The Gentleman Bastard Sequence -- Scott Lynch
Title: The Gentleman Bastard Sequence: Books 1 (The Lies of Locke Lamora) and 2 (Red Seas Under Red Skies)
Author: Scott Lynch
Length BK 1: 752 pages
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Blurb: A picaresque fantasy that chronicles the career of Locke Lamora-orphan, thief and leader of the Gentlemen Bastards-from the time the Thiefmaker sells Locke to the faking Eyeless Priest up to Locke's latest con of the nobility of the land of Camorr. As in any good caper novel, the plot is littered with obvious and not-so-obvious obstacles, including the secret police of Camorr's legendary Spider and the mysterious assassinations of gang leaders by the newly arrived Gray King. Locke's resilience and wit give the book the tragicomic air of a traditional picaresque, rubbery ethics and all. The villain holds the best moral justification of any of the players.
Length BK 2: 640 pages
Type: Vague Male Slash, A couple of wonderfully written female characters.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Blurb: Initially poised to rob the Sinspire, the notoriously thief-proof casino where the penalty for cheating is death, Locke and his partner, Jean, are unwillingly sidetracked into joining and then leading a pirate crew, swindling their way across the sea as they had previously done on land.
Alright to start off with neither of these books is straight up slash much to my disappointment. I was hoping at least a little. However the reason they are getting put up in here. Is because Scott Lynch though he does not include an opening gay or bisexual character does not ignore the possibilities either. There are mentions in both books of side characters engaging in or preferring one sex or the other. According to the authors website there are a fair number of books yet to come in this series, so I have hope that we could get farther along. And the two main characters are both male and it'd be fun to see them together even if it does seem slightly unlikely pre the ending of the second novel.
Both of these books are great to read. Their fun, and wonderfully written. The characters are wonderful one of my greatest disappointments in them is that more of the characters don't survive the first book to continue on into the later ones.
I felt that the second one fell short of the first in that it lacked some of the wonderfully enjoyable moments of camaraderie that the first one had. It got better towards the end of the book with a larger inclusion of the pirates and Jeans brief romantic fling. Which the ending of that could've been handled better as well. However both books contained a great deal of suspense and turns that kept the pages turning.
Image: I borrowed the image for Lynch's website.