While I didn't like most of this book as much as the previous books, it picked up near the end. Also, it set up some impressive things for the next book, and the last chapter is incredible.
A return to form for the series!
Good:
We meet Sabetha! She's well developed character in addition to being Locke's obsession.
Locke's love blunders are masterfully depicted & invoke nice, fluffy schadenfreude feeling.
Two story-lines (historic & contemporary) are both enjoyable & intertwine nicely.
Bad:
Locke's origin story feels tacked-on as a hook for a sequel that is yet to materialize 8 years later.
Scott Lynch's fishy characters find themselves out of water again.
Lynch has a stupendous ability to juggle timelines punctuated with cliffhangers that leave the reader wanting more.
Very glad to see many themes of the excellent first book in the series come home to roost. Red Skies was an excellent book, but "Republic Of Thieves" is really "Lies of Locke Lamora, Part II."
3.5. A little too much mooning over Sabetha for me in this episode. Still, nice snappy put-downs and fun intrigue. Much more episodic than the previous volumes, not as epic.
As much as anything, I liked this book because it didn't follow the exact script that the first two did. Instead of an Oceans Eleven heist, the job in this book was rigging a political election. In the end, it honestly all seemed fairly pointless, but it was fun to read all of the insults Scott Lynch comes up with, and all of the hellraising his characters pull off.
Like the first two books, there's also a secondary storyline taking place years ago when Locke & Jean were still learning to be thieves. That story was... well.. meh. I guess I had a hard time being entertained by the whole Sheakespeare-esque stage actor thing.
Yes, there's Sabetha. She's a nice complement to Jean & Locke. I'll leave it at that.
The final chapter was kind of cool, although the final premise was basically lifted from the Harry Potter books. Hopefully …
As much as anything, I liked this book because it didn't follow the exact script that the first two did. Instead of an Oceans Eleven heist, the job in this book was rigging a political election. In the end, it honestly all seemed fairly pointless, but it was fun to read all of the insults Scott Lynch comes up with, and all of the hellraising his characters pull off.
Like the first two books, there's also a secondary storyline taking place years ago when Locke & Jean were still learning to be thieves. That story was... well.. meh. I guess I had a hard time being entertained by the whole Sheakespeare-esque stage actor thing.
Yes, there's Sabetha. She's a nice complement to Jean & Locke. I'll leave it at that.
The final chapter was kind of cool, although the final premise was basically lifted from the Harry Potter books. Hopefully Lynch actually makes use of this little plot device in future books. Rowling sure as Hell didn't.
Just as good as the first two.
Full review here:
http://fedpeaches.blogspot.com/2013/10/number-three-and-still-going-strong.html
