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    Rogues
    Rogues
    Rogues
    Audiobook31 hours

    Rogues

    Written by George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Gillian Flynn and Neil Gaiman

    Narrated by George R. R. Martin, Gwendoline Christie, Roy Dotrice and

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A thrilling collection of twenty-one original stories by an all-star list of contributors—including a new A Game of Thrones story by George R. R. Martin!

    If you’re a fan of fiction that is more than just black and white, this latest story collection from #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois is filled with subtle shades of gray. Twenty-one all-original stories, by an all-star list of contributors, will delight and astonish you in equal measure with their cunning twists and dazzling reversals. And George R. R. Martin himself offers a brand-new A Game of Thrones tale chronicling one of the biggest rogues in the entire history of Ice and Fire.

    Follow along with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Joe Abercrombie, 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.

    Featuring all-new stories by

    Joe Abercrombie • Daniel Abraham • David W. Ball • Paul Cornell • Bradley Denton • Phyllis Eisenstein • Gillian Flynn • Matthew Hughes • Joe R. Lansdale • Scott Lynch • Garth Nix • Cherie Priest • Patrick Rothfuss • Steven Saylor • Michael Swanwick • Lisa Tuttle • Carrie Vaughn • Walter Jon Williams • Connie Willis • and more!

    Plus an Introduction by George R. R. Martin!


    Cast List:
    INTRODUCTION: EVERYBODY LOVES A ROGUE, read by George R. R. Martin
    TOUGH TIMES ALL OVER, read by Gwendoline Christie
    WHAT DO YOU DO?, read by Julia Whelan
    THE INN OF THE SEVEN BLESSINGS, read by Roy Dotrice
    BENT TWIG, read by Phil Gigante
    TAWNY PETTICOATS, read by Ron Donachie
    PROVENANCE, read by W. Morgan Sheppard
    ROARING TWENTIES, read by Janis Ian
    A YEAR AND A DAY IN OLD THERADANE, read by Gwendoline Christie
    BAD BRASS, read by Gil Bellows
    HEAVY METAL, read by Scott Brick
    THE MEANING OF LOVE, read by Conleth Hill
    A BETTER WAY TO DIE, read by Roy Dotrice
    ILL SEEN IN TYRE, read by Gethin Anthony
    A CARGO OF IVORIES, read by Ron Donachie
    DIAMONDS FROM TEQUILA, read by David Greenlee
    THE CARAVAN TO NOWHERE, read by W. Morgan Sheppard
    THE CURIOUS AFFAIR OF THE DEAD WIVES, read by Harriet Walter
    HOW THE MARQUIS GOT HIS COAT BACK, read by Roy Dotrice
    NOW SHOWING, read by Molly Quinn
    THE LIGHTNING TREE, read by Rupert Degas
    THE ROGUE PRINCE, read by Iain Glen


    Praise for Rogues

    “Not a single bad story in the bunch . . . The table of contents alone will make fans from all genre aisles salivate.”—Library Journal
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
    Release dateJun 17, 2014
    ISBN9780553398731
    Author

    George R. R. Martin

    George R. R. Martin has been a full-time writer for over 25 years. He is the author of the acclaimed, internationally bestselling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, which is the basis of HBO's popular Game of Thrones television series. Martin has won multiple science fiction awards, including 4 Hugos, 2 Nebulas, the Bram Stoker, the Locus Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Daedelus, the Balrog, and the Daikon (Japanese Hugo).

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    Reviews for Rogues

    3.5/5

    293 ratings17 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Typically, I find that I enjoy about 50-60% of a short-story collection. This collection vastly exceeded that. There was only one story I just gave up on. All the other stories ranged from quite good to stellar. (I will note that I was initially put off by the fact that not all the stories have a fantasy-world setting. But it turns out that in no way detracted from my enjoyment of them. Don't let the variety of settings get in your way.)
    • 3/5
      Only had time to read some of these. Like most short story collections, uneven, but was happy to finally learn How the Marquis Got His Coat Back, and "Tough Times All Over" by Joe Abercrombie was one of the most entertaining things I've read in ages.
    • 5/5
      A great collection of great short stores. They really do run the gamut of modern SciFi/Fantasy and they're almost all good. So good in fact I almost want to go out and buy a copy to lend to people. If you're thinking about reading it, definitely give it a chance and even movie it up your list. It's collections like these (and Pump Six) that really make me love short stories.
    • 4/5
      Some strong and fun fantasy stories about people roughly considered 'rogues'.
    • 4/5
      Am close to done... some awesome stories in this one: Gaiman's "how the Marquis got his coat back"...so gooood!
    • 4/5
      I haven't read all of the stories yet, but so far I've liked all of the ones I have read.

      Joe Abercrombie's story was a really fun one, I have never read anything by him before, but now I will definitely look for one of his novels. I'd give this story 5 stars.

      I am not a big fan of Gillian Flynn, but her story was pretty good. It kept me wondering where the bad was coming from, and typical for her all of the characters are heavily flawed enough that I don't root for any of them. 3.5 stars.

      Matthew Hugh's story I liked. But who doesn't like a story with small gods and flesh eating man mutants? I loved the ending, and the fight scene. 4.5 stars

      Then I skipped to Patrick Rothfuss' Lightning Tree, which is the reason I bought this book. Of course I loved it, PR is a genius. I find myself imagining what I might have visited The Lightning Tree for, and what I might have had worth trading for Bast's services. Also I am pretty sure I might have found him hard to resist... ;). 5 stars

      I will come back to Rogues here and there, as short stories can't keep me going like novels do, and review the other stories as I read them.
    • 3/5
      Decent, but not very memorable stories. GRRM is a not really interesting history lesson, not really a story.
    • 4/5
      There are some excellent stories in here. Neil Gaiman and Patrick Rothfuss did not disappoint my high expectations, and there were some wonderful authors I had never heard of before whose stories blew me away. It's worth reading many mediocre or less-than-stellar stories to get to the good stuff. And I'll be honest, there are some clunkers. But it's definitely worth it.
    • 5/5
      A good mix of different styles of short-stories (mostly fantasy) from a variety of well known authors.
    • 1/5
      I am saying adieu while batting .400. Got the anthology to read the Gillian Flynn story, high marks. Don't know who its' competition was but I thought it earned an Edgar. Read the Neil Gaiman story, my first try with this author, and quite enjoyed it despite not currently interested in fantasies. Also tried George Martin's story about a character from the Game of Thrones. Thought it would be an easy attempt at finding out what all of the fuss is about (I'm an old guy:). Couldn't make it past the first few pages of the "jolly old England" style. Tried Connie Willis. I'm open to good sci-fi so I thought it would be a chance to check out the more current scene. It didn't hold me. And then, in the mystery genre, I tried the Joe R. Lansdale mystery piece. Judging from the short background given he is a successful and highly regarded author. Perhaps I caught him on a bad day. I'm not counting the intro by Martin in my batting average but I did find it entertaining. Arguably it should have coaxed me to give his short story more of a chance before ejection. So .400 isn't a bad batting average and I continue to believe short story anthologies are a great way to try different authors. An outing worth the wait. I'm a big public library fan and this collection is hot with a respectable waiting list within a big metropolitan system.
    • 3/5
      Some good, some not so good. It was a worthwhile read.
    • 2/5
      I gave up on this book. There were some decent stories in there, but enough middling ones that I just ran out of steam and library time well before hitting the Rothfuss/Gaiman/GRRM love-in. It's likely these would swing the pendulum north of two stars, but the weight of the first half should be accounted for.
    • 4/5
      I have to be honest, I have no idea why I picked up this book. In general, I do not like the type of fantasy stories that involve rogues. I find it a rather one-noted theme that just doesn't interest me. (And, no, I didn't pick it up because it said there was a new Game of Thrones story. I'm fine with Game of Thrones, but I don't care about ancillary materials and I learned long ago to not fall for such hype. More on that later.) Now, off and on this book reminded me why I don't care for this type of story. (I mean, I love Fritz Lieber, but I have no use for the Grey Mouser stories.) But, luckily, the editors provided a broader definition of "rogue", and that means that, not only were their stories that broke the sword and sorcery mold, but there were ones that were from entirely different genres.

      Oh yeah – they also asked some pretty good writers to join the cause.

      So, the result is a decent (if not great) collection.

      It all started with stories that were decent, but also reminded me why I don't like the genre. They weren't bad (and may even be really good if you like that kind of thing). In fact, they were kind of enjoyable. But they didn't provide me much more than that. (Not a bad thing, but not a great thing.)

      Then we get to "Bent Twig" by Joe R. Lansdale. With this story, we moved out of the typical genre and told a pretty much straight up story about a man trying to help his girlfriend find her daughter. It is well told. It moved nicely. And it had characters worth sharing time with.

      And with that, off and on, the stories move among genres. "Provenance" by David W. Ball is a nice little tale about forged paintings, layers of fraud, and an interesting back story that twists the entire proceedings. "Heave Metal" by Cherie Priest is about the discovery of something ancient and horrible in a mine crater – a little bit of H. P. Lovecraft meeting a modern-day rogue. And Walter Jon Williams "Diamonds From Tequila" is a fun story (well, maybe fun isn't the right word) about a movie shooting in Mexico where one of the stage hands has developed ways to synthesize drugs, embroiling people in a bit of a drug war.

      I also have to mention "Bad Brass" by Bradley Denton only because the premise is so strange. A group of students are stealing the tubas from the school to sell to Mexican bandos on the black market. The story is interesting – but I can't decide if I love or hate that premise.

      Ultimately, none of the stories in this collection is a clinker. On the other hand, none are really world beaters. Some are just okay. Others are really good. And it is not a waste of time to read this collection. But, again, I must say that my opinion is tempered by a "disattraction" (to make up a word) for this style of story.

      Wait a minute! Did I say no clinkers? I left off something very important. Unless you are so deep into Game of Thrones that you have no other life, then do not even waste time on the George R. R. Martin story that ends the collection. Ostensibly the backstory to the history of Game of Thrones, it is nothing more than page after page of boring stories that tell of how lineages got the way they are in the world he is currently writing. It feels like something he had to put together so he could understand the history. And then he decided to publish it.

      It is boring, it is a waste of time, it appears to be here for no other reason than to put the blurb on the book "and a new Game of Thrones story" to suck the unsuspecting in. Run, do not walk, the other way.

      But, other than that, a good collection.
    • 4/5
      The stories, written in multiple genres on the theme of “rogues,” are good examples of the authors, at least the ones I knew. Gillian Flynn writes horrible people behaving horribly to one another. Connie Willis writes hijinks in an exaggerated “if this goes on” situation, this time involving the movies, and a woman, totally exasperated by the follies of a man, who ends up forgiving him anyway. Patrick Rothfuss offers a story of Kvothe’s assistant that you’ll like if you like the books. George R.R. Martin gives us some Targaryen history, written in the style of a textbook history with, as far as the narrator is concerned, very little rape in it though plenty of young girls married to older men. Cherie Priest, unfortunately, offers more of a supernatural story than steampunk. Daniel Abraham’s story features a con man in the bad side of a city who takes terrible risks for love of a prince in hiding who loves someone else. Paul Cornell’s story also disappointed me—I either needed to know more about his James Bond figure or the story’s just really disjoined. Other authors include Joe Lansdale, Michael Swanwick, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Lynch (I liked this magical caper better than the book of his I read), Garth Nix, Walter Jon Williams, Lisa Tuttle, and Neil Gaiman (magic under London).
    • 5/5
      This review only covers "The Lightning Tree" by Patrick Rothfuss. I'm sure the other stories are varying degrees of brilliant, but Pat's work is what interests me at the moment.

      "The Lightning Tree" is a character exploration of Bast, who is Kvothe's quick-witted, enigmatic employee, sometimes student, and good friend. Bast is "not from around these parts" but that morsel of truth isn't crystal clear here unless you've read the multi-volume Kingkiller Chronicles. It's not necessary that you do though, and I'd be curious to hear from other readers who haven't. How strange and melodic Pat's writing must seem if this is your first introduction to him. He's a gifted author of description via what people say and do, and also of moments based on feeling more than tangible depictions.

      I recommend this story. If the writing draws you in and you haven't read Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, then I cannot recommend that one enough.
    • 5/5
      A great collection. Quite a few authors that I've not read before, so my to read list grows ever longer. Others by some favorites, which just makes me all the more eager for their next work (I'm looking at you Mr. Rothfuss...)
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this anthology. Some stories were better than others, and there were only a couple that I really LOVED, but there were also only a couple that I disliked, so it balanced pretty well. Recommended if you want to get a sample from some new authors but aren't sure you want to commit to a novel.