Reviews

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

shandyt's review against another edition

4.0

4.3 stars. I'm not sure if any future sequel will match the greatness of book 1, but book 3 is, for me, a not-so-distant second place. The main plot is alright, probably inferior to the other two (although we finally get to meet Sabetha, which is a treat). The side plot is where this installation truly shines. I'm no great fan of Shakespeare, but the play Locke and company put on is fascinating to me, and I almost wish we'd gotten to spend more time on it. It was interesting to see the ins and outs of life in an acting troupe, I loved the actor side characters, and the play itself was so good, I'd like a copy of the full thing.

loquaciousleon's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

The characters were really loveable and the book itself was good, but personally, I found it was missing a core. I didn't find myself compelled by it, and it took me a long time to understand that it may be because it did not have any overarching themes. It felt a little hollow because of that. But the characters were loveable and kept me reading, much more than the plot.

blainembentley's review against another edition

3.0

 

My rating on this one has nothing to do with the actual quality of the book and has everything to do with my enjoyment of the book. 

Lynch has been very consistent in my opinion with the Gentleman Bastard books. His character work is so well done. Locke and Jean are so charismatic and very enjoyable to be with. The way the plots are crafted and slowly build to a big reveal/resolution of the plot is done so wonderfully. His prose is just perfect. It feels sophisticated, but is easy to follow. I just love how the story flows. I have a lot of the same praises I had for the previous two books.

The actual plot is where this book fell flat for me. I feel it was still very well executed, but I was just not that into it. I found the “big job” in this book to be very bland. I did not find any of it to be all that interesting and was bored throughout the book. There have been flashback sequences in all of the books so far. However, the ones in this book almost felt like they were competing to be the main story, rather than complement the story as they have in the previous books. The book was almost split evenly between the flashback and the current time. I did find the events in the flashback sequence to also be lackluster. 

I do appreciate that there is one character who is constantly mentioned in previous books that finally made an appearance in this book. It was nice to get to know them and their background story. I really do hope that we see more of them in future books (if we ever get more books). 

This was my least favorite of the three, not because of weak writing, the plot just didn’t click with me. Not too bad that I would stop reading any future published works in this world.

 

platypusinplaid's review against another edition

4.0

AUDREY'S ONE-SENTENCE BOOK REVIEWS

what if the wizard cabal that runs the city gave u infinite money to win an election campaign.... and the opponent was your ex

lelomie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.0

Two words. Politics and Theater. If you like neither of those things… oof. I’m sorry. 

I liked the beginning more, but it was overall good

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault

hector_viruega's review against another edition

3.0

Drop off de calidad más grande que he leido pero me divertí en partes anyway

marieeve1978's review against another edition

3.0

Not as good as the first two. Contrary to them, it doesn't focus on clever ruses, Ocean's eleven type, but more on the relationships between two characters, one of which is not really likable for a large part of the book.

hollyberry_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

guppyur's review against another edition

2.0

Like everyone else, I've waited for this book for a long time, as Lynch has had a number of personal life issues to work through. It pains me to say I am unhappy with the eventual result.

I was pretty excited when I picked it up on release day, but it didn't last. It jumps back and forth between a flashback and present-day; it's been so long since I read the first two books that I don't recall it, but I'm reliably informed that the first two did this as well. Regardless, I found neither especially compelling. Characters' actions are sometimes inexplicable because their motivations aren't reasonable. The will-they-won't-they relationship between Locke and Sabetha is more irritating than anything else. I felt like Sabetha sometimes said and did the things she did not because they made any sense, but because she had to to get her character where Lynch wanted her to go.

Sad to say this did not live up to my expectations.

raiju01's review against another edition

1.0

The main story of the book was disappointing, with an underwhelming ending. At least book 2's middle was interesting.