The Thorn of Emberlain Book Release Date Delayed… Again

Yes, unfortunately we have another delay in the book release of one of my favorites series “The Gentleman Bastard Series” by Scott Lynch. The author posted an official statement through the Gollancz website indicating that the September 2016 release of the fourth book will not happen due to personal matters. I like the fact that this author communicates with the us as honestly as he does and keeps us well informed. I was really excited about getting the book next month, but I understand.

So far, no new official release date has been announced, but I noticed on Goodreads that it is expected sometime in April 2017. I hope the official date will be sooner than that!

 

The Thorn of Emberlain New Release Date Announced

Finally and after several delays and a lot of waiting it seems we’ll be getting the fourth book in the Gentleman Bastard series sometime this coming September!

The British publisher Gollancz announced yesterday on Twitter that The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch will be released in September to coincide with the author’s appearance at Fantasy Con happening in the same month. The author also confirmed on Twitter after that, so it seems this new release date is final. Can’t wait!

 

The Thorn of Emberlain Book Release Delayed

Just read some sad news on Scott Lynch’s blog. According to his latest post here , the author announced that the release date of the fourth book of one of my favorite series “The Gentleman Bastard Series” has been postponed til 2016 due to health issues. No specific date was announced but we can wait. Get well soon Scott!

The Republic of Thieves – A Read Along (Chapters 5 – 8)

This is part two of the Republic of Thieves Read Along. If you happened to miss part one you can just click here. As in part one, I won’t go into too many details and it contains spoilers. The next read along will be the last.

The book continues with the journey of Locke and Jean. They arrive to Karthain and meet with Nikoros who is on the Deep Roots party standing committee and practically will do whatever Locke wants. He takes them to get measurements for a new wardrobe and then to Tivoli’s Countinghouse to get the money assigned to them to complete their job. After that, Nikoros takes them to Josten’s Comprehensive Accommodations which is the headquarters of Deep Roots affairs (Deep Root is the political party that they are hired to make sure wins) and where they will be staying during their time in Karthain. They meet up with Josten who is the owner of the inn. During their short time in Karthain, Locke has already started to make plans and give orders.

They first encounter Sabetha (although they didn’t know it was her at the time) while they were trying to resolve the tax related issues that were facing Josten once they arrived. They knew this was the works of Sabetha so they went to the court to sort things out. While they were there Sabetha, disguised as an old woman, bumped into Locke and then accused them of stealing. Locke and Jean managed to get out of it and clear Josten from the charges but then Locke found a piece of paper in his pocket from Sabetha requesting a meeting.

They meet up and it’s clear that Locke still has strong feelings for Sabetha and she uses it to trick them again. She drugs Locke and sends around 20 people against Jean so when Locke awakes he finds himself and Jean on a ship sailing out of Karthain. I really thought this was funny and very unexpected. Of course the guys managed to get back to Karthain but are now 10 days behind. So they start to speed up their plans.

Locke meets with Sabetha a couple of times after that and in the last one Patience shows up as well and tells them that she knows where Locke originally comes from. She said that Locke is a mage and a gifted one (that was quite the surprise) and he was Patience’s mentor and friend but after his wife’s death he wanted to find a way to bring back the dead and it seems he succeeded by using magic to steal a little boy’s body and move his soul into it. She said that his memories were lost so he doesn’t remember any of this. Locke claims he doesn’t know any of this and doesn’t believe her but Sabetha got upset and left. I thought this part was a very interesting twist and I would not have expected Locke being a mage at all. I wonder if this is true, but why would Patience make this up and I wonder whether Locke would later remember any of it if it were. And I don’t understand why Sabetha got upset and left, if she trusts Locke she would know that he was telling the truth when he said he doesn’t remember or know any of this.

In the Interludes, Chains sent the whole gang to Espara to take part in a play for a guy he knows called Moncraine. During their stay, they rehearse for the play called The Republic of Thieves. In these chapters, we get to know how the relationship between Locke and Sabetha evolved. I didn’t enjoy the rehearsal parts very much I thought it could have been reduced a little.

From the previous read along some of my questions have not been answered yet, I have added a couple of more that I think will be answered by the end of the book.

1. We still don’t know why Sabetha left the gang. I think we’ll find out in the interludes by the end of the book.
2. Chains died but no mention of how and when.
3. Falconer has no role in this book so far and I doubt he’ll make an appearance.
4. I wonder what Locke will do next after what Patience told him and whether Sabetha will come around.

What did you think about these chapters?

The Republic of Thieves – A Read Along (Chapters 1 – 4)

This is my first read along post on this blog and I thought I would start with the book I’m currently reading “The Republic of Thieves – Gentleman Bastard series book 3”. I have read about a third of the book and enjoying it so far. In a previous post I talked briefly about the series which you can find here.

The below contains spoilers therefore if you haven’t read any of the books in this series and plan to, then maybe you should stop right here. I don’t plan to go into too many details, I will only cover the main story line, what happens to the protagonists and my thoughts about it.

The book continues the journey of Locke and Jean in Lathain after their unfortunate events in Tel Verrar in the previous book (Red Seas Under Red Skies). Locke is fighting for his life, or in other words, Jean is fighting for Locke’s life. Locke seems to have given up at this point because he has become very weak due to the the poison he and Jean were forced to consume back in the previous book (which Jean took the antidote and recovered) and all the healers Jean found were unable to heal him. However, things change when they get a visit from a Bondsmage named Patience (who also happens to be Falconer’s mom) who tells them that she has a mission for them in Karthain and promises to heal Locke if they accept. Jean accepted immediately without any reluctance as Locke had and they got on a ship that’ll take them to Karthain, and on the ship Locke was healed using magic. During the trip, Patience showed them her memories of what Falconer did in order to go to Camorr and get the black contract, which I found interesting and I think she did that to show them how she did not approve of what Falconer did so they could trust her more.

Also, Patience explained that the mission is political involving two political parties in the Karthain election and told them that their role will be to fix the election for one of the parties. I reached the point where they found out that their counterpart in the other party is non other than Sabetha, Locke seemed to be very surprised and/or upset about this. It will be interesting to see how this goes since Sabetha knows them very well and I believe can anticipate their tricks and ways of deception since they were taught together with Chains. I hope the author does not go into too many details about politics in general (other than what’s needed in order to understand the story line) as he did with the details of sailing a ship in the previous book, I did not enjoy that part.

As in the first book (The Lies of Locke Lamora), each chapter has an interlude that talks about the time where Locke and the gang were living with Chains, it’s good to read about Calo and Galdo again and get to know Sabetha. So far it seems she’ll be having a significant role in this book. I enjoy the interludes, it gives a good understanding on how the characters grew up and also it sometimes feels like I’m reading another book with the same characters at the same time.

So far I’m wondering about the below:

1. What happened to Sabetha in the past and why she left the gang?
2. Why is Sabetha on the other side now?
3. What will be Locke’s response once he sees Sabetha and why was he upset or surprised when he knew that she’s involved?
4. We still don’t know what happened to Chains, he hasn’t been in any of the stories except the interludes and I wonder if we’ll know in this book.
5. I wonder if Falconer will have any role in this book.

What did you think about these chapters?

The Gentleman Bastard Series – A Brief Review

These books, by the author Scott Lynch, are about a group of thieves and their adventures stealing and conning the rich and powerful. It is one of those series that you either love or hate (I noticed from the various reviews I have read). I’m one of those who love it for many reasons:

• The story line is entertaining and very intriguing. I like a book that keeps me wanting to know what happens next.
• The world building, the author did a great job building a new world and culture. The way the city is governed and designed I thought was awesome.
• The characters, each one has its own characteristics that make him or her interesting. The main protagonist Locke Lamora is my favorite. He is witty and smart even though he is a thief.

The first book in the series is The Lies of Locke Lamora (as seen in the image).  The series should be 7 books in total while 3 are already published and the fourth coming out this October (yay!).

I will talk in more details about each book I have read in further posts. I am currently reading book 3 in the series called The Republic of Thieves. If you haven’t read this series yet, I highly recommend you do.