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scott_you_reading's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
crimsoncor's review
4.0
Good all around collection of short stories. Honestly, the GRRM story might have been the weakest of the bunch. The Scott Lynch story was a lot of fun; his normal formula but it fares better in the short format rather than stretch across multiple novels.
nonesensed's review
3.0
This is a very varied collection of short stories that focus on 'rogue' characters, those who do questionable things but supposedly have a heart of gold under all that bluster and backstabbing. How much the rogues in this live up to that varies greatly from story to story.
We get a lot of different genres and a lot of different kinds of rogues in this collection. I must admit half of them weren't for me. Sometimes because the settings and characters got a little too grimdark, sometimes because the genre was 'plain old regular life' instead of fantasy or science fiction, sometimes because it became both. I enjoyed Abercrombie's "Tough Times All Over", Vaughn's "Roaring Twenties", Priest's "Heavy Metal", Abraham's "The Meaning of Love", Nix's "A Cargo of Ivories", Einstein's "The Caravan to Nowhere", Tuttle's "The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives", and Gaiman's "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back".
But I think I would have preferred to read them all as separate stories. As part of a collection, the takes on what counts as a "lovable rogue" were veeeeery different from story to story, to the point where I felt like I was reading mostly completely unrelated works. Far too many of the "lovable rogues" here were just utterly awful people (for example: would-be-rapists and people who blame others for ending up in abusive relationships). That's not a lovable rogue to me, that's a trash person who I was rooting for to lose all through their stories (looking at you "The Inn of the Seven Blessings" and "Bent Twig"). Really felt like a cold shower every time I turned the page and ended up reading about people I wanted to stab with rusty spoons rather than morally ambiguous people I could sympathize with.
We get a lot of different genres and a lot of different kinds of rogues in this collection. I must admit half of them weren't for me. Sometimes because the settings and characters got a little too grimdark, sometimes because the genre was 'plain old regular life' instead of fantasy or science fiction, sometimes because it became both. I enjoyed Abercrombie's "Tough Times All Over", Vaughn's "Roaring Twenties", Priest's "Heavy Metal", Abraham's "The Meaning of Love", Nix's "A Cargo of Ivories", Einstein's "The Caravan to Nowhere", Tuttle's "The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives", and Gaiman's "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back".
But I think I would have preferred to read them all as separate stories. As part of a collection, the takes on what counts as a "lovable rogue" were veeeeery different from story to story, to the point where I felt like I was reading mostly completely unrelated works. Far too many of the "lovable rogues" here were just utterly awful people (for example: would-be-rapists and people who blame others for ending up in abusive relationships). That's not a lovable rogue to me, that's a trash person who I was rooting for to lose all through their stories (looking at you "The Inn of the Seven Blessings" and "Bent Twig"). Really felt like a cold shower every time I turned the page and ended up reading about people I wanted to stab with rusty spoons rather than morally ambiguous people I could sympathize with.
bweissx5's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
silverfeather's review against another edition
5.0
MY LONGEST YEAH BOI EVER (until TWOW is released)
Yeah Daemon Targaryen is my mans and he really needs his own TV show @HBO. lemme play Laena tho
Yeah Daemon Targaryen is my mans and he really needs his own TV show @HBO. lemme play Laena tho
subparcupcake's review
4.0
Much better than [b:Warriors|6714177|Warriors|George R.R. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1425240834s/6714177.jpg|6910227]. Really liked most of the stories. 4 solid stars.
saschabookishowl's review
4.0
Finished:
* Joe Abercrombie - Tough times all over. Rating: 5 stars.
It was a bit repetitive in the end though, but still excellent!
* Gillian Flynn - What Do You Do?. Rating: 5 stars.
Wow just wow.. one of the best, or maybe THE best, short story I've read. At the beginning I never could have guessed that it would turn into such a horror/suspense masterpiece. Flynn writes in such a humorous and light way that I just had to keep reading. But it turned out to be a possible case of a haunted house or an exorcism. Yeah..did not see that coming. I could have known though: the story has just as much suspense and plot twists like 'Gone Girl' or 'Dark Places' -although I have only seen the movie adaptations and I have yet to actually read her novels, but whatever-.
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I was only able to read two of the short stories in this anthology before I had to return it to the library. That already shows the pace in which I was reading stories from this book. Although the two stories that I've read were very enjoyable, short stories are just not for me.
* Joe Abercrombie - Tough times all over. Rating: 5 stars.
It was a bit repetitive in the end though, but still excellent!
* Gillian Flynn - What Do You Do?. Rating: 5 stars.
Wow just wow.. one of the best, or maybe THE best, short story I've read. At the beginning I never could have guessed that it would turn into such a horror/suspense masterpiece. Flynn writes in such a humorous and light way that I just had to keep reading. But it turned out to be a possible case of a haunted house or an exorcism. Yeah..did not see that coming. I could have known though: the story has just as much suspense and plot twists like 'Gone Girl' or 'Dark Places' -although I have only seen the movie adaptations and I have yet to actually read her novels, but whatever-.
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I was only able to read two of the short stories in this anthology before I had to return it to the library. That already shows the pace in which I was reading stories from this book. Although the two stories that I've read were very enjoyable, short stories are just not for me.
frasersimons's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
I’m pretty pleased with the overall quality of the collection. I only had to skip one story, from Connie Willis, that was a bit too YA for me. Otherwise I remember buying this for the Gaiman and Flynn ones especially, which are great, and I believe you can get elsewhere now anyway. But I’ve had this waiting on the TBR as one of the oldest added, so I wanted to get to the other stories as well.
The Bast one, from Rothfuss was alright, but reminded me why it’s not something I would like as I’ve grown up. And the Martin one, I just do not care for his writing or GoT, so that wasn’t a draw.
There are so many others and I didn’t annotate unfortunately, but thought the overall quality was fairly high, when it was something that interested me. It’s just hard to give the book 4 stars when most are fun but forgettable.
The Bast one, from Rothfuss was alright, but reminded me why it’s not something I would like as I’ve grown up. And the Martin one, I just do not care for his writing or GoT, so that wasn’t a draw.
There are so many others and I didn’t annotate unfortunately, but thought the overall quality was fairly high, when it was something that interested me. It’s just hard to give the book 4 stars when most are fun but forgettable.