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Scott Lynch's Thorn of Emberlain is Not Completed


Jerol
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The Republic of Thieves was a fine novel, but it was dramatically different to the first two (and the second was quite a bit different to the first) and I think there's a lot of people who wanted every book to be just more and more heist hijinks and got annoyed when Scott changed things up. I rate it higher than Red Skies, which was good but also very badly rushed and you can tell.

The series is really about the rise of a master spymaster in a time of war and chaos, but when Scott wrote that book he realised he needed the spymaster's backstory, hence the first three books which were written as prequels to the main event, which begins in Book 4. That's why The Thorn of Emberlain is really exciting, because this is the book that Scott has been planning for twenty years, and it's where the main story really begins.

Edited by Werthead
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3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

It was my least favourite. Lies of Locke Lamora was easily his best so far, because I loved the capers and seeing the whole gang together. Obviously that couldn't happen in subsequent novels. Still looking forward to reading Thorn though :)

I did like the flashbacks where we did see that gang in their younger days, although I had mixed feelings about the modern-day portion of the story.

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10 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

It was my least favourite. Lies of Locke Lamora was easily his best so far, because I loved the capers and seeing the whole gang together. Obviously that couldn't happen in subsequent novels. Still looking forward to reading Thorn though :)

I was all prepared to reread it, following a reread of books 1 and 2, a couple of years ago when it was "all set" to release in September.  Then it didn't happen, but I did reread Lies, and I loved it just as much as I did the first time way back in 2006.

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I love The Republic of Thieves. But it is still the weakest novel of the three. Red Seas Under Red Skies is my favourite. I find sea adventure more interesting genre than heist story. Really looking forward to The Thorn of Emberlain!

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The Republic of Thieves was a decent book but it did have a few bad missteps, IMO. Including the apparent revelation at the end.

Plus Lockes characterisation as a shrewd manipulator was undermined, like BFC says, by some of his daft election pranks, hope he ups his game for the wartime spymaster stuff.

Generally though I love Lynch, I’ll read anything he writes. Recently heard him reading his story The Fall and Rise of the House of Markurial from one of the Dozois collections, it was great.

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9 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

Lynch deserves special credit here for the fact that he's produced the work in the teeth of depression. :cheers: I will be certainly buying it when it comes out.

I hated Republic of Thieves. So many opportunities for real political shenanigans, gone to waste...

Yep, i have huge respect for Lynch for doing this in the grips of depression and being so open about everything

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On 5/25/2019 at 6:43 PM, john said:

Plus Lockes characterisation as a shrewd manipulator was undermined, like BFC says, by some of his daft election pranks, hope he ups his game for the wartime spymaster stuff.

That's part of the charm to me though - Locke is taking Ls every book and isn't ever quite as smart as he thinks. 

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I made space in my shelves for this book a long time ago. The space ended up getting filled in (I have too many books - good problem to have). And now I have to create that space again. Damn you, Scott!

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On 5/24/2019 at 7:49 AM, Lord Patrek said:

Great news! Hopefully it will be a return to form for Lynch, because the third volume wasn't that good.

And to think that Scott's book deal with Gollancz stated that a novel was supposed to be released every 9 months or so! :eek:

I remember him stating this in an interview waay back in the day - how each book would be 9 months or so, because he had it all plotted out. Which would mean, if all had gone to plan, we'd be getting close to wrapping up the second 7 book series he had announced back then, rather than relieved/exited about book 4.

I think that was coming off the author's personal rush of banging out book 1 and the positive reception. Lynch's anxiety issues started around 2008, right? 

I thought book 2 was a step down and found book 3 tedious, but I'm still rooting for the series.

Edited by kuenjato
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On 5/26/2019 at 8:56 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

Yep, i have huge respect for Lynch for doing this in the grips of depression and being so open about everything

To say nothing of the terror of the act of writing itself, which is already nerve-wracking from the get-go! 

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