HoopyFrood
It's me! Hurrah!
I thought I'd make a new thread for the discussion of the third book, and also because I am going to be doing some major spoilering, so beware.
Really, MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. Mostly I don't want to spoil because some moments are just priceless.
OK, so I'm not quite finished yet -- about eighty pages left. But I thought I'd post some bits before I forget them.
Firstly, there's just no other author that makes me laugh as much as Lynch does, not even Pratchett. I think it's just so my type of humour -- hilarious dialogue, tricksy shenanigans. I've been laughing lots at this one, especially in a few parts.
So, things I've loved:
Up to this point (because she could suddenly turn) I've rather liked Patience. Probably mostly because she hates coffee with a passion and loves tea. I loved the character of The Spider in the first book and Patience reminds me of her.
The political plot of the book. I like political things.
Sabetha and Locke's tricking of each other (and particularly how Sabetha just keeps on one-upping them). The old women on the roof stymieing Jean just cracked me up the whole way through, and Sabetha pouring Locke's own snakes onto him was hilarious.
The would-be rapist getting his comeuppance. And that anyone daring suggest it was anything but his own fault getting smacked down.
Jenora (a character I grew to like quickly) and Jean getting it ooon.
I will say that the plot doesn't feel massively strong -- probably because we're more into the long awaited arrival and explanation of Sabetha -- and seems to be background messing around for much of the book. Lynch one again integrates Kid-Locke and co every other chapter, so that also serves to cut up the main plot. But, Lynch really does pull you into the young Locke moments so well, it's not just unnecessary backstory, and in the last third of the book he throws out the cliffhangers like nobody's business. So you read a chapter of current plot, get sucked in, feel disappointed about going back to Kid-Locke, get well sucked into that and so on and so forth! It's a sneaky way of getting you to read on!
I've read a review that felt that Sabetha felt a little flat -- she had been built up rather a lot prior to this -- and that she seemed a little too like Locke. But I think that's the point -- that they ARE so similar and that's why they go round and round in circles with each other. They ARE as much rivals as they are friends, with their very similar skills and experience.
What I like is that Lynch shows that Sabetha is very much her own person, with her own feelings, and she's not going to be charmed by Locke (as she says herself, repeatedly) just because he's very much in love with her. It does tend to be the way with 'romantic' story lines that a man falls for a woman and then spends much of the plot just wearing her down, as it were. So while their bickering can be frustrating, it shows that there are two people in relationships and their roads don't always run parallel.
We learn some more -- or at least some speculation -- about the Eldran, which I've been dying for. While I do like that the books seemed to start out as a series of exploits from the Gentleman Bastards, with no epic plotline (and one thing that turned me away from GRRM was when it spread out into a more massive, supernatural plot) I...kind of want it to now. And I think this book is really starting to lay those foundations.
PARTICULARLY what's revealed about Locke. That was very left field! It may not be true -- I tend to treat these books like the tv series Hustle, where the ending probably pulls out all kinds of things that have deceived even us as readers along the way -- and I've still got some pages to go...well, that was a strange but interesting revelation.
So yes, there are some thoughts. More to follow when I finish, no doubt!
Really, MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. Mostly I don't want to spoil because some moments are just priceless.
OK, so I'm not quite finished yet -- about eighty pages left. But I thought I'd post some bits before I forget them.
Firstly, there's just no other author that makes me laugh as much as Lynch does, not even Pratchett. I think it's just so my type of humour -- hilarious dialogue, tricksy shenanigans. I've been laughing lots at this one, especially in a few parts.
So, things I've loved:
Up to this point (because she could suddenly turn) I've rather liked Patience. Probably mostly because she hates coffee with a passion and loves tea. I loved the character of The Spider in the first book and Patience reminds me of her.
The political plot of the book. I like political things.
Sabetha and Locke's tricking of each other (and particularly how Sabetha just keeps on one-upping them). The old women on the roof stymieing Jean just cracked me up the whole way through, and Sabetha pouring Locke's own snakes onto him was hilarious.
The would-be rapist getting his comeuppance. And that anyone daring suggest it was anything but his own fault getting smacked down.
Jenora (a character I grew to like quickly) and Jean getting it ooon.
I will say that the plot doesn't feel massively strong -- probably because we're more into the long awaited arrival and explanation of Sabetha -- and seems to be background messing around for much of the book. Lynch one again integrates Kid-Locke and co every other chapter, so that also serves to cut up the main plot. But, Lynch really does pull you into the young Locke moments so well, it's not just unnecessary backstory, and in the last third of the book he throws out the cliffhangers like nobody's business. So you read a chapter of current plot, get sucked in, feel disappointed about going back to Kid-Locke, get well sucked into that and so on and so forth! It's a sneaky way of getting you to read on!
I've read a review that felt that Sabetha felt a little flat -- she had been built up rather a lot prior to this -- and that she seemed a little too like Locke. But I think that's the point -- that they ARE so similar and that's why they go round and round in circles with each other. They ARE as much rivals as they are friends, with their very similar skills and experience.
What I like is that Lynch shows that Sabetha is very much her own person, with her own feelings, and she's not going to be charmed by Locke (as she says herself, repeatedly) just because he's very much in love with her. It does tend to be the way with 'romantic' story lines that a man falls for a woman and then spends much of the plot just wearing her down, as it were. So while their bickering can be frustrating, it shows that there are two people in relationships and their roads don't always run parallel.
We learn some more -- or at least some speculation -- about the Eldran, which I've been dying for. While I do like that the books seemed to start out as a series of exploits from the Gentleman Bastards, with no epic plotline (and one thing that turned me away from GRRM was when it spread out into a more massive, supernatural plot) I...kind of want it to now. And I think this book is really starting to lay those foundations.
PARTICULARLY what's revealed about Locke. That was very left field! It may not be true -- I tend to treat these books like the tv series Hustle, where the ending probably pulls out all kinds of things that have deceived even us as readers along the way -- and I've still got some pages to go...well, that was a strange but interesting revelation.
So yes, there are some thoughts. More to follow when I finish, no doubt!
