2015 Group Read discussions: Jan. 2015 * Rogues : Roll Call / Initial Impressions

[C.C.]

I'm planning to go back and read the other shorts. But I did read the George R.R. Martin novella, which I found a bit disappointing at best. I was expecting a little more details on Prince Daemon, who was a key character in GRRM's The Princess and The Queen novella. But this was pretty much a drawn out version of info that can be found on the official Song of Ice & Fire Wiki.

[Monica]

C.C. wrote: "I'm planning to go back and read the other shorts. But I did read the George R.R. Martin novella, which I found a bit disappointing at best. I was expecting a little more details on Prince Daemon, ..."

Thanks for your input, C.C. This short was my first GRRM read, and I was disappointed. So, maybe there's hope for him yet?

[Andreas]

GRRM wrote many really good stories since 1970 - look for With Morning Comes Mistfall or anything in Dreamsongs Volume I, Dreamsongs Volume II.
I only dislike his GRRMarillion work - which aren't short stories IMHO.

[C.C.]

Thanks for your input, C.C. This short was my first GRRM read, and I was disappointed. So, maybe there's hope for him yet? "

The novellas in both Dangerous Women and Rogues are not his strongest, but The Princess and The Queen story in the former anthology is much better. I'd recommend some of his earlier works as Andreas suggested (GRRMarillion, HA!) and definitely the first book in the Song of Ice & Fire series (A Game of Thrones).

[Bev]

Glad we are having so many great comments. Chuffed.

[Monica]

Andreas wrote: "GRRM wrote many really good stories since 1970 - look for With Morning Comes Mistfall or anything in Dreamsongs Volume I, Dreamsongs Volume II.
I only di..."

Thanks, Andreas. Downloaded the Kindle sample for Dreamsongs Volume I.

[Monica]

Finished 3 more shorts from [book:Rogues|20168816. (This is a very long book!)

Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick...my very first zombie story! Had to look up "zombies and salt"...who knew? (I'll keep that in mind...just in case.) Overall, it was a pretty entertaining story. I did not see that ending coming...Tawny ;-)

Roaring Twenties by Carrie Vaughn was another entertaining read. I would consider reading more of her books.

Provenance by David W. Ball was exceptional. Any opinions on full length books by this author? His writing was very good.

[Monica]

Bev wrote: "Glad we are having so many great comments. Chuffed."

lol, Bev...I had to look up "chuffed"! ;-)

[Andreas]

Monica wrote: "Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick...my very first5 zombie story! Had to look up "zombies and salt"...who knew? (I'l..."

Swanwick is a great short fiction writer - from SF&F to mythology, he can do everything. I recommend The Dog Said Bow-Wow which contains some more Darger&Surplus stories. Read my review on that collection if you want to get an overview ;)

[Monica]

Andreas wrote: "Monica wrote: "Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick...my very first5 zombie story! Had to look up "zombies and salt"...who knew? (I'l..."

Swanwick is a great short fiction writer - from SF&F to my..."

Thanks again, Andreas. Downloaded a Kindle sample of that one as well.

[Melora]

There. Read them all. But I'm going to finish with my thoughts on the stories here, just to keep them all in the same thread!

The Caravan to Nowhere by Phyllis Eisenstein. This wasn't bad, and, early on, I thought it might be going somewhere interesting, but instead it grew dull. The main character was a bit ... featureless, but the biggest problem, for me was (view spoiler)[ that his magical power was so... powerful, that there was little chance for suspense. No matter what danger appeared, our protagonist could just effortlessly transport himself to safety. Yawn. (hide spoiler)]

The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives by Lisa Tuttle. This was pretty good. Not "rush out and look for something else by the author" good, but a fine story.

The Lightning Tree by Patrick Rothfuss. I really liked this, which was especially nice because I have The Name of the Wind sitting on my Kindle waiting to be read! I hope this story is representative of Rothfuss's work.

The Rogue Prince by George R.R. Martin. Wow. I kept waiting for the story to start -- the whole thing read like the Background to what might have been a pretty good story, but that's all there was! I keep thinking that One of These Days I should read A Game of Thrones, but ...

[Bronwen]

Actually got this as a Christmas present! Can't wait to get started on it, especially the stories by Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss!

[Monica]

Melora wrote: "There. Read them all. But I'm going to finish with my thoughts on the stories here, just to keep them all in the same thread!"

I'm still slogging through...four more to go. I will say that the story by Patrick Rothfuss is very much like his novel...well written. The character (Bast) in the short is from The Name of the Wind. This is a nice introduction to the character. Enjoy the book.

[Monica]

Bronwen wrote: "Actually got this as a Christmas present! Can't wait to get started on it, especially the stories by Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss!"

Brownwen, those two stories are good ones...very representative style of their novels.

[Monica]

Finally finished! My take on the last five stories I read...

Bad Brass by Bradley Denton. Way too long, and just okay.

The Meaning of Love by Daniel Abraham. Also just okay.

Diamonds From Tequila by Walter Jon Williams. Very good, creative, relevant to modern times. Enjoyed this one.

The Caravan to Nowhere by Phyllis Eisenstein. I also liked this short. It seems like it could be part of a novel or series.

The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives by Lisa Tuttle. Not a bad story, but certainly not comparable to a Sherlock Holmes tale. (If the intro and the story itself had not tried to make that comparison, I may have liked the story more. That alone raised my expectations, but did not deliver.)

Will put some final thoughts on the "Spoiler"/"Final" thread, and check back to see what others think of the different stories.

[Maggie]

tawny Petticoats reminded me of that Steve MArtin movie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! very funny

[Tnkw01]

Finally got the book and started reading it. Tough Times All Over has been the only story I have read so far. The plot was interesting and engrossing and I felt I had to keep reading it but the emphasis was on the object and it made it hard to really side with any of the characters. That was really my only complaint about this story. I’ve not read any Abercrombie but have been wanting too for a long time. This story really motivates me to do so.

[Lára]

Well
I skipped 1, 3 and 4th story because of the narrator.

[Monica]

Tnkw01 wrote: "Finally got the book and started reading it. Tough Times All Over has been the only story I have read so far. The plot was interesting and engrossing and I felt I had to keep reading it but the emp..."

Good point...I hadn't looked at it that way. I was following the object, the characters were pawns to me.

[Monica]

Lára wrote: "Well
I skipped 1, 3 and 4th story because of the narrator."

Is the narrator that bad? The good news is that the stories you skipped aren't the best in the book (in my opinion).

[Anne]

I've only read the first 3 short stories so far, and I'm quite enjoying them. Of these 3 authors, I've only read Gillian Flynn before (I hated Gone Girl). I think her unsympathetic characters work much better in a short story than they do in longer works. I plan to read more by Joe Abercrombie in the future, both because I found his short story quite readable and because he has been highly recommended to me in the past. I'm not sure how I feel about The Inn of the Seven Blessings. It was well-written, but I got impatient with it for some reason. Maybe I was just tired.

I'm not sure if I'll read all the stories in this collection. I usually don't. I bought this collection because of the stories by Lynch and Rothfuss, and so far I've been good about going in order. We'll see how much longer that will last.

[Melora]

Definitely a mixed bag. Lots of authors I hadn't read before, but more of them than not I won't likely read again. Which I actually see as a good thing -- anything that narrows down that vast ocean of "Books I Might Read." And I did find a couple I Will want to read more of.

For me, the Lynch, Gaiman, and Rothfuss stories were the best. And I really enjoyed Cherie Priest's. I'd put the Walter Jon Williams story fifth, and David Ball and Garth Nix tie for sixth.

[Jessica]

Took me a while to get started because of exams, but I finally started reading Rogues as well. I'm generally not very impressed with short stories, but since it holds short stories from several of my favorite authors I got curious, so here I am. So far I've not been terribly impressed with what I've read, but that's probably since I'm just reading from cover to cover without skipping around.

[Anne]

I'm about halfway through it now and due to lack of time, something about 3 of the stories:

'A Year and a Day in Old Theradane' by Scott Lynch: loved it like pretty much everone else did in here :-). WTB time to read Lies of Locke Lamora asap now!

'Heavy Metal' by Cherie Priest. I think I'm in the minority here, but I didn't like it that much. Too much background, too little happening for me. At one point, my Kindle showed '3 minutes left' and I was still waiting for a big finale. Which never came. Or well, at least not in my opinion. I do like the amount of research Priest put into it; apart from all the mythological and biblical things, the Burra Burra Copper Mine is also an existing place in Tennessee.

The Meaning of Love by Daniel Abraham. I found this one to be almost as good as Scott Lynch's story. Excellent world building, especially for such a short story. I'm looking forward to read more stuff from the author. Now one thing I discovered about 3/4 in the story was something I found downright hilarious: (view spoiler)[ Asa's a guy! I flipped back to the beginning and not once does Abraham mention the gender of Asa, so I was just assuming the whole time that he was female. And then there was a sentence in which he was referred to as 'him' all of a sudden. Which made the sex scene that came after that a lot less weird I suppose ;-). Did anyone else think he was a she at first as well?? (hide spoiler)]

[Tnkw01]

Ok finished "What do you do?" and was not really impressed. It had moments were I would say, "ok, it's finally going to get interesting" but it never did. The story kept trying to blossom into a horror story....never got there. It was ok for the psychological drama that it was. I like the twist at the end, didn't care for the characters. Ok, going to do a story from Unfettered and then come back to Rogues

[Monica]

Tnkw01 wrote: "Ok finished "What do you do?" and was not really impressed. It had moments were I would say, "ok, it's finally going to get interesting" but it never did. The story kept trying to blossom into a ho..."

The issue I had with What Do You Do? is that it was too scattered, lacked a balance of structure needed in the constraint of the short format. Seemed like a succession of random thoughts or possible story scenarios strung along, wherein the reader could piece together what they wanted, to form a version of their own story. Close, but no.

[Melora]

Anne wrote: "I'm about halfway through it now and due to lack of time, something about 3 of the stories:

'A Year and a Day in Old Theradane' by Scott Lynch: loved it like pretty much everone else did in here ..."

Good catch on the Abraham story, Anne! (view spoiler)[ I missed that pronoun entirely, and it does change the flavor of the story. I assumed that Asa was a woman, dressed as a man for safety. (But I also assumed that the prince Knew she was a woman.) It's a clever trick, but with Asa as a man, I don't think that the line just before the snuggle on the table -- something like "I may not be what you expect," -- makes much sense.He clearly is interested, so his normal orientation hardly seems an issue. (hide spoiler)] Thank you for pointing that part of the story out!

[Maggie]

Monica wrote: "Tnkw01 wrote: "Ok finished "What do you do?" and was not really impressed. It had moments were I would say, "ok, it's finally going to get interesting" but it never did. The story kept trying to bl..."

I think that was what i liked about it....i kind of had to decide for myyself what wwas true and what wasnt...none of the characters are good....but i spent a lot of time thinking about whether to believe the things they were saying...

[Monica]

Good point, Maggie. Maybe I was too lazy to invest the time and energy! ;-)

[P.H.]

I would have liked a more consistent fantasy theme among the stories but I've enjoyed most of the so far. The range of the types of rogues is interesting.

[Monica]

P.H. wrote: "I would have liked a more consistent fantasy theme among the stories but I've enjoyed most of the so far. The range of the types of rogues is interesting."

P.H., I agree. I was expecting all stories to be in the fantasy genre; probably because it was a book nominated for our Fantasy group, and GRRM is credited as an editor. But, as you mentioned, the variety of "rogues" was interesting...worth the read.

[Maggie]

Monica wrote: "Good point, Maggie. Maybe I was too lazy to invest the time and energy! ;-)"

nah, just every reader handling things differently...I quite enjoyed Carrie Vaughn's story as well.

[Jamie]

Finally got started last night (after finishing Neverwhere). Read the Abercrombie story so far and I liked the story concept a lot, even if there's something about his writing that pushes me away. (Tried to get into Red Country twice now and failed both times, diverting to something else and not making it back).

Will be continuing tonight.

Monica - he's the co-editor, and the other editor is a Sci-Fi editor. Did you read GRRM's introduction? He's very purposeful in this being a mix of genres.

[Monica]

Jamie wrote: "Monica - he's the co-editor, and the other editor is a Sci-Fi editor. Did you read GRRM's introduction? He's very purposeful in this being a mix of genres..."

Yes, I read his intro when I began the book. I don't have a problem with it being a mix in general; just surprised that it was selected as a Fantasy group read.

BTW, did you like "Neverwhere"? That's on my to read list.

[Jamie]

Monica wrote: "Jamie wrote: "Monica - he's the co-editor, and the other editor is a Sci-Fi editor. Did you read GRRM's introduction? He's very purposeful in this being a mix of genres..."

Yes, I read his intro w..."

I've loved every Neil Gaiman book I've read so far, including Neverwhere, while his short story collection was a mixed bag, like any, but mostly good.

[Anne]

"Melora wrote: "Good catch on the Abraham story, Anne! Thank you for pointing that part of the story out!..."

A bit of a late reply, but after reading your take on things, I'm now very tempted to read the whole story again and see if there are more clues to be found ;). If only I had more time for re-reading things though!