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A review by cupiscent
Den of Thieves by David Chandler
3.0
This book was a strange experience. There were many things about the world and writing that I really liked, but many aspects that I really didn't like, and overall I'm not really sure I enjoyed it. I thought more than once about setting it aside, but didn't. I'm somewhat glad I finished it, but I have absolutely no desire to go on to the next book in the series.
The good: a gleefully dirty (and realistic) world, with all the little details of how life circa (say) Elizabethan England actually worked. Those details - such as a new pair of candles with the wicks still joined - delighted me, because I'm weird like that. There was also much about the magic system, and the implications for wider plot (the series-long prophecy-including level of fantasy plot, you know what I mean) that looked really fascinating.
The bad: but it never delved into that stuff, because we spent the entire book running around after the MacGuffin. Right about the point halfway through where I was hoping that it would lose its single focus and blossom into delicious complexity... it didn't, it just did a couple of switchbacks and powered on. It never developed the sort of big-scope multi-faceted stuff that I really love about fantasy, and I found it rather frustrating.
Plus, one of the main characters was that breed of irritating noble that needs to be very carefully handled. Benton Fraser manages it in Due South. The Middleman manages it. For a while, Sir Croy teetered on the brink of managing it, but by the time we got into the final third of the book, I was just plain bored with him and didn't really care.
The romantic storyline(s) were interestingly and complexly handled, though.
As a closing point, I will note that it came as no surprise at all to learn that the author usually writes horror. His gleeful and lurid details of demons and horrible illusions occasionally teetered towards the purple, which isn't really my cup of tea. But in general, his writing was enjoyable, and that's probably why I actually finished the thing.
Left me with such an urge to re-read Locke Lamora, though.
The good: a gleefully dirty (and realistic) world, with all the little details of how life circa (say) Elizabethan England actually worked. Those details - such as a new pair of candles with the wicks still joined - delighted me, because I'm weird like that. There was also much about the magic system, and the implications for wider plot (the series-long prophecy-including level of fantasy plot, you know what I mean) that looked really fascinating.
The bad: but it never delved into that stuff, because we spent the entire book running around after the MacGuffin. Right about the point halfway through where I was hoping that it would lose its single focus and blossom into delicious complexity... it didn't, it just did a couple of switchbacks and powered on. It never developed the sort of big-scope multi-faceted stuff that I really love about fantasy, and I found it rather frustrating.
Plus, one of the main characters was that breed of irritating noble that needs to be very carefully handled. Benton Fraser manages it in Due South. The Middleman manages it. For a while, Sir Croy teetered on the brink of managing it, but by the time we got into the final third of the book, I was just plain bored with him and didn't really care.
The romantic storyline(s) were interestingly and complexly handled, though.
As a closing point, I will note that it came as no surprise at all to learn that the author usually writes horror. His gleeful and lurid details of demons and horrible illusions occasionally teetered towards the purple, which isn't really my cup of tea. But in general, his writing was enjoyable, and that's probably why I actually finished the thing.
Left me with such an urge to re-read Locke Lamora, though.