S’il faut quelques nouvelles avant de tomber sur une première perle, l’ensemble de l’anthologie se révèle plutôt équilibré et se conclut surtout sur The Lightning Tree de Patrick Rothfuss, sans doute l’une des pièces maîtresses de l’ensemble.
Lire la critique sur le site : Elbakin.net
Then Viserys of House Targaryen, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm closed his eyes and went to sleep.
He never woke.
EVERYBODY LOVES A ROGUE
… though sometimes we live to regret it.
Scoundrels, con men, and scalawags. Ne’er-do-wells, thieves, cheats, and rascals. Bad boys and bad girls. Swindlers, seducers, deceivers, flimflam men, imposters, frauds, fakes, liars, cads, tricksters … they go by many names, and they turn up in stories of all sorts, in every genre under the sun, in myth and legend … and, oh, everywhere in history as well. They are the children of Loki, the brothers of Coyote. Sometimes they are heroes. Sometimes they are villains. More often they are something in between, grey characters … and grey has long been my favorite color. It is so much more interesting than black or white.
(Introduction, G.R.R. Martin)
He walked, counting off the paces to the Quarryman’s place. One hundred and five, one hundred and four, one hundred and three …
Strange how small the city was when you measured it out. All those people, and all their desires, and scores, and debts, packed into this narrow stretch of reclaimed swamp. By Friendly’s reckoning, the swamp was well on the way to taking large sections of it back. He wondered if the world would be better when it did.
… seventy-six, seventy-five, seventy-four …
The wedding was celebrated with seven days of feasts and jousting. Amongst the competitors were Queen Alicent's siblings, five Sworn Brothers of the Kingsguard, Breakbones, and the groom's favorite, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, known as the Knight of Kisses. When Rhaenyra bestowed her garter on Ser Harwin, her new husband laughed and gave one of his own to Ser Joffrey.
It was the market day after the worst week of the Marquis de Carabas’s life and things did not seem to be getting any better. Still, he was no longer dead, and his cut throat was healing rapidly. There was even a rasp in his throat he found quite attractive. Those were definite upsides.
(How the Marquis Got His Coat Back, de Neil Gaiman)
George RR Martin à la librairie Grangier le 3 juillet 2014