Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - The Republic of Thieves

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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delfinmac's review against another edition

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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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vittorioseg's review against another edition

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mysterious sad slow-paced

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

1.0

This are two novellas who were forcefully mashed together and added 200 pages of bland filling. It never go anywhere, it barely had jokes, the stakes were nonexistent in the "prank" war of the gentleman bastard and it was worldbuilding that ended, once again, with John and Locke with nothing. This was just filler for, I think, the second series. Background of the sad and tragic
figure that is Locke of the second trilogy and my god, it was boring. It was tedious. I laughed in some instances, sure, but you can cut 2/3 of the book and it would lose nothing. This should have been a novella. A 200 pages novella at most, an interlude between here and the actual meat of the series.

But I honestly don't think there is anything else for the series. The introduction of the dark forces and eldritch bullshit just made it trite. The author can write romance at all and the reincarnation angle just made Locke more insubstantial, more a pastiche than anything noteworthy. This was just a tour of how utterly eclipsed the gentleman bastards are in the world, how insignificant, how much they can fall (just like last book) and I guess its an honest representation of the depression of the author, but its not worthy the time I put with it.

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