Read-Along: The Republic of Thieves, Part Two

It's time to rejoin Locke, Jean, and the Bondsmagi for week two of the read-along of Scott Lynch's Republic of Thieves!  This weeks questions extend through the Interlude "Bastards Abroad", and were provided by Lisa of Over the Effing Rainbow.  

There are spoilers past this point, so beware!

Blood And Breath And Water: Patience tells Locke that the ritual to save him is serious business. She wasn't kidding... What did you make of this scene, and do you think any of it might (perhaps literally) come back to haunt Locke?

I’m not sure if I believe his vision of Bug was real or a hallucination, but the story of the series does seem to be edging towards the more magical side (Bondsmagi, the Eldren, etc.).  I think that the doubt about the trustworthiness of his God that this vision planted in Locke’s mind will not go away quickly, at least.  I am wondering if the gods of this world are real, and if so, if we’ll see more about the role of the Crooked Warden.

Orphan's Moon: Back to the childhood of the Gentlemen Bastards, and here we get another ritual, this one in service to the Nameless Thirteenth. It looks as though it might be Locke vs. Sabetha, round two - but this time Locke seems to be a little slow on that uptake... Who do you think deserves to be given the final oath? Locke or Sabetha?

This is going to echo some stuff Sabetha said later, but based on their deeds, Sabetha.  Sabetha got a ridiculously dangerous and impressive offering for the ceremony, just to make sure she would be noticed.  Locke just brought some money.  I think Locke was chosen because Chains and the others are grooming him for leadership, and they don’t have similar plans for Sabetha.  I don’t know if that’s because she’s a girl, or just because Locke is overwhelmingly charismatic.

Across The Amathel: This chapter takes a breather for quite a bit of Eldren history, while Locke starts recovering. What do you think of the history lesson, and Patience's ominous speculation regarding the Eldren? Is this something you'd like to know more about?

This was a pretty blatantly infodumping section, but we needed some background on Karthain and the Bondsmagi.  I am very curious about whether the Bondsmagi know more about the Eldren than Patience is telling here.  Also, I’m not sure what to make of the memory she shared with Jean and Locke.  I’m surprised they weren’t angrier, honestly.  Patience could have stopped the Falconer from going to Camorr, and she didn’t.  She couldn’t have known that he would murder Locke and Jean’s friends, but she did know that many people would end up dead (or as good as dead). 

Striking Sparks: The gang's off to Espara, after a bad summer and a pretty thorough dressing-down from Chains, and we finally get to the source of the book's title - they're bound for the stage! What are your thoughts on this latest 'challenge' and the reasons for it?

It makes me think that perhaps they are the first group of thieves Chains has raised—he may have not really been ready for dealing with four teenagers being whiny, lazy and irritable at the same time.  At this point, it really doesn’t seem like this is a disguised lesson.  It seems like he really just needs a break from all these kids, and maybe some travel will break them out of their patterns.

The Five-Year Game: Starting Position: The election gets underway with a party (as you do) and before it's even over, the Deep Roots party has problems - and not just thanks to Sabetha. What do you make of Nikoros and his unfortunate habit?

First off, congrats to the people who predicted Sabetha would be heading up the other side! Given all the flashbacks we’ve seen so far, I think Locke and Jean’s victory is far from assured.  However, given how emphatically they’ve been warned not to collude with Sabetha, I’m also wondering if they’ll end up doing just that.  Sabetha may have parted ways with the Gentlemen Bastards, but I still think she would not think highly of the Bondsmagi who murdered her old friends.

As for Nikoros, there is yet one more handle Sabetha can use to control the Deep Roots side.  I don’t know what Locke and Jean can really do about it.  Assuming it’s an addiction, insisting he break it could well make him completely useless for the duration.  I guess the best thing to do in their situation would be to ac         quire however much he will need for the 5 weeks, and instruct him to be discreet about taking it.

Bastards Abroad: The gang arrives in Espara, and already they've got problems (nicely mirroring the Five Year Game!)... This aside, we've also seen some more of what seems to be eating at Sabetha. Do you sympathise with her, or is Locke right to be frustrated with her?

I was mostly coming over in her favor in the first section, and it’s no different here.  She’s in a very difficult position, and I think it is a testament to her strength of character that she isn’t taking it all out on Locke. First off, she has some legitimate concerns about Locke’s ‘love’ for her. She is only the best of limited options, since she is the only woman he’s spent much time in proximity to.  He has put her on a pedestal in his mind, which generally means the ideal of her that he fancies is mostly imaginary. 

In addition, there’s the whole primacy and power issue.  In the Gentlemen Bastards, Locke just naturally gets everything Sabetha wants, and doesn’t even really notice that it’s happening (or when it’s unfair).  If Sabetha allows herself to be charmed by him, how does she keep from becoming just one more thing that Locke gets because he wants it?  Of course, the fact that she likes him complicates things a bit, since rejecting him would also harm her… I don’t envy her situation, and it is a bit frustrating that Locke doesn’t really get the problem.  I can see why Sabetha would later choose to break off from the Gentleman Bastards.    

Other bits!

We get to see the origins of the “Thorn of Camorr”!  While that was neat, it also made me cringe a bit.  It’s just one more instance of what Sabetha was talking about.  She suggested it would be neat if they had names by reputation, everyone pretty much laughed at her, and then they decided to give one to Locke (even though he didn’t want it).  Fast forward a few years, Locke is the “Thorn of Camorr”… and I think Sabetha is still Sabetha (I could be wrong there, maybe her reputation name just hasn’t come up).

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New Voices: Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

This review has appeared on WWEnd, as a part of my series on new authors. 

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

Published : Tor, 2012

Series : Book 1 of the Craft Sequence

Max Gladstone (website here http://www.maxgladstone.com/) published his first novel, Three Parts Dead, in October of last year, and his second novel Two Serpents Rise has just come out on October 29^th!   Two Serpents Rise seems to be set in the same universe as Three Parts Dead, but this review will only cover Three Parts Dead, as I haven’t had a chance to read it just yet. Three Parts Dead is impossible to sum up in a few quick sentences, both because there is so much going on in the novel and because there are so many fascinating characters!  The story was always brimming with energy, fresh ideas and cleverness. 

In the world of Three Parts Dead, humans have learned to use godlike powers, resulting in a war against the Gods that almost destroyed everything.  Since then, Craftsmen and Craftswomen, who are trained in the Hidden Schools, draw power from earth and starlight to effect amazing feats of magic.  I was surprised by the mechanical and matter-of-fact tone of both Craft and deific power—they are described mostly in terms of law and economics.  For instance, a God’s power is managed and increased sort of like a finance portfolio, with investments and returns.  Of course, if a God were to go ‘bankrupt’, it would have some more direct personal effects, like death.

It is with the death of a God, Kos Everburning, that the story of Three Parts Dead really takes off.  The main character, Tara Abernathy, is part of the team that will represent the interests of Kos’s clergy in the process of resurrection.  This whole mystical/legal/economic system is unlike anything I’d ever read before, and this is really only scraping the top of all of the fun ideas in the story.  Everything in the world fits together like the cogs and gears of Kos’s steam-powered city, Alt Coulomb, and the details are revealed at a pace that always left me wanting to know more.

In addition to the world, the many characters were both interesting as individuals and integral to the story.  The heroine, Tara, is an intelligent, assertive, resourceful young Craftswoman.  In Gladstone’s words, “She had never been one for raw displays of power.  Hers was the clever solution, the quick step…” ~p. 111. She is a thoroughly entertaining character to follow, and I appreciated the highly active role she took in the story.  Other fascinating characters include Tara’s stern boss Elayne Kevarian, the earnest young novice technician (a.k.a. priest) Abelard, the addict Cat Elle, and others. The villain of the novel, also, was absolutely chilling.  His character was not strikingly complex, but he was an extrapolation to the supernatural of a common sort of evil in our world (or my world at least, academia). In addition to Tara’s point of view, the story switches between the points of view of a handful of characters (including Cat and Abelard).  I can see this seeming a little much for a relatively short book, but I enjoyed the insights into the perspectives of other characters.

Despite the fact that this is a fantastical story about fallible, vulnerable Gods, I really enjoyed the story’s exploration of the idea of religion.  Through a number of the characters, we see the strength of a personal connection with the divine, and the suffering caused when one is separated from God.  It was also nice to see the distinction between those who participate in religion in good faith, and those who seek to use the institution of religion to achieve their own ends (such as the necromantic firms).  I can’t be much more precise without spoiling parts of the plot, but I appreciated how these ideas developed throughout the plot.

As for the story, I hardly know where to begin; there are so many pieces. The whole novel felt intensely active and—somehow—brightly colored, and everything always seemed to be barreling forward at a breakneck pace. The novel carries the story of Kos’s death, Tara’s first job, another mysterious murder, the history of the gods of Alt Coulomb, the back stories of various characters, and more.  In short, it feels like there are a million things going on, but they all fit together like pieces of a puzzle. The end of the story does involve a lot of monologuing, both on the sides of the heroes and the villains, but I think they were probably necessary, in this case.  This is the kind of story where every little detail makes a difference, so the monologues were less about recapping things the reader had already figured out, and more about tying in the little details the reader could easily have missed.

In short, this was a very entertaining novel, and I am looking forward to seeing what else Max Gladstone has in store.  The characters were memorable, the world was vibrant, the magic was fresh and unusual, and the story was engagingly complicated.  This is a novel where pretty much everything seemed to fit together perfectly, and it was a joy to read!

Read-Along: The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch, Part 1

It’s time for the first post for the read-along of Scott Lynch’s The Republic of Thieves !  Thanks to Dab of Darkness for providing this week’s questions, which cover from the beginning to "Intersect 1". Feel free to leave your link in the comments below, and I’ll add it to the post.  

Past this point are serious spoilers of the series, so beware!

1) We get to reminisce with several old friends in this section - Calo, Galdo, Chains. How did you like this? Bitter sweet or happy dance?

Happy dance!  It’s been long enough since reading The Lies of Locke Lamora that I am mostly over the shock and sadness of how we said goodbye to the Sanza twins.  I loved seeing how the Gentlemen Bastards were forged into a group. I can’t remember why there weren’t any older members of the gang, though.  Was it that the Gentlemen Bastards was a relatively recent whim of Father Chains, and so these kids were his first group?

2) Finally, the infamous Sabetha makes a physical appearance, albeit in Locke's reminisces. What are your impressions? How do you think the romance, if there is to be one, will play out? 

Finally, Sabetha appears!  She has been kind of an empty outline of a person for the first two books, affecting the story by her absence.  She seems like a quietly competent young lady, and I am curious to see how they fell in love and why they fell out.  We’ve seen Locke already ‘fall in love’ with her (in his child’s crush), which will clearly grow into something more due to his growing up with her as pretty much the only girl in his world.

3) After trying absolutely everything to save Locke, Jean still won't give up. What did you think of that little pep talk he gave Locke concerning Patience's offer of healing?

I was with Jean on that one.  Seriously, Locke, shut up.  When you’re about to die, and someone offers to let you stay alive, you can’t really argue about the conditions.  I thought Jean’s efforts to save Locke were really touching, and he had a point about Locke’s death wish.  I don’t know if it really is very subconscious, though.  Locke was not in a good mental or emotional place for a long time, after what happened in Camorr, and I think that probably played a role in his giving the antidote to Jean in the first place.

4) Locke has a few caveats to working for the Bondsmage. Wise or just Locke grasping for some control over his life? What would you ask Patience? 

I think having it explicitly stated that they’re through after the election is a good idea.  And having answers to questions is smart for both Locke and Patience.  They work some pretty complicated scams, and not having all the information about a situation could ruin things unexpectedly. However, I do kind of think it was a combination of grasping for control and saving face (since Locke had just backed down from insisting on dying instead).  I think I would ask if it’s possible to officially learn some magic while there… but I know Locke would absolutely not be on board for ever becoming a Bondsmage.

5) At the end of this section, we see that all is not as Patience laid it out. How much do you think Patience knows of the plot to off Locke and Jean? Do you see it interfering in the rigged election? 

 I think things will be more complicated than they appear, as always, and I’m sure it will cause problems.  I expect lots of complicated, dangerous, and amusing problems, based on the expectations I’ve got from the first two books.  I doubt Patience knows about the plot, or if she does, she might see it as a handy test of whether or not Jean and Locke are clever enough to be useful.

In other comments, the contest between Locke and Sabetha was fantastic, and it was cool to see where the Gentleman Bastard hand signals originated.  I’m wondering if we’ll see that the contest highlights the difference between Locke and Sabetha.  Locke works off inspiration, using anything to hand (even yellowjackets), while Sabetha has superior plans set in advance.  It seems like Locke’s strength is in his flexibility and charisma, while Sabetha’s is in her forethought.  Or I may be reading way too much into this!

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