Melanie
Written on Sep 30, 2017
I really enjoyed this installment of the Gentleman Bastards. This story picks up where Red Seas Under Red Skies ends. Locke isn’t doing well and the Bondsmagi offer them a solution. They just have to play a game (this isn’t exactly the same kind of game we see in Saw movies, but it isn’t far off either). The Bondsmagi aren’t friendly people and Locke and Jean have crossed paths with them before. It didn’t end well for either side.
Just like the previous books, we have part of the story told in the present and some in the past. I really enjoyed the time we get to spend in the past. Mostly because I get to spend time with characters who don’t live through the first book.
Another fun part about this book is we finally get to spend some time with Sabetha. We’ve heard about her in the first two books, but we never get to meet her. Well, she plays a very large part in this book, in both the past and the present. We also learn exactly how much Locke fell for her even when he was just a young boy with Thiefmaker days in Shades Hill. It seems that Locke still has feelings for her even in the present day.
So in the present time, Locke and Jean have been pitted against Sabetha by different factions of the Bondsmagi. They have a game every five years. They try to win the elections. Each team is forced to try to win the elections. They have rules that they are supposed to follow. Sabetha really test Jean and Locke with her skills. They both know how the others think, since they were all trained by Father Chains in the act of the long con.
In the past, Locke, Jean, Sabetha, Calo and Galdo are sent off by Father Chains to learn how to act from an actual group of actors. They are meant to perform The Republic of Thieves, but things aren’t nearly as easy as it sounds. When they arrive, the leader of the theater group is behind bars, so the Gentleman Bastards must get him out. So they have to show their skills the moment they arrive.
This is another fun tale with this group of characters that I really enjoy. I went into this story thinking it was the last book in the series. It was originally published in 2013 and we still don’t have a book four. But, after finishing this book, there are still storylines that need wrapped up. I was excited to see that book four, The Thorn of Emberlain, should be coming out soon. Lynch has said that the ending needs wrapped up and it will be ready. I haven’t seen a firm release date, but hopefully, it won’t be too long. I will be anxiously waiting to go back into this world with characters that I love so much.
Narration
Michael Page did a great job with the narration of this book, just like with the previous books. In those first two books, he didn’t have to tackle women’s voices all that often. While there were women characters, they were minor. In this book, we have two women with large parts. One was Sabetha, as a teenager and as an adult. There is also the Bondsmagi that works with Jean and Locke, Patience is the name she goes by. Page did a great job with both of the women’s voices along with the other smaller parts that required women’s voices.
