a Caravaggian painting through the centuries, world wars, involving Nazis, south american weapon dealers, Whiskey drinking preachers and lots of different thiefs, burglars and tricksters. My main objection is that half of the story is explanation. On the other hand we have different layers of deception which makes the story quite enjoyable.

2,5* for Carrie Vaughn “The Roaring Twenties�� - I loved her story in Dangerous Women about Russian fighting aces. In this urban fantasy story set in prohibition time, a couple of dolls fool the magical patrons in a speakeasy where they hide from the feds. Nice atmosphere, light tone, a touch of magic and creatures of the night including one bartender zombie. Alas, I couldn't connect to it and now I'm disappointed.

5* for Scott Lynch “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane�� - I love his Locke Lamora series, but this ain't one and I even didn't find anything connecting it to the Gentleman Bastard world. Doesn't matter, I had a blast reading this hillarious innovation sparkling story of a retired gang - all females with the exception of one roboter - coming back into business: They have to steal a whole street in the city of Theradane within a year. World-building and characters are as colorful as you'd wish from Lynch: A second-rank mage now working as a mage-mixologist in a bar inhabiting the skeleton of a crashed dragon; her wife is a kind of machinist for automatons like another member of the gang, who is a kind of human steampunk robot. The same goes for the city which is sparkling of life, colored rain, impersoned gaslamps, spring-wheeled wherejackals and insanely powerful wizards fighting each other. I pray for Lynch's return to this setting and characters with a full novel!

3.5* for Bradley Denton “Bad Brass�� - the complete opposite to Landsdale's story in the continuum of violence. Topic here is not a damsel in distress but hughschool music instruments, the main protagonist is a substitute teacher at a Texas highschool who steals from thiefs. A romantic thriller which gripes the heart but isn't too sentimental for my taste. The longest story, so far and in my humble opinion somewhat too long.

2* for Cherie Priest “Heavy Metal�� - Mr Kilgore Jones is a giant Ghostbuster, a monster hunter looking for strange things in a defunct Tennessee copper mine (I looked it up and it is really ). Both gave the story its name - heavy from the character and metal from the mine. Weak motivation, somewhat pointless story. Maybe fans will love it, I found it only ok.

4* for Daniel Abraham “The Meaning of Love�� (the author who writes as James S.A. Corey with Ty Franck) Typical fantasy set in a atmospherically very dense, dirty, lawless city. Bounty hunters look for a prince and a poisoner in hiding, knotting up in a damsel in distress and a female schemer Asa. I loved the characterizations, poignant dialogues, romantic comedy and the setting. I only would have wished for some more action. I hope for more in that scenery.

3* for Paul Cornell “A Better Way to Die�� features spy Major Jonathan Hamilton protecting a timeline-adjacent 19th century British empire, a blend of steampunk and alternate history with aliens, hints of solar adventures, strange technologies and culture. The innovative ideas presented left me baffled and yearning for more. I had difficulties understanding the setup and following the plot (the editors needed a long paragraph to introduce it; compare that to the otherwise long lists of story links!). Cornell throws terms into the story that seem to be very important, like the "balance", but which are ambiguous at best. The introduction tells us that the story is "fast-paced" but I don't know which story is meant, because the current story has got a quite long exposition and only a very small part of action or even inter-action. In fact, the first 6 pages come with zero lines of dialogue. Given the characters and plot, it is far drawn to connect it to the theme rogues at all. In summary, it was difficult to assess the story: I could have given it 1 star, because it didn't work at all in the given context. On the other hand, it could be 4 or 5 stars for readers knowing the setup. In this case, the ideas were nice enough to leave with 3 stars. What I'll do next is read a couple of other Hamilton stories, which are linked .

1* for Steven Saylor “Ill Seen in Tyre�� - two travelers visit the Lebanon city of Tyre, follow Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser and play around with an invisibility potion. Foreseeable, pointless, didn't like it at all.

3.5 * for Garth Nix “A Cargo of Ivories�� - mildly amusing sword&sorcery where a knight Sir Hereward, Fitz - a mage in the form of a wood puppet, a female thief and some sow/elephant/don't know what called "Rosie" try to get and eliminate the incarnations of some minor god. Nice scenery, fast paced action with a deadpan tone and characters that you have to love.

4* for Walter Jon Williams “Diamonds From Tequila�� - last time I read this author was 1987's Voice of the Whirlwind where he rode the cyberpunk-wave. In this story, he mixes 3D printing technology (create beverage and drugs!) and a movie shot in Mexico. Main protagonist is a deformed movie star with a mysterious history trying to save the production when his coactor is shot. Characterization is really good, setting is very nice, plot is interesting.

4* for Phyllis Eisenstein “The Caravan to Nowhere�� - an old friend of GRRM and we've got to thank her for convincing GRRM to put in dragons to ASoIaF. The latest story featuring her protagonist Alaric the Minstrel must have been published in the late 80s. This newly written gem of a story is a great contrast to the rest of the anthology, and I loved it. It flows gently, thoughtfully, nearly without action in a fantasy setting involving a caravan through a sand desert and some mysterious drug. It is about the interaction with a son gone mad and free will. About songs, inns and campfires under stars. If you like stories like A Wizard of Earthsea, you might like this one as well. If you need action-driven, loud stories, you'll probably give it 1-2 stars.

skipped Lisa Tuttle “The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives�� because it didn't grab me within 5 pages. Probably because I don't dig Sherlock detective stories.

4* for Neil Gaiman “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back�� which seems to be a sequel to Neverwhere which I haven't read. It's got mushroom-zombies, elephants and shepherds in it, really horrific stuff but in a crazy way also funny. The only problem I had was that at a couple of points the Marquis' brother jumps out from nowhere to rescue a scene. We see some intelligent interleaving of plots and a very dense atmosphere. I didn't get where the connection to "rogues" is, though.

3* for Connie Willis “Now Showing�� which features a conspiracy story with some movie nerds in a near-future SF set in a kind of chamber play located in a movie palace. There seems to be more name-dropping than story and Mrs Willis has the tendency to get very repetitive which is very annoying for me. The story without that crap would have been really nice.

5* for Patrick Rothfuss “The Lightning Tree�� because I love witty Bast, Rothfuss's writing style, the light atmosphere turning sometimes weird, sometimes sexy. The story doesn't make much sense outside of The Name of the Wind setting, though.

1.5* for George R.R. Martin “The Rogue Prince, or, a King's Brother�� which is even more boring than his historical account in Dangerous Women. I love his prose but loath his history textbooks. It simply doesn't work as an entry to a story anthology and I can't see why it would qualify for a Rogues anthology. Hardcore ASoIaF fans will love this part of the GRRMarillion probably.