The Book of the Rogue/Jason Ray Carney: This is a collection of eleven stories, ostensibly sword & sorcery. Carney has the nameless “Rogue” as the central character.

An example of some of the prose:

“It just so happened that in the mountains dwelt a group of brigands.”

“The brigands were wet from the rains, and hungry, for the storm had driven them into the mountains, into caves.”

“It just so happened that the Rogue was traveling these mountains this night.”

“aimlessly twirling his curving blade.”

There are moral issues with the stories. In the first story, Carney has The Rogue run away from a group of brigands. And that is how the story ends. Contrast to the beginning of Robert E. Howard’s “Red Shadows.” Maybe this is some sort of post-modernist take on fantasy by removing the heroic from heroic fantasy.

This gives you an idea of the writing. It is really bad. The Book of the Rogue manages to make the infamous “The Eye of Argon” read like Shakespeare in comparison. “Curving blade?” And this is from a college English teacher! As to influence, it appears more Forgotten Realms than pulp sword & sorcery. This is real back-shed hermaphrodite stuff. There was a fan writer 15-20 years ago with higher pretensions known as Ben “Zoom.” Ben Zoom used to torture the English language (“Come in and taste the waters.”) Jason Three Names gets a Ben Zoom Writing Award. Once again, I take a bullet so you don’t have to. Avoid.