Editing Rose Estes

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'''Rose Estes''' is blamed, alongside [[Lorraine Williams]], for destroying the [[Greyhawk]] setting for a decade. Although there was blame to be shared, [[Skip Williams]] being a dark-horse candidate; and [[Carl Lynwood Sargent]]'s attempts to fix it all should be scored with the theme to ''The Magician's Apprentice''. But we are here to discuss Estes.

Estes started out June 1982 by kicking off the [[Endless Quest]] series of [[TSR]]-introducing choose-your-own-adventure books. These books were ''gold'', if you were nine years old - and that's not an insult, because we were all nine once, and when we were old enough for our parents to buy full [[D&D]] (or [[Top Secret]], [[Gamma World]] - whatever), Estes' books were often how we found out about those RPGs.

But then You Know Who figured Rose for a great choice to write full adult novels in the long-revered [[Greyhawk]] setting. To follow [[Gary Gygax]] Himself. Estes was... not up to this.

[[Erik Mona]] posted a widely-read rant, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20041108102528/www.tc.umn.edu/~monax002/Council/resources/rose/rosehate.html The Shame of the Rose]", on the full [[fail]] of these novels. Linking to [https://web.archive.org/web/20041108102042/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~monax002/Council/resources/rose/review.html an even wider-read rant]. We don't believe poor Rosie ever recovered from these.

Estes is, it seems, an object lesson in the Peter Principle.

[[Category:Writers]] [[Category:Greyhawk]]