The Republic of Thieves

By: Scott Lynch

Narrated by: Michael Page

Length: 23 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

He's back! The long-awaited return of the most exciting new commercial fantasy writer of the 21st century. After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins, the Bonds Magi. It is a fallout that will pit both men against Locke's own long lost love.

Sabetha is Locke's childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke's life and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds, Sabetha has just one goal - to destroy Locke for ever. The Gentleman Bastard sequence has become a literary sensation in fantasy circles and now, with the third book, Scott Lynch is set to seal that success.

©2013 Scott Lynch (P)2013 Tantor

Good but not my favourite.

My least favourite so far but still quite enjoyable. I didn't enjoy the romantic leads in this book as much as the last. Locke is at his best outwitting opponents, not trying to understand women.

The hero is kind of a creepy stalker

What would have made The Republic of Thieves better?

The character development is very poor. I can't tell the difference between the characters at 15 and 30. The romance is based on the hero following and continually debasing himself to his love until she gives in and admits her love. According to this book stalking works.

Best of the Series!

Amazing! Lynch is at the height of his powers here. Enjoyed every second. A pure joy. How will I read/listen to anything else now?

The best one so far!

The book picks up characters from book 1, and the plot gets deeper and more complex. Can’t wait for book 4.

Good book but read the middle part

The series is excellent and this book is no exception. However, the parts between, say 30% and 70% have been less good than the rest. I did not like the endless citations from a play you dont get to understand anyway.

I dont know

to be honest.its a good book and all. but the charm from the first book is all gone. now it feels like the author is just trying to make a game of thrones copy or something like that. went from a really good book. the first one.. to this. were.. I don't know where I stand on this

Absolutely fantastic!

To be honest The Republic of thieves is probably my favourite out of all GB 3 books. The storyline, the characters, every single detail is well thought out by Scott Lynch!

loved every minute

It was one of those series where I couldn't wait to find out what happens, but didn't want it to end. and when it did, oh the torment. Lol.

Epic book and lots of fun

I truly love this guy's writing and style. I often laughed my head off at his way of expressing ideas, and truly did not see the twists coming no matter how hard I tried! Hope there is more

Themes a little scattered but still enjoyable

I absolutely loved the first book, and I enjoyed the second. But I fell off the wagon in this one.

To avoid spoilers I can't say more than I feel like the direction of the series is significantly surprising for me. I'll likely get the next book just to see this through. But this was one of the rougher slogs to read of the series.
The thing that most dragged down on my interest was the romance. It's a little exhausting. I've no issue with romance in novels and gladly invite it. As long as it doesn't take three pages to describe how much a character is enchanted by red hair or an overly lengthy description of their love interests appearance.
But otherwise I really do love Scott Lynch's work. And I'd strongly recommend giving this series a go if you are a fan of fantasy adventure ah-la Patrick Rothfuss, or Ursula K. Le Guin

More Please!

Would you listen to The Republic of Thieves again? Why?

Most certainly. I re-listened to the first two books in preparation for this and I look forward to listening to them again in the future.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Republic of Thieves?

Without mentioning spoilers, I'd say it has to be the parts of the book that look at Locke's childhood, especially the part where Sabetha gets caught trying to steal an emerald necklace... those of you who've read the book know why!

Have you listened to any of Michael Page’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I really enjoy Michael's work. He does some nice rough voices which really add to the reading. This time around he's just as good as ever.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There are some strong revelations about Locke's past that really hit you hard. Don't want to spoil them, just read it.

A really great series - worth every second

If you could sum up The Republic of Thieves in three words, what would they be?

imaginative, exciting, gripping

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Republic of Thieves?

When the final election votes were announced in Carthain, I was sure that two things were going to happen with different characters, and I got them both wrong, which made the story so much more interesting. in addition there was a final sting in the tail which was totally unexpected. Bring on the next book.

Have you listened to any of Michael Page’s other performances? How does this one compare?

no, but im looking forward to more as I like his style

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, though I had it in 3 parts and listened to it in my car on different journeys

Any additional comments?

the only downside was I really liked the "5 year" part of the story more than the "republic of thieves" background, even though both were wonderfully written and great in their own right. I could see the link and understood the purpose but I just wanted more about the election skullduggery

Fantastic! Entertaining romp!

Any additional comments?

Fantastically read, brilliant story. A definite five star rating like the previous Scott Lynch books

Nowhere near as strong as the two previous books.

As with the previous books, I was expecting to do nothing other than put five stars and a heck of a lot of nice words about The Republic of Thieves. I suppose the realisation that such a review would not be forthcoming at least gave me something different to do for a change.

The Republic of Thieves starts off well, it really does. The reader is constantly trying to figure out just how Locke will pull through the mess he got himself into at the end of the previous book. The book stays good until about the 25%-30% mark. It then decides to get good again near the end with a few smatterings of 'that's interesting' throughout.

My main grumble with this book is that most of it just seems as though it adds nothing to Locke's tale. Well, that's a bit harsh. It obviously adds something as without it you wouldn't have the repercussions at the end. I just felt that it was incredibly slow and tedious at points. The vast majority of the book is Locke and Jean trying to be clever by bribing people to vote for a certain party at an election. It could just be me, but I think the author has made a book about a political election as exciting as a book about a political election can be. Which isn't the same scintillating pace you'd expect from his previous offerings.

The flashback periods are also a little odd. In the other books it would show you parts from Locke's past that showed how he could do certain things. For instance, if Locke needed to become an expert climber, it flashed back to Locke and Jean clinging to a rock face and mastering the art of not falling. In this book, it centers around the Gentleman Bastards acting in a play (The Republic of Thieves) and, despite it being a very interesting part of the book (more so than the election for the most part), it just felt like two short novels intermingled to make one long book.

I did enjoy the Republic of Thieves. Anything with Locke, Jean and their infinite amount of witty lines is going to be enjoyable. But I also enjoy vanilla ice-cream and don't consider it great. This, to me, was vanilla where the other two were flavoursome delights.

The Stainless Steel Rat for fantasy

Any additional comments?

A solid follow up to the previous books, some fantastic flashbacks to the previous books and early stories of the gentleman bastards. Michael Page does a great job with the voices, as always - managing to bring back the right voices for the prior characters. Warning, ends on one hell of a cliff hanger, which means another long wait for the next in the series.

When's the next one

What made the experience of listening to The Republic of Thieves the most enjoyable?

I read this as the last of the tales of Locke Lamora and it answers many of the questions from the rest of the series

Who was your favorite character and why?

Locke is an excellent and slippery rogue for whom no good deed goes unpunished

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Hiding their sponsors body

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

I wouldn't make a film of this as it is the last of a series of 5 books

Any additional comments?

There was too much emphasis on the play they were performing and this detracted from the ongoig plot

Very well read

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would definitely recommend this book the narration is brilliant. Each character is wonderfully depicted. The story is great across all the books.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Loc has to be my favourite such a well written character.

What does Michael Page bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He has such a range of voices I could never think of so many on my own.

One of the best

Would you listen to The Republic of Thieves again? Why?

Absolutely would listen again. The effortlessly witty conversations and characters are entertaining many times over.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The two leads are both equally well-developed although Jean is perhaps more likeable.

Have you listened to any of Michael Page’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Michael page consistently does fabulous narrations, not a single one of them has disappointed so far.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If I'd manage to stay awake for that long, absolutely.

Any additional comments?

Can't wait for the rest of the series. It's already qualified as one of the all-time greats, getting better and better which is extraordinary, considering the first book was as close to perfect as any book I've read.

Well ... what was I waiting for again ?

Would you try another book written by Scott Lynch or narrated by Michael Page?

not if he takes another 10 year to write the next one i won't

Could you see The Republic of Thieves being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

no ... never.. never ever ever at all. .... ever

Any additional comments?

I waited what seemed like a life time for this ... and its all very .... meh. Its not worth the wait, it really isn't.

Once again he takes our heroes and rather that put them to work in some nefarious scheme to relieve some rich aristo scum of all their money. He sends them to rig an election, that doesn't appear to mean anything anyway. At least they aren't picking weevils out of the biscuits and drinking their own urine aboard the good ship lost plot hole, this time.

There's a rather pointless back story that meanders around the main tale for no particular reason other then to point out Locke fancies Sabitha, which was a massive surprise to me, i mean its not been mentioned at all in the last two books now has it. Anyway the backstory just sort of ends. And then locke turns out to be ...... well it won't make any sense and you won't care by the end anyway.

Mr Lynch went through a lot before writing this tale, and maybe he should have waited a bit longer and had a really good think about where he's taking Locke and Jean, because reading about con artist rigging elections and trying to cop a feel of Sabathia's bobby dazzlers is tedious.

kind of disappointed with this one

I struggled to finish this one. I loved the last two but this one just didn't have the same charm. it's a bit slow and not very much happens.