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The Republic of Thieves

Jul19

Title: The Republic of Thieves

Author: Scott Lynch

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Length: 609 pages

Read: June 23-30, 2014

Summary: a bit weaker

Most of the good things about books 1 and 2 of the Gentleman Bastards are also true of The Republic of Thieves. The latest installment serves up good fun, great characters, and all that. Lynch again moves the setting, this time to the city of the Magi, Locke’s bitter enemies from book 1. It brings into the foreground Locke’s mysterious and absent former lover/rival. Again the story is told both in the present and in flashback.

The two timelines don’t fit together entirely harmoniously. The present focuses on a contest/rivalry between Locke and Sabetha (his former lover) while the backstory details their childhood relationship and a long episode where the Gentleman Bastards crime gang played Elizabethan Actors for a summer. Partly, this addition feels gratuitous, like the pirate episode in Red Seas Under Red Skies, and certainly it exists because Lynch read a lot about this period and wanted to include it. It’s also (IMHO) the best part of the novel. We get to see a few of our favorite dead bastards alive and well (the twins) and (briefly) Chains. Plus, it’s just a fun romp and a bit of a caper.

And that’s sort of the problem with the main story. The back and forth with Sabetha was great, but the “caper” wasn’t really a caper. Both rivals are chosen by the Magi to run two sides of a strange election process — which is entirely trumped up and serves as a human proxy for the nearly all-powerful Magi. It just never felt very real, urgent or exciting.

Still, it’s an enjoyable book, and if you enjoyed the other two, read it. But The Republic of Thieves is a notch below its predecessors, perhaps 4 stars instead of 5.

But the epilogue was interesting!

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Books

Tagged as: Book Review, Fantasy, Lies of Locke Lamora, Locke Lamora, Lynch, Oceans Eleven, Red Seas Under Red Skies, Renaissance, Scott Lynch, The Republic of Thieves, Venice

Yar Maties – Pirate Fantasy!

Jul17

Title: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Author: Scott Lynch

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Length: 786 pages

Read: June 5-22, 2014

Summary: Possibly best of the series

The first book in this series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, was one of the better novels I read last year. Red Seas picks up right after and avoids Sophomore Slump by switching up the scenario and the location fairly substantially. Our heroes have left their Venice-like hometown of Camorr and venture off to a new city (Tal Verrar) and a new (and even more elaborate) scam with even bigger stakes.

The first third of the novel is Oceans Eleven in the Renaissance, and it’s real good fun. The world is enormously detailed and Scott Lynch is very sharp with the dialog. He has come into his own in this second book, as it’s wittier than ever. There is a very slight overwriting to the style, but you get used to it quickly and the huge novel flies along. The dynamic between Locke and his partner/friend Jean is fabulous and they are very well drawn characters.

This is aided enormously by a series of flashbacks. In the first novel, which also crossed two timelines, it was a little confusing which was which. This time around, Lynch has clearly labeled the flashback chapters. Because the novel begins essentially in the middle of the current heist, these are used to fill in the setup and the complex relationship between the two men. Walking a delicate line, Lynch has to maintain his suspense by NOT telling us how exactly the heist is actually going to work. We are tolled out bits and pieces until the very end.

Then about a third of the way in we take a hard tack to starboard and enter a high seas pirate tale. The entire middle act is shipboard and has less to do (directly) with the heist of the . At first I was like woah, but hell, I like pirates and this was good fun. Somewhere in Lynch’s brain there exists a different novel, about half the length, without the whole pirate part. You can tell this was self indulgent, that he really researched period nautical life and wanted to really use it. From a structural sense, the pirate thing isn’t even necessary, but because this world and its characters are so rich, and it was so fun, I think it’s a net win.

Hell the whole act of reading a fantasy novel is escapist, who cares if it’s too long as it’s a great read — which Red Seas absolutely and definitely is. A pure pleasure and a work of delightful fantasy. Plus, so strong are it’s characters, that it actually has a good bit to say on the nature of friendship.

Oh, and if you really like pirate fantasy two other favorites of mine over the years are On Stranger Tides and Wyvern.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Books

Tagged as: Book Review, High fantasy, Lies of Locke Lamora, Locke Lamora, pirates, Red Seas Under Red Skies, Scott Lynch, Venice

Serene Republic of Quippy Thievies

Oct28

Title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

Author: Scott Lynch

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Length: 752 pages

Read: October 15-25, 2013

Summary: Best fantasy I’ve read in a while

The simplest pitch for The Lies of Locke Lamora would be Thieves World Venice. Fantasy often borrows heavily from history, and LLL is no exception. I’d place the era as roughly 17th century. The book is set entirely in the fictional city of Camorr. It’s got canals, bridges, Italian names, a Duke (Doge), nobles, masks, and pretty much all the trappings of the real Venince. It’s also got sorcerers, alchemy, and giant towers built of indestructible Elderglass.

Like the brilliant Perdido Street Station, LLL features the city as character. This outing isn’t quite as purely imaginative, but also isn’t nearly as weird, and far more approachable. I’m a big Venice fan anyway, and so I very much enjoyed the feel. There is a nice balance struck here between atmosphere and pacing. LLL is a fast book with a lot of flavor. The underworld and the city proper are both excellently realized. I particularly enjoyed the glimpses into a well developed religion. Camorr is a city of 13 gods, and as such borrows more religious spirit from antiquity, but at the same time Lynch colors it with an extremely Renaissance/Baroque feel.

The novel is fairly focused. No Game of Thrones, LLL concentrates on a single hero and a few of his friends. It’s written in a slightly bizarre third person omniscient, without a heavy distinct narrator, but feels free to flit around between time and characters (even if it hovers 90% on our protagonist, Locke). Interludes discussing historical aspects of the city or flashing back to (mostly) relevant childhood events in the lives of our heroes are frequent. While these stray from the spine of the story, they are entertaining and add depth. There is some slight of hand played with the chronology. Occasionally some action is undercut with the preparations for the same action in a way which is a little confusing.

At the prose level, Lynch is a good writer, with some style and flair. He does a nice job dotting the text with certain archaic words that lend flavor, but all the while keeping the text modern and lively. And he has a knack for deft and humorous descriptions. At the same time, there is a hint of anachronism. LLL isn’t a Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell with pitch perfect historical tone — but it is also much faster paced and transparent to the reader.

The action of LLL is part heist, part swashbuckling adventure, part orphan tale. Like a Venitian Ocean’s Eleven, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Oliver Twist all rolled into one. The tone is quippy and cavalier, but also contains a dose of nastiness and torture (night that I mind). The dialog is full of zingers — many hit, some miss. And often it sounds oddly modern. The plot is easy enough to follow but has a certain byzantine quality — and more than its share of deus ex machina — but essentially it all works. The action is fast, furious, and easy to follow. A dizzying mix, but one that works well.

I pounded through the second half (at 752 pages, hardly a novella) in one sitting. Flaws aside, it’s fun and ambitious without being overwrought in scope. All in all, The Lies of Locke Lamora was no chore, instead a genuine pleasure, and certainly the best fantasy I’ve read this year!

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