Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards)

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Void

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"hence why it's called The Gentleman Bastard, singular"

How is it I never picked up on this before?
Because it doesn't say it anywhere on any of the books? And websites (including Amazon) call it Bastards with an s?

I don't know how anyone would have even known that unless he says it on his website or something, and fuck if I'm going to analyze an author's website just to catch something like that.

He may have planned it this way all along, but he certainly hasn't been spreading the whole "Bastard" singular thing all over the place for us to pick up on. I'm sure someone will point to a reference somewhere that I'm not aware of, but from just reading the damn books this whole "plan" could have hatched after the first couple sold well too.
 

Grimmlokk

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Well now that I'm looking for it I see that's how the series is titled on Goodreads and Wiki, both places I have absolutely looked it up before and seen the titles. It's just something that I never even thought of. He hasn't put it in our faces, I agree. It's just crazy to me that this is a series I've been reading and loving for a few years now and I never noticed that small detail.
 

Chanur

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Just purchased The Lies of Locke Lamora based on this thread.
 

Morrow

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Because it doesn't say it anywhere on any of the books? And websites (including Amazon) call it Bastards with an s?

I don't know how anyone would have even known that unless he says it on his website or something, and fuck if I'm going to analyze an author's website just to catch something like that.

He may have planned it this way all along, but he certainly hasn't been spreading the whole "Bastard" singular thing all over the place for us to pick up on. I'm sure someone will point to a reference somewhere that I'm not aware of, but from just reading the damn books this whole "plan" could have hatched after the first couple sold well too.
It's in there as plural, which is interesting. 1 line in the Republic of Thieves in the past chapters, Locke refers to their gang as the Gentlemen Bastards to Sabetha.
 

Grimmlokk

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They always refer to themselves as the Gentlemen Bastards. That's why we're a little surprised to realize the series is just Gentleman Bastard.
 

Luthair

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Did anyone else find the last book entirely boring? For me I've been sitting at 80-90% for weeks and have had no drive to finish it.

Large sections of the book are self indulgent on the part of the author: magi council meeting (no one watches C-SPAN, why would we want to read a fake version) and the play stand out in particular. Quite a bit of the plot felt like deja vu, was there a novella or prequel?
 

Void

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Yeah, I felt that way too. In my summary a page or so back I complained that almost nothing actually happened in the book beyond the possible "reveal" about Locke's past. I didn't care about the climax of either storyline, and nothing even remotely amazing happened along the way to excite me either. And the new character, Sabetha, was despised by me for a good portion of the book. That could be on purpose though, so I won't hold that against him. It could very well be a lesson on how badly we put people on a pedestal that don't deserve it, or some really deep shit like that.

Taken in relation to other books I've read, it still wasn't bad. In relation to the first two, it was subpar. In a vacuum, I'd have probably wondered what all the fuss was about.
 

Grimmlokk

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Pretty much all that. The dialogue was still mostly great, but even that was dragged down by Sabetha. I didn't hate her though, but she was a bit of an embodiment of the generic "women are confusing/unreasonable" trope. Locke is trying his hardest to be what she wants and she's pissed at him for nothing(oh the others follow him, FUCK YOU LOCKE!). We get all his thoughts and all we get from her is the outbursts and shit and it gets old real fast. It's not totally unrealistic, it's just a bit obnoxious to read.
 

Gask

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It also didn't help that there was no real caper this time and zero flair in carrying out their mission. Both sides were handed a legion of fairly loyal brainwashed zombies to do what amounted to frat house pranks on each other... there is not much fun to be had in a scenario like that. Additionally; Sabetha was horrid, the playhouse storyline amounted to not much more than padding, and Locke/Sabetha's susceptibility to Patience's emotional manipulation was bizarre and unbelievable (Lets believe the Bondsmagi! Whats not to trust? eh?) even if it turns out to be true.

The only thing that caught my interest was the Falconer's PoV, it's a shame that the rest of the book was fluff more or less. Any interest that I might have once had in Locke's love interest, which unfortunately dominates the book, was completely eradicated after his first few interactions with the shrew in question.
 

Decado

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Just finished a full reread and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Granted book 3 was the weakest in terms of raw story and plot but I had read the interview about books 4-7 being the main story beforehand so I wasn't really surprised that book 3 was much more of a scene setter than the other 2. It was still good i thought, lots of back story revealed and I really enjoy Lynch's writing style which kept me going to the end.

Here's hoping that now the back story is done the rest of the tale is written and printed at a non martin-esque pace
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Dalerone_sl

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Still not believing that the next book will be out in 2014. Am I the only one that as I get older only wants to read finished series?
 

Intrinsic

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I hope it is 2014, but yes the older cynic part of me doesn't believe that. As much as I'd like authors in general to take their time and "do it right" more and more I'm thinking there is a fine line between pushing it out soon rather than waiting (for whatever the case may be; editing, problems, delays, etc...). The longer it takes to publish the more expectations go up until finally it is just frustration and then I'm more or less underwhelmed by the results. And I just described a problem related to any entertainment medium.

I liked Republic enough, but like others have said overall it was just meh. The filler plot was entirely too long and drawn out. Sabetha was annoying at best (and really bordered on the realm of a damn Kvothe vs. Denna dynamic). And the main plot was hollow. Really hate being such a downer about it...
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Nebuchadnezzar

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Waiting sucks but all the theory crafting and expectation is tons of fun. It also builds community in the fanbase, I had tons of fun on the old wotmania site as a teenager discovering the internet. I think what I miss most as I get older is actually that joy I had as a teenager of finding all these huge fantasy series with 5+ books in them that you could just devour one after another. Nowadays I'm attacking everything as it comes out in hope of reading something "new".
 

Nebuchadnezzar

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As to the second question, I do not generally comment on my progress in public, but THORN is very deeply underway and is, especially compared to its immediate predecessor, going to cross the finish line only a bit later than I'd hoped.
So book 4 in early 2015 probably.
 

Nebuchadnezzar

Golden Squire
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Anonymous said: You said in an interview a while back that "Thorn of Emberlain" would be out in 2014, is that still true?

No. My past self was brimming with optimism. It was going to be damn close, but I just couldn't pull it off. The good news is there will be a) still no more fucking 6-year gaps, and b) several major goodies to announce between now and its actual release date, mid-to-late 2015
And another push back to late 2015.
 

Himeo

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Multiple sites showing a September 2015 release date. Going to do some digging and see if that's still on.