There’s a children’s game called “button, button, who’s got the
button?” The basic premise is one kid has a button and walks around a
circle of other kids putting his hands in theirs’, leaving the button in
 one set of hands somewhere along the way. The kid then feigns continued
 button-leaving. Once the circle is complete, the other kids try to
guess who has the button. If this sounds inane, well, it is. But, in my
imagination I like to picture “button, button” as a more genteel version
 of “duck, duck, goose.” And by genteel I mean with less blood and
sobbing.

	I bring this up not to slander one of the greatest games of all time, but because Joe Abercrombie’s story in Rogues,
 a new anthology from George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, functions
much the same, with rotating points of view depending on who has the
“button” at a given moment. Of course, because it’s Abercrombie, the
game is a lot more “duck, duck, goose” than “button, button,” with a
sufficient amount of physical violence and broken dreams (as any good
game of “duck, duck, goose” should have).

Tough Times All Over PDF

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