Category: Fugit Reads
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Stories in Rogues – “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane” by Scott Lynch
High fantasy, feuding wizards, and the classic why-did-I-drink-so-much plot device, and you’ve got the recipe for “A Year and a Day.” I don’t read a ton of high fantasy, so I was interested to see how this would go.
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Stories in Rogues – “The Roaring Twenties” by Carrie Vaughn
The roaring twenties setting, a speakeasy, some magic, two brooding female leads, werewolves, and Federal officers. Hmm. Okay, let’s go. But then the narrator started talking and–*shudders*–yeah, it’s not good. Soft spoken, weird accent, and not enough character in the voices makes this story a tough “read.” But I finished it and was pretty disappointed.
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Stories in Rogues – “Provenance” by David W. Ball
I enjoyed David W. Ball’s introduction more than I did this story. I got the impression that this story was going to be rich with details, maybe in a historical-narrative style, and thoroughly researched. Indeed, this tale about an old art dealer is exactly all of those things.
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Stories in Rogues – “Tawny Petticoats” by Michael Swanwick
Lots and lots of zombies, really? I remember wondering if this was going to be a gory zombie tale, something more dramatic, like The Walking Dead, or something else entirely etc … turns out it’s an elaborate con-job set in an absurdly surreal dystopic future New Orleans. Very shortly into this one, I had to…
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Stories in Rogues – “Bent Twig” by Joe R. Lansdale
If I haven’t mentioned this yet, I’m listening to the audio book Rogues. There is a different reader for each story, and if you don’t have much experience with audio books, let me tell you this: the reader can break the book, or elevate it to heights even beyond your own imagination. It’s a really…
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Stories in Rogues – “The Inn of the Seven Blessings” by Matt Hughes
I’d not heard of Matt Hughes before, but his list of accolades and titles was supremely impressive. So, I dove into this tale rather excited. This medieval fantasy story starts with a thief recovering an interesting object. This object leads him on a quick quest, naturally, and there is a weird little payoff at the…
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Stories in Rogues – “What Do You Do?” by Gillian Flynn
Each story in Rogues is prefaced by an exhaustive detailing of the authors’ body of work and accolades, and given that George R. R. Martin is one of the editors, I guess this makes perfect sense–because it kind of reads like each author is a character in Westeros, being introduced by Martin’s exhaustive historical-narrative style,…
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Stories in Rogues – “Tough Times all Over” by Joe Abercrombie
So I’m reading Rogues and want to leave a little bit of my thoughts about each story here. Then, maybe put together a “go no-go” list, if people with limited time only want to read the gems. The first story in the anthology is called “Tough Times all Over” by Joe Abercrombie. Let’s get this…
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The Shattered Sea – A Review (no spoilers).
Driving down to the beautiful Bonita Springs, for a short family vacation, I finished Half a War; book three of Joe Abercrombie’s latest trilogy. As some of you may have gathered by now, this guy has become my favorite fantasy author–beating, or at least standing toe-to-toe with fantasy giants (Weis/Hickman, Martin, Brooks, Rothfuss, etc …).
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Finished reading the six-book First Law series and it reminds me of a time long gone
Just completed a six-book series, and it has reminded me of a time that I wasn’t sure could ever be reborn in quite that meaningful of a way. I remember reading the Dragonlance Chronicles, then Dragonlance Legends, and being completely immersed, enamored, and thoroughly nostalgic throughout the series. Characters made legend in the early books,…