Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Republic of Thieves

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The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

13 reviews

michaelmarshall's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ekcd_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Significantly better than the second book. Some good slow burn re Locke and Sabetha. Makes me sad that its been 11 years waiting for the fourth book. Woof

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kimtazo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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felofhe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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dragonaion's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As a devourer of the previous two books, I jumped into this one eagerly expecting the wonders of Locke and Jean to unravel into something amazing, especially with the possibility of finally meeting this magical Sabetha!

... I was disappointed. The previous romance in the last book was passionate, communicative, balanced, and heartfelt in every sense of the word. Women as a whole in the previous novels were a sight to behold, and truly made me (a female reader) see them as true equals to the men. Even if they died, they were majestic and were taken by Aza Guilla in the epitome grace. Sabetha pales in comparison; she feels like a girl so desperate to be the queen bee that she fails to see how she can embetter Locke and the other Bastards while still shining beside them, as best shown by Locke and Jean. She works alone now because she was jealous and afraid of being in the Bastards' shadows. While understandable, she is flighty, spooked by her own shadow (not to mention a heartfelt relationship), and I feel she actually brought Locke and Jean down, which does not validate her reasons. She could have been the "Rose of Camorr", but I can see how Locke grew into and became the "Thorn of Camorr" while her works stayed "petty" (as far as we know) and theatrical. The scheme she, Locke, and Jean completed seemed juvenile and lacking gravitas when compared to the previous book where they knowingly crippled a political empire- headfirst.

This crippling was more of an third-party-related accident

As a whole, if she were replaced with some other phantom, it wouldn't have diminished the story at all and might have given inspiration for the Bastards' genius. Even my romance fix was sated,

thanks to Jean's history

, so she was arguably unnecessary (we'll see later).

I also was disappointed to have an epic history about Locke suddenly (seriously, bad timing) dropped in; he didn't need his past explained, he simply was, and that's what made him amazing. He turned from a relatable, average guy who gets in above his head (brilliantly!) with lovable foibles (perfect for the Crooked Warden in every way) to some epic magically made entity- that did not better him or the story. Lastly, I would have appreciated more closure with the group as they returned to Chains, their escapades was worth a casual retelling to their benefactor.

This book does not read like an ending, and as the author expertly laces the past with the present, this is a book starting to lace a new future for us readers to enjoy. I'll definitely be in line for a copy, my thoughts of Sabetha aside, and hope to see more clever and thought through schemes that are worthy of the Bastards.

Edit: Just found that book #4, "The Thorn of Emberlain" will be released (as of 5/10/23) in Feb '24 and there are a total of seven books in the series. I'm glad this isn't the end, but I'm worried it might feel like the end of the series.

Edit 2: I've found another book that is a sibling-story to this, but Nevernight by Jay Kristoff shows precisely what Sabetha was trying to be. Mia's surpassed this older woman with flying colors at almost half her age. If you enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora, you will absolutely feel right at home with Nevernight.

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foxmulders's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jean isn’t some dog i tricked into a leash. he’s my true and particular friend.

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itsnotsarah's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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seanml's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The Republic of Thieves caps off Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard sequence in the best of ways (currently). Yes, the sequel is curruently now at ten years in development, but the novels are all self-contained enough that I don't see it as too much of a problem with the series. The plot itself is very simple from the outside, but by the third book of the series, the audience is so accustomed to the characters and their traits that the joy of the book itself comes from these characters interacting. The relationship of two characters is the crux of this novel, and one that has been hinted at and built up for the past two books. The story switches between a fun current day plot and an engaging past narrative, both of which are equally as entertaining. Lynch deserves all the accolades for this one. 9.5/10.

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corvicore's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

well that was a little disappointing. i'm not really sure how to summarize my thoughts so here are some bullet points:

Started off strong but what the FUCK was that twist and ending
Stuff that got set up and went nowhere:
- Locke’s near death experience and his conversation with Bug
- Sabetha feeling unheard by the rest of the team and disliking Locke stepping up as leader
- Jean. like all of him. He was sidelined so hard and for why
- ezri :( her death feels meaningless
- regal??? Why? The fuck? Did you take away my one joy and love ? like ugh this is part of a wider issue i have with the series where it feels like jean and locke are never allowed to grow their gang and whenever they do the plot forcibly isolates them (calo/galdo bug getting offed in the first book, ezri getting offed in the second book, regal being completely ignored at the start of the third and sabetha leaving at the end)
  - It’s one thing to create an episodic series with a status quo and it’s another thing to ignore the logical conclusion to these character arcs
I wish I liked sabetha better. Five year game beth was the classic (overdone) femme fatale and teenage sabetha was an unlikable bitch.
- I get that the theater story is about the gentlemen bastards being awful teenagers who need to stop being awful teenagers but it doesn’t work with sabetha because we don’t have any prior first impressions of her. With Locke Jean and the twins we got to know them in the first book so we’re more forgiving of their assholery; of course they’re being dicks, they’re teens! We know that they’ll mellow out into the characters that we love. We don’t have any of that prior experience with Sabetha, so her cruelty is less forgivable. And to make matters worse, her adult version is flatter than a wooden board so it’s not like I can even look forward to her present interactions with Locke. SPEAKING OF LOCKE
Why. just.
why?
The reason why I liked Locke so much was because he was a nobody, a nameless Catchfire orphan who stole his way into a better life. This whole Lamor Acanthus thing kind of ruins that for me. I’m sick of chosen ones. I’m sick of magical drama. Just give me a plain old bastard with some plain old bastardly plans and im happy.
Politics are too fucking boring man. I wish there was more espionage and roguery
I did like seeing calo and galdo again! Miss those two </3
what was up with the weird ass night-skinned stuff this book? last book had people of colour in it and it wasn't a big deal, it feels immersion breaking. on top of that, are we not going to talk about how the theatre plot line was resolved by framing a black man for murder? like hi how did that get into print.

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delfinmac's review

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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