Editor Gordon van Gelder doesn’t appear (as much as you can ever guess from text) to have tongue in cheek when he says that readers might recall the previous stories featuring the bard Alaric, and refers to issues in 1971 and 1998! This story was originally commissioned for and appeared in the Dozois/GRR Martin anthology ‘Rogues’ and whilst Best SF is a BardFree Zonetm for fantasy fans I’m sure you can be assured of this story’s credentials.
More from this issue of F&SF here.
