I mean it, literally.  Great. Scott. Lynch!  I love this guy.  This post is going to be a little love letter to Republic of Thieves which I recently completed reading.  It’s also going to give details of a readalong and you’re all invited to the party, plus a cool little book trailer.

As usual, with the authors that I really enjoy reading, I went into this with a certain measure of ‘can he/can’t he’ do it again.  Don’t worry – he totally did it!  This book was great, amazing, fantastic even.  Different than the last two but so good.

Starting more or less where the last left off, Locke is poisoned and Jean is desperately trying to find an antidote.  Things are getting a bit grim and Locke is deteriorating fast.  Okay, I’m probably not giving too much away if I say that Locke doesn’t actually die so rest easy!  The way of the antidote was totally unexpected for me (as I tried to avoid picking up any spoilers before reading) and turns into the route to the latest situation that Locke and Jean find themselves in.  On top of this we have a dual story which takes us back to the original gang and one of the little escapades they found themselves in with all the resulting chaos.

I’m not going to give anything more away about the plot.  Especially as there’s a readalong right around the corner which will have loads of (incredibly intelligent, well thought out) discussion about every aspect!  But, I did say this would be a love letter and this is the reason why.

• I loved that the story went back in time and we got some history on our boys, and girl!
• I loved that this element of the story meant we spent time with the Sanza twins
• I laughed – quite loudly and often at rather inopportune and embarrassing moments at the great variety of ways that Lynch has discovered to insult someone and I also found out that tea is not supposed to spurt out of the nostrils – it’s a little bit uncomfortable so I suggest not drinking any hot drinks whilst reading this book
• My stomach growled at some of the descriptions of strange food and drink, some in appreciation – some not!
• I loved that this book is to theatre what Red Seas Under Red Skies was to pirates – Lynch’s own particular interpretation but brought alive so successfully
• We finally find out about Sabetha – *wiggles eyebrows mysteriously* (and I’m not going to elaborate further!)
• I banged my head in frustration at the way Locke and Sabetha behaved (in a good way of course – imagine banging your head against a wall made of marshmallow, no, too sticky – a wall of cushions!)
• The depth to the characters, descriptions of place and concept are fantastic
• And, Jean Tannen remains my major book crush!  Need I say more?
• Okay, how about really nasty baddies
• or a total WTF ending!

On top of this, what I really like about this series is the relationship between the characters.  They’re all, for want of a better word, naughty, but you just have to love them!  And they always aim so high don’t they…  Plus the dialogue which just feels really natural.

It would be a tiny bit obscene to gush further so I’m going to stop!

I mentioned above a readalong, nay, an immense readalong.  The details are as follows and as you can see the timeline is incredibly generous:

Week 1 – prologue thru Intersect I, hosted by Dab of Darkness, questions go out Oct 25, posts go up Oct 28

week 2 – chapter 3 thru interlude “Bastards Abroad”, hosted by Over the Effing Rainbow, question go out Nov 1, posts go up Nov  4

week 3 – Chapter 6 thru Interlude “Aurin and Amadine”, hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog, questions go out Nov 8, posts go up Nov 11

week 4 – Chapter 8 thru chapter 10, hosted by Little Red Reviewer, questions go up  Nov 15, posts go up Nov 18

week 5, – Interlude “Death masks” thru epilogue, hosted by Tethyan Books, questions go up Nov 22, posts go up Nov 25.

Sincerely, I hope you will find time to join in.  This series is one of my favourites and I just want everyone else to share the joy (because I’m a nice sharing person like that).  If you haven’t started the series then there’s still time – if you don’t think you can catch up however I still hope you’ll read this series because you’re in for such a treat.

Also, follow this link and check out the trailer – which is way cool:

http://fantasy-faction.com/2013/republic-of-thieves-by-scott-lynch-exclusive-book-trailer

Hoping you can come to the party.  It’s going to be fun, there’s going to be hats, cake and wine – oh, sorry, wrong party, but there will be loads of bloggers sharing witty repartee.

I received a copy of this through Netgalley for which I will be forever grateful!