Scott Lynch’s long-awaited and long-delayed third volume in his Gentlemen Bastards series is finally out! The Republic of Thieves hit the shelves on October 8. Fans familiar with the series will need no encouragement to rush right out to discover what the Gentlemen Bastards have gotten themselves into this time. For those unacquainted with these particular “gentlemen,” I suggest starting with the first book in the series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, and continuing on to Red Seas Under Red Skies. These books are set in a fantasy world where the rich live in magnificent buildings made of some material no longer recognized, by builders no longer remembered, while the poor struggle along in a more prosaic underworld. Locke Lamora is – or was – one of the poor, but he is determined to change that situation, by hook or by crook. Mostly by crook (although hooks may come in handy), in the form of his gang of con men, the Gentlemen Bastards.
Although these are fantasy novels, the books they most remind me of are the classic adventure novels of the 19th century. There are shades of The Count of Monte Cristo, Oliver Twist, and Treasure Island (not to mention heists that would put anything the boys of Oceans Eleven could come up with to shame). In The Republic of Thieves, we are even promised a meeting with Locke Lamora’s long lost love/chief rival, Sabetha. Not since Sherlock Holmes met up with Irene Adler has a literary encounter been so fraught with possibilities…
– Lorena N.
